This year’s World Water Day theme is “Water and Sustainable Development”. Preparatory work for celebrating the day is underway in several countries, with the main UN celebration taking place in New Delhi, India, on 20 March. Building up to the event, GWP’s #watergoal campaign has been stepped up.
GWP Central America organized a workshop for 25 municipal leaders and technical personnel of civil society that work on water issues. The event, which focused on risk management, took place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 23-27.
GWP Lithuania and GWP Poland successfully collaborated on a set of maps, a database and a video, to improve the management and protection of two transboundary rivers. The project brought together international experts from Lithuania, Poland, Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
The Executive Secretary during his stay in Dakar met with the new chair of the Senegal CWP, Mr. Antoine Diokel THIAW and cangratulated him for his designation as chair. They had discussions on the future actions of the CWP. The Steering and Scientific Committees are yet to be established and an invitation will be sent to partners for a meeting to establish these bodies. Project templates will be developed in order to link with on going initiatives in the country and allow the CWP’s functioning.
GWP West Africa took part in the fourth (4th) meeting of the Sahel Irrigation Initiative Programme (SIIP) which is Worlb Bank funded initiative supported by the Permanent Inter-State committee to fight Drought in the Sahel (CILSS). The meeting took place on 3 to 5 February 2015 in Dakar, Senegal. GWP is a member of the task force and the topics for discussion of this 4th meeting were important for GWP's participation.
A validation workshop was held on 19 and 20 February 2015 in Niamey, Niger for the validation of three studies carried out in December 2014. The first one was on the national consultation on the objectives and methodology of the Mekrou project, the second one on the institutional participatory diagnosis and the third one on the assessment of existing capacities and the needs for capacity building for knowlegde management organizations in the country.
1. Mekrou Project is studying the impact on the W Park
A study is being carried by the Country Water Partnership of Benin to collect ecnomic data on the visitors of the W Park that covers part of the Mekrou Basin. The assessment is initiated by the Joint Research Center (JCR) with the support of GWP West Africa.
The Executive Secretary, Dam MOGBANTE and the Mekrou Project Manager, Corneille AHOUANSOU met the Executive Secretary of the Niger Basin Authority in Niamey. The meeting aimed at get the NBA to record the Mekrou Project in the agenda of their Ministerial Council to be held at the end of the year for the signature of the Framework and mechanism for cooperation. The NBA ES showed readiness to collaborate with GWP-WAF on various initiatives.