Global Water Partnership - GWP

Milestone for public–private collaboration in Malta

The restoration of a historic underground reservoir in Malta has marked 12 years of a successful public–private collaboration between GWP Mediterranean, Malta’s Energy & Water Agency, and The Coca-Cola Foundation. The Alter Aqua programme has saved nearly 20 million litres of water annually, benefiting 20 percent of Malta’s population.

The project included extensive rehabilitation of the reservoir, with the removal of over 64 tonnes of sludge and plastering of floors and walls, along with accessibility works to facilitate future maintenance. The water saved will be used for irrigating green spaces, among other municipal uses. The project has sparked the interest of the Vittoriosa City Council in exploring the installation of a system for the harvested water to be used for secondary domestic uses.

Educational material reaching thousands of students in Malta has been produced through the Alter Aqua project, and GWP Mediterranean, with local partners, has organised dedicated workshops to promote youth employability in the water sector.

Video links:

Alter Aqua partnership:

Locals speak on water saving history:

Birgu Water Saving City:

Facilitating data exchange in Drin River Basin

The Drin River Basin, shared between five riparian countries in Southeast Europe, sustains the livelihoods of 1.6 million residents. Coordinated action across boundaries to protect the basin’s natural resources and tackle the joint identified problems of deterioration of water quality, variability of hydrological regime, biodiversity degradation, and disturbance of the sediment transport regime has been hampered by, among others, a lack of common scientific data across borders.

To address this issue, GWP Mediterranean, as executor of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) UNDP Drin Project, coordinated the development of the Drin Information Management System, a new online platform where users can freely access national data, as well as data from projects implemented in the basin over the past 10 years. The platform is an indispensable tool for the transboundary operational management of the Drin Basin.

Drin video links:  

The Shared Vision for the Drin Basin – Coordinated Action for a Sustainable Future:

   Activities under the GEF UNDP Drin Project:

Advancing the Mediterranean nexus agenda

Integrated management of water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) is essential for sustainable development, climate resilience, socio-economic stability, and peace. GWP Mediterranean contributed to the regional WEFE nexus agenda in 2021 through technical Nexus Assessments facilitated by multi-stakeholder consultations in selected countries and transboundary bodies in the Western Balkans. These activities were supported by the Austrian Development Agency and UNECE, with related activities taking place in Lebanon and Morocco, within the GEF UNEP MedProgramme.

GWP Mediterranean also advanced pilot nexus technical interventions in Jordan and Palestine through the ‘MENA Water Matchmaker 2’ project, which involved treating wastewater through nature-based solutions and reusing it for irrigation based on solar energy. This is contributing to the Union for the Mediterranean Water Agenda 2030, and is being supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

GWP facilitated knowledge sharing and dialogue contributing to the WEFE Nexus Science Advances Conference, towards forming a regional Nexus Community of Practice. It also organised a WEFE Nexus Side Event at the 9th UNECE Meeting of Parties to exchange regional and global experiences, and contributed to elaborating a Blueprint for Climate Resilience Through Participatory Nexus Solutions within the H2020 REXUS Project.