GWP Central America and its partners participated in the First Central American Fair on Community Water Management, 19-24 March 2010, in San Jose, Costa Rica. The aim was to create interchange among the main actors dealing with community water management in the region.
Costa Rica officially launched an IWRM plan in November 2009, the first country in Central America to do so and the result of six years of work.
During the last week of August, representatives from GWP from across the world gathered in Stockholm to discuss the strategies of the network, past and future. Some of the voices from the network can be heard in GWP’s video library – 13 new video features voices spanning from South East Asia to the Caribbean.
GWP India has supported the formation of five local Water Management Committees in the district of Bihar.
GWP Pakistan prepared the 10th Five Year Plan 2010-15 on Water Resource Development and presented it February 22 to the Planning Commission of Pakistan for adoption and implementation.
For the first time the Government of India has selected a non-government organisation, GWP India West Zone Water Partnership (WZWP) Coordinating Agency, Gomukh Trust, to prepare an integrated water resources development and management plan.
Tourism has placed great pressure on the natural environment of Jamaica. Action was taken through a USAID funded project that aimed to increase water use efficiency and improve environmental management. The key lessons are the value of demonstrating the benefits locally as well as to institutionalise the programme.
To improve monitoring and management of river basins in Slovakia, a project was initiated among secondary school students with the objective to attract the attention of young generation to the protection of the river basin and to mobilise the interest of local communities in public campaigns to improve the quality of river basin. The key lesson drawn from this case study is that linking education activities and local communities campaigns are effective tool for public participation.
The Ruzinov Strkovec Lake has been subjected to severe pollution due to contaminated by illegal sewage pipes. The Association of Industry and Nature Protection took action and initiated and organised a project to both revitalise the lake and draw the attention of local people to its flora and fauna. The key lesson learnt is how the partnership between an NGO and municipality can result in a successful revitalisation of local water resources.
In Slovenia, water is extracted for drinking water, energy, fish-farming, irrigation and technological purposes. In order to avoid over-extraction, an Environmental Flow framework has been implemented, assessing within what limits water can be extracted, using hydromorphological, hydrological, hydraulic and ecological criteria. The case shows that it is important to combine policy decisions with expert evaluations.