Speech, in French, at the West African General Assembly, Abidjan 26-28 January 2009
Assemblee Generale GWP WA, Ceremonie d'Overture, Abidjan 26-28 janvier 2009
Since 2005, GWP Caribbean and one of its Partners, the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), have brought together ministers and other senior government officials every year to discuss water issues and explain the benefits of IWRM. At the last high-level session, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, in October, these efforts bore fruit.
For nearly ten years, GWP Central America has been working with legislators in Honduras to explain the benefits of IWRM and advise on technical aspects as they drafted and refined water legislation.
GWP Executive Secretary Dr Ania Grobicki participated in a meeting of the Integrated Flood Management HelpDesk,with WMO and other Support Base Partners (SBPs) in Geneva on 4 and 5 October - to discuss achievements so far and what can be done in the future. Since the HelpDesk´s launch in June 2009, 26 requests from 14 countries have so far been received, and dealt with in various different ways depending on the level of the request.
The Mediterranean region covers 1.75 million kM2. With 446 million inhabitants, accounting for 7% of the world population, Mediterranean is encountering a rapid and unbalanced demographic growth and increased urbanization trends. Increasing poverty in urban centres is directly linked with water and health issues.
GWP Chairperson Letitia A. Obeng, GWP Senior Advisor Alan Hall, and GWP-Technical Committee member Patricia Wouters attended the Department for International Development's (DFID) launch of a New Water and Sanitation Policy for Africa and Asia on October 28 in London.
The solutions of many of the problems caused by climate change are within the sectors of society which manage water. Adaptation to climate change is about water and development – yet the world’s aid to improving water security decreases. Sweden must push to make sure that water issues are not overlooked in the climate change debate – and now or never is what it is all about, write water experts at Sida, UNDP, GWP, UN-Water, Stockholm Water House, and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Article published in the Swedish Newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on 3 November 2009,
This is a translation from Swedish.