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International Roundtable on Water and Energy Nexus in transboundary basins in SEE, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6-8 November 2013

This summit will address key themes related to enhancing farm yields, improving nutritive value of crops, increasing farmer earnings and preserving local biodiversity. An entire session is dedicated to Water Management and Harvesting for farming.

In an effort to address the twin challenges of water security and climate change, the African Ministers Council on Water has produced the following resources on Water Security and Climate Resilient Development in English, French and Portuguese.

 

The material has been developed as part of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP), an AMCOW programme implemented by Global Water Partnership (GWP). It has evolved through a strong collaborative relationship between AMCOW and its Technical Advisory Committee, GWP and the Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) who funded the work.

 West Africa struggles for ratification

GWP CACENA Regional Council Meeting was held on 23-25 December 2013 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Regional Council Members considered the following main five items:

- Joining the Country Water Partnership of Mongolia into GWP CACENA network;

-  GWP CACENA regional work program and budget for 2014;

- GWP CACENA Calendar of Events for 2014;

- Climate Change Adaptation Program for the period 2013-2015 (funded by GWPO);

- Organizational issues.

In order to achieve water security for an area, decision makers need to not only understand the physical resource itself, but also its surroundings and the possible impacts that their management decisions have on those surroundings. For that reason, a good planning process should include social, environmental, economic, and risk assessments.

The overexploitation and pollution of water resources of the San Jeronimo River, together with agricultural developments and deforestation, have generated conflicts between bordering communities. To address these, the San Jeronimo Basin Committee was created, mantling the role as a negotiating body and with a mission to implement IWRM. The key lesson learnt is that for success, it is crucial that local organisations take their social responsibility. 

The twin challenges of accessing water and energy for food and agriculture are central to reducing poverty and hunger in Asia. GWP’s latest Technical Focus Paper compares and contrasts the ways in which India and China tackle the challenge of harnessing water resources under growing water scarcity and competing demand. It argues that a global water battle is likely to be focused on Asia.

The national reserve Sur is deteriorating. Action has been taken by NGOs to initiate a project to restore water conditions in the reserve, including the interplay between water and soil. Despite the projects importance, it failed to be implemented due to conflicts with national authorities. This case illustrates the danger of EU initiatives being implemented without an active public involvement since this creates risks of low acceptance of local communities and land owners.

Climate Change is expected to have severe impacts on river discharges and water quality and quantity. In an effort to proactively find solutions to the current and future challenges of water, the project Environmental state and sustainable management of Hungarian-Slovakian transboundary groundwater bodies was initiated. The key lesson is the importance of evaluating all resources, including the links between groundwater and surface water.