In honour of World Water Day, representatives of The Office of the President of Malta, the Energy and Water Agency of Malta, and the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the rehabilitation of a rainwater harvesting reservoir at San Anton Palace, in the framework of Alter Aqua programme. The ceremony took place at the Presidential palace in Attard, right by San Anton Gardens where the water reservoir is located, in the presence of the Alter Aqua partners. These include General Soft Drinks Co. Ltd representing Coca-Cola in Malta, as the programme has been financially supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation since 2011.

March 22 marks World Water Day 2017. This year’s theme is wastewater. GWP has published two blogs about the theme, and conducted a Facebook Live interview with Rami Abdel Rahman of the Sweden Textile Water Initiative. Around the GWP Network, various celebrations are taking place. However, the main GWP celebration this year concerns the very website you are currently on – the launch of a completely new www.gwp.org.

GWP and AMCOW – the African Ministers’ Council on Water – have been working together for over a decade. AMCOW Executive Secretary Dr Canisius Kanangire recently visited the GWP secretariat in Stockholm to discuss current and future collaboration. Dr Kanangire says that GWP has a lot of knowledge, experience, and expertise that can support AMCOW to reach results in many aspects of water resources management.

Coinciding with World Water Day, 22 March, GWP is launching a brand-new website – in 14 editions! Every GWP region (13 in total) has its own regional website, plus the global website www.gwp.org tying them all together. This hasn’t changed, but in addition to a new responsive look and design, the big makeover lies in new search functions for knowledge, news, events, and partners, as well as more highlighting GWP’s results. We strive for easy and quick access.

The Central America region is generously endowed with water resources, but concerns are growing about water scarcity in parts of the region. This can mean both a physical lack of water and a lack of mechanisms and actions for effectively managing, allocating, and developing water resources. A new GWP Technical Focus Paper focuses on these issues.

8 March marks International Women’s Day (IWD). The global theme this year is “Planet 50-50: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. It asks governments to make commitments to address the challenges that are holding women and girls back from reaching their full potential.

“Thinking of pastoral care and water policies may sound farfetched for water managers and civil engineers with whom I spend a professional life – but not so. The ways we discuss water policy decisions often closely mirror broader social and ethical decisions.” GWP Technical Committee Chair Jerome Delli Priscoli recently addressed experts from around the world in a workshop at the Pontifical Academy of Science in the Vatican City.

The significance of engaging young people in the design and implementation of policies, plans and standards in Disaster Risk Reduction has been recognized by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The Youth Forum at the Budapest Water Summit 2016 further showed that young people are unified across disciplines and scales to understand, innovate and adapt to the complex and dynamic nature of the global water system and climate change.

The Norwegian government recently signed a 3-year donor agreement with GWP. Hans Olav Ibrekk represented the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at GWP’s Financing Partners Group meeting in December. He says GWP has a key role to play in developing the required capacity, analytical tools and approaches for decision makers to meet the growing and urgent need of improved water resources management.

On January 18, 2017, GWP China and other three Asian Water Partnerships were invited to the 3rd Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Singapore. It was sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) and organized by the Singapore Water Hub.