Unsustainable irrigation policies during the Soviet era have had devastating consequences for the Aral Sea. With the collapse of USSR, the riparian states took action and entered into agreement on Cooperation in the Joint Use and Protection of Water Resources of Interstate Significance. Furthermore, the international community took action and much attention has been devoted to re-establish the Aral Sea ecosystem. This case illustrates the importance of engaging all key stakeholders.
The EU Water Framework Directive requires measures to achieve good status of all waters by 2015. In Germany, it is not the federal government that is in charge of implementation but it is the responsibility of the county. To meet the objective, transboundary exchange of experiences was promoted by broadening the range of methods and tools available to water managers. From this study, it is evident that interaction with stakeholders plays a central role.
Interview with James Dalton, Water Management Advisor at IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
With the collapse of the USSR, the water sector seized to be subsidised leading to deterioration of basic infrastructure. Action was taken to partially transfer the responsibility for operation and maintenance of irrigation systems to water users. Nonetheless, this has had limited success because it has been seen as an additional cost rather than benefit. This illustrates that for this to work, the returned benefits need to be higher than the costs.
Strategic financial planning is a means to assess financing needs and match them to financing sources in a structured way to fill the gap in funds over a period of time based on different future scenarios. An approach to strategic financial planning for the water supply and sanitation sector called FEASIBLE has been developed by the OECD. It was applied with support from the GWP-hosted EUWI-FWG and the ACP-EU Water Facility in Lesotho during 2008-2010.
GWP Lithuania and Poland take part in a consortium led by Stockholm International Water Institute to support sustainable water resources management of international rivers shared by countries in the Eastern part of the Baltic Sea.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) will launch a game-changing online Climate Risk Assessment tool in St. Lucia on Friday, July 12th, 2013.
Prepared by Global Water Partnership for the AMCOW TAC, 20 October 2010, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP-WA) shares the vision of the GWP network which is for "a water secure world" with a mission to support countries in the sustainable development and management of water resources at all levels.