GWP Senior Network Officer and Climate Change Focal Point Mr. Alex Simalabwi said that climate change and water cannot be separated and requires the unification of sectors and ideas.
Countries are working on IWRM Plans and at the same time on the development of NAPAs. “Building synergies between IWRM Plans and NAPAs is essential to maximize opportunities for coherent cross-sectoral adaptation and to integrate water security and climate change in national development plans,” said Mr. Simalabwi.
Mr. Bai Mass Taal, Executive Secretary of AMCOW, and Mr. Adam Hussein, Director of Water Affairs in Zambia, both recognized the support GWP has given in the elaboration of IWRM Plans for Africa.
GWP Chair Dr. Letitia A. Obeng, and chair of the panel, highlighted the importance of making information available, and said that bringing IWRM planning and NAPAs together is a winning formula in all respects.
Dr. Obeng closed the panel by saying, “Let’s turn around the title of dead development,” referring to national planning without adaptation and integrated water management, “and let’s replace it with real development that includes national planning, integrating water resources management and adaptation—that’s what real adaptation is about.”
Dr. Obeng joined the second panel where six participants from the private sector, civil society, NGOs, international institutions, and youth organizations gave their points of view about the need to adapt and the role water plays. Dr. Obeng urged participants to remember that water is not a sector because it is a resource used by all sectors.
In closing, she reiterated the remarks of María del Carmen Mejía Alba, a woman from Aguas Calientes, Mexico, who participated on behalf of the Water and Youth Movement from Mexico, who said, “We invite you not only to think outside the box, we invite you to act outside the box” and “a little less conversation and a little more action.”
The panel first panel was convened by GWP, AMCOW and UN-Water, and the second was organized by the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).