Draft white paper on water governance discussed at CWWA

DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, October 19, 2017

A draft white paper to address water governance was recently submitted at the ongoing 26^th Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) conference.

The conference which started at the Marriot Hotel on Monday October 16, ends on Friday, October 20. It brought together close to 300 regional stakeholders to discuss water, waste water and waste management. Participating international partners include the United Nations Environment Programme, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Pan American Health Organisation(PAHO) among others.

Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan explained to the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the draft white paper will help in the crafting of a strategic action plan for individual countries and the region as a whole.

He added that at a high-level meeting with Ministers of Water in the Caribbean held on Wednesday, the document was extensively dissected and discussed. The process allowed the regional stakeholders to give their inputs on the document before it’s tabling at the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia in April 2018.

Some of the recommendations that were highlighted include the institutionalising of the high-level meeting as a viable and legitimate forum to discuss water issues throughout and across the Caribbean; a decision to allow for the refinement of the draft white paper to lead to the individual strategic action plans and the need for wider and greater stakeholder engagement, Minister Bulkan explained.

The Minister of Communities under whom the Water sector falls, opined that Guyana’s hosting of the conference will boost efforts to improve its potable water infrastructure and distribution

“It exposes Guyana in a deeper level to best practices regionally and internationally. The presence of exhibitors from all parts of the world allows our managers, especially divisional managers at GWI (Guyana Water Incorporated) to be exposed to these products, services and technology that will help to inform their data base because the government is making a huge investment in the water infrastructure.”

Meanwhile Executive Director, CWWA Patricia Aquing noted that the event allows for the first high level conference on waste management. “It’s the first time we’re organising this aspect of the conference because it gives our technicians and policy makers in the region an opportunity to discuss a very critical issue of how we manage our waste in the region. In all of our issues we have a waste management issue.”

 

By: Ranetta La Fleur