Regional organizations meet in Barbados to strengthen collaboration on water security

Over thirty regional organizations working in the areas of water and wastewater in the Caribbean will meet in Barbados on April 28 and 29 to explore ways of strengthening their collaboration to improve water security in the region.  The Meeting of Regional Partners in the Water and Wastewater Sector is being spearheaded by the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the United Nations Environment Program, Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) and the Global Environment Facility’s Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (GEF CReW).

During the two-day meeting, participating organizations will have the opportunity to work together to identify new mechanisms and ways to strengthen existing ones to help raise the profile of water and wastewater in the region.  Additionally, the activity will enable stakeholders to highlight critical regional water and wastewater management issues and share details of ongoing and planned projects in these areas.

The key discussions will be an agreement on a way forward to facilitate more effective collaboration among the agencies and identifying existing regional projects, tools and resources in water and wastewater to inform individual and joint efforts.  Furthermore, the meeting will also build on past regional collaborative initiatives including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Consortium on Water which was established in 2010 with a mandate to develop a Common Water Framework for its member states in order to rationalize and coordinate the region’s programs and activities in the areas of water resources management.