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25 Oct 2017

Water Forum Aims to Break Sector Silos in Tanzania

October 25, 2017 Arusha, Tanzania – The Tanzanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation in partnership with GIZ’s International Water Stewardship Programme (IWaSP) launched the Pangani Basin Multi-Sector Water Resources Forum. Around 100 participants joined from the public and private sector and civil society and included participants from other African countries, Asia and the Caribbean. The forum aims to bring together water resources users and planners to discuss how to strengthen coordination, breaking traditional sector silos.

“Water is central to all of our planning: we need it for agriculture, energy, health. Our common denominator is water,” said Engineer Mbogo Futakamba, Chairman of the National Multi-Sector Water Resources Forum in an interview. “We need partnerships: We want each stakeholder to start planning from the water resources point of view. At the end of the day, we will all have water if we are planning from the perspective of sharing the availability of the resource.”

As explained by Futakamba, Tanzanian water users and authorities are challenged by pipelined private sector development competing with local agriculture projects and local consumption. To ensure equitable access to water for all river basin users and ensure project success, a water-centered approach to development should be prioritized from the start.

“Water is a shared resource. All stakeholders rely on water for human consumption, livelihoods, business, energy, agriculture, and planning,” Futakamba continued. “Decision making should be equitable and efficient.”

Water is commonly viewed by planners and authorities as a social good. However, the economic value and risk of water-centered planning may make-or-break the success of a project. A shift in the official approach to water as an economic commodity in the value chain of all development projects could support Tanzania’s socio-economic development by ensuring the private sector protects and shares resources more efficiently and equitably. This process begins with better understanding of water resources management and facilitating collaboration between sectors.

“I hope for people attending tomorrow’s forum to be sensitized, come out of their departments and silos and work together, said Futakamba before the launch. “If we successfully work together we will see the impacts: economically, socially and at the community level.”

23 Oct 2017

Regional Water Partners Learn New Lessons from Tanzania Experience

October 23-25, 2017 Arusha, Tanzania – International Water Stewardship Programme (IWaSP) in partnership with Tanzania’s Pangani Basin Water Office held a 3-day regional water stewardship learning event bringing together public and private sector partners and civil society from 13 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. You can find a video about the event here.

“Learning is something dynamic. I am here to learn and re-learn,” said Doreen Wandera, Chairperson of the African Civil Network on Water and Sanitation and Executive Director of the Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network based in Kampala, Uganda. “If we improve our irrigation systems as I have seen here, we could better sustain food production.”

On day one, participants joined thematic field excursions to learn from partners and beneficiaries based in the Usa River sub-catchment. As Uganda relies on agricultural production as a primary source of income, Wandera joined the field trip, ‘Water for Agriculture’. In the field, she discussed good agricultural management practices and how they help achieve domestic water quality standards and maintain ecosystem health.

“Networking, getting to know different stakeholders in the water sector, and seeing how communities and ordinary citizens are involved in decision making is what I will take back with me,” said Luciana Mkandara, Capacity and Impact Manager, Water Witness International based in Tanzania. “Learning how communities organise themselves can be very useful for other projects as well.”

Luciana’s field trip focused on demonstrating new technologies for water resources management aiming to address water challenges and promoting sustainability. Her group explored how new technologies can help with data collection, inform different sources of decision-making and discussed how technologies can be used to help mitigate risks.

The five fieldtrips highlighted the benefits of working within a partnership model to improve how water resources are shared among user and consumers. Participants had the opportunity to visit local businesses including Kilifora, a flower farm working to raise standards and address the risks of hydropower supplies negatively affected by water stress.

“I will relate our field visits to my local scenario,” said Dr. Kiran Farhan based in the populous Pujab region of Pakistan. As a professional working on capacity building of water sector professionals, challenges including surface water quality, sweet water zones and ground water availability are issues high on Dr. Farhan’s list to address. Whereas her organization’s partnership with IWaSP only began six months ago, she hopes that by working with GIZ they will be able to identify indigenous solutions to water challenges including improved water efficiency, conservation, and innovative technologies for water use.

Participants shared and exchanged on how their water sectors work. Whereas Uganda’s water sector works under a partnership model using a sector-wide approach, others do not, and found it useful to discuss this with her. On day two, participants engaged in in-depth discussions analyzing learnings from the field and the following day, lessons learned were integrated into the launch of the Pangani Basin Multi-Sector Water Resources Management Forum.

“When you work alone […] what do you achieve at the end of the day?” said Ekwarm Johana, Water Delivery Lead for Tullow Oil based in Nairobi, Kenya. “You achieve a one-person project. When you do it as a cross-sectoral project you can bring in experience and more resources. At the end of the day you achieve the same goal, but this way you achieve it together.”

IWaSP is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

09 Feb 2016

What we do

IWaSP teams advise, enable and facilitate local actors in cities and water catchment areas to support good corporate water stewardship and multi-stakeholder partnerships that improve water security for communities and businesses.

IWaSP builds the capacity of government institutions, private companies and civil society organisations to help build consensus on water security risks and solutions, and to form effective partnerships to implement solutions. IWaSP has developed systematic approaches to establish, develop and facilitate multi-stakeholder platforms to implement water security solutions. With these, IWaSP is able to guide partners towards the creation of localised, transparent and effective measures to improve water security for all. IWaSP builds the capacity of vulnerable groups of society to ensure that these are represented and that their voices are heard during partnership engagement.

To help build effective collective action, IWaSP has developed the Water Risk and Action Framework (WRAF), which all of its partnerships will be adopting. The WRAF is a flexible series of facilitated steps, tools and methodologies to help disparate stakeholders reach consensus and collective action. Through the WRAF, stakeholders gain access to cutting-edge tools to identify and assess water risks and opportunities which affect their businesses and the communities in general, especially with regard to the financial impacts of water security. This is followed by the creation of project roadmaps and their implementation.

Community empowerment, capacity development and the continuous sharing of best practices and lessons learnt are at the core of IWaSP’s activities. This encourages higher participation in partnerships and the further development of solutions which can continue long after the IWaSP programme comes to an end.

Nomvula Mokonyane minister for water in SA

24 Jan 2016

Massive turnout at South Africa’s first water stewardship conference

On 27 and 28 October, more than 170 people from government, civil society organisations and over 40 different companies flocked to Sandton to participate in the first ever regional water stewardship conference to be held in South Africa. GIZ’s International Water Stewardship Programme (IWaSP), the Strategic Water Partners Network (SWPN) and the National Business Initiative (NBI) organised the conference together with the goal of promoting the concept of water stewardship.

This event came at a time that South Africa is facing a range of serious water-related challenges. South Africa loses 829 million m³ of water annually due to failing infrastructure and inefficient water management practices; and is facing water restrictions in six provinces affected by the prevailing drought conditions. Agriculture, industry, energy generation and households are all competing for access to this scarce resource. It is by now widely acknowledged that water is posing a real threat to economic growth in the country.

“The response to this conference was overwhelming,” said Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation, at the event. “It reflects the acknowledgement by all sectors that water has become one of the biggest risks facing governments and businesses today; a risk that cannot be tackled by one sector alone.” Minister Mokonyane delivered the key note address, while German Ambassador to South Africa, Walter Lindner, also addressed participants.

Over the two days, more than 30 people from various organisations shared their knowledge and practical experience in water stewardship with the conference delegates through short presentations or panel discussions. Topics included the benefits and challenges of water stewardship, what role different sectors can play, what is required on a policy level to create a conducive environment for stewardship, as well as how to practically implement water stewardship activities. IWaSP brought some of its project partners from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and the Caribbean to the conference to also share their experiences with the South African delegates.

IWaSP is currently implementing a diverse range of water stewardship projects in South Africa and the above-mentioned countries on behalf of the UK and German Governments. The programme supports companies to become water stewards; companies are encouraged to work together with other role players, such as community organisations and the relevant government authorities, in the catchments in which they operate to together address shared water risks, such as, for example scarcity, water wastage or wastewater treatment challenges. IWaSP facilitates the establishment of such partnerships, manages these partnerships and provides technical input to the measures needed to address the specific water risks.