A major characteristic of the water-climate scenario in Eastern and North-Eastern India is the frequency of droughts and floods following each other in succession. In such an environment, low cost water-saving technologies for farmers and other water users becomes essential.
In 2010 GWP Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development continued, for the eighth year, to feed information and material on water issues and processes in the region to members of the Circle of Mediterranean Journalists for Environment and Sustainable Development (COMJESD).
In January 2008, GWP-CEE – together with Women in Europe for a Common Future, the European Water Partnership, KIWA Water Research, Coalition Clean Baltic, and Coram Industries – organised a high-level policy dialogue on EU Sanitation Policies and Practices in the 2008 International Year of Sanitation in Brussels, Belgium.
In September, the Coca Cola Foundation approved funding for the GWP Mediterranean project on ‘Rainwater Harvesting in the Cyclades Islands’. The project aims to contribute to local water security through a pilot installation of more than 10 rainwater harvesting systems in public buildings, training of technicians, and educational activities for local schools.
Representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) met in New Delhi on 2-3 November 2009 to review past cooperation activities and to set a new framework for future collaborative work.
The GWPO Network Officer Mr. Bjorn Guterstam, accompanied by GWP CEE Chair Mr. Liviu Nicolae Popescu, presented the statement on behalf of observer organizations to ICPDR at the Ministerial Meeting on 16 February in Vienna, Austria. At the meeting, Ministers endorsed detailed actions for environmental protection in the Danube River Basin.
As part of the PAWD (Partnership for African Water Development) project, Senegal engaged in a development process for an IWRM Action Plan.
GWP Cameroon has cooperated with the Kumbo Urban Council and the locally managed Kumbo Water Authority to improve the management of water supply in Kumbo, Cameroon where the ownership of the water supply system has resulted in a more than thirty year long conflict.
GWP El Salvador, together with the National Foundation for Development and Lutheran World Relief, organised the National Forum on Climate Change in San Salvador on 23-24 February 2011.
GWP Southeast Asia recently organized country workshops to conduct a ten year (2000-2010) evaluation of IWRM implementation in Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The evaluations have provided platforms for Southeast Asian countries and stakeholders to exchange knowledge and experiences of the IWRM process and to promote international cooperation for better water resources management. A report with all the Southeast Asian countries will be available shortly at www.gwpsea.org.