The Dushanbe High-Level International Conference on Water Cooperation, organized by the Government of Tajikistan on 20 and 21 August 2013, gathered a considerable audience to discuss and share various opinions on the role of water in sustainable development.
GWP CACENA, aiming to present its Program on Climate Change Adaptation for 2013-2015, has organized the Special Focused Event "IWRM as a practical approach for adaptation to climate change in the countries of Central Asia and Caucasus".
Bulgaria is bordering Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. It has a strategic location near Turkish Straits; controls key land routes from Europe to Middle East and Asia. Bulgaria has temperate climate with cold damp winters and hot dry summers. Natural hazards include earthquakes and landslides. Important natural resources include e.g. bauxite, copper, lead, zinc and coal.
The Suriname Water Resources Information System (SWRIS) Project has enhanced water resources management in the country. As well as the online information system, the project has developed a water video, a collection of hydro-meteorological field data, awareness programmes about water resources for primary and secondary schools, training, and academic courses at the BSc and MSc level.
In 2011, GWP Nicaragua was asked by Autoridad Nacional del Agua, the national water authority, to help prepare a guide to be used as the basis of all basin management plans implemented in the country.
An e-module on IWRM was launched in 2012 after a lengthy a collaboration between several German institutions that had identified a gap in the field of integrated water resources management education. The development of the module continues, with GWP as a potential “catalyst” to generate further interest in the module.
GWP participated in the “COP 11 of the RAMSAR Convention”, the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands entitled “Wetlands: Home and Destination” on 5-10 July in the Parliament Palace in Bucharest.
The Upper Guadiana Basin provides a classic example of conflict caused by the intensive use of water resources in a semiarid region. Since the 1960s, uncontrolled abstraction of groundwater to provide water for crop irrigation in the area has lowered the water table in places by up to 50m, causing the main river channels to run dry and some wetlands to become desiccated. On the other hand, the abstraction has also supported a booming agricultural economy.