Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation May-June2015 Vol. 10 No.3 | Page 12

NEWS in brief
GIZ’s work on energy and climate protection
Technical capacity building on small hydropower

Global Highlights

Therefore, enhancing the region’s small hydro operations
and maintenance capacity is likely to be a low-cost and highimpact approach for turning around the fortunes of small
hydro development in the region.
The assistance aims at identifying technical training gaps
in the small hydropower sector, including improved
coordination of small hydro development and effective
knowledge sharing in the region. Moreover, the project is
meant to trigger further support within EAC in building
up a portfolio in RE and energy efficiency (EE) within the
region and to complement the ongoing efforts by Austria
and UNIDO in setting up the East African Centre for
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE).

The East African Community (EAC) with support from
RECP will carry out an advanced scoping exercise to identify
key interventions to enhance the region’s technical capacity
on operations and maintenance for small hydropower.
The East African region is endowed with a substantial
small hydropower potential which should have resulted in
a large and rapidly growing small hydro industry. However,
until recently, the small hydro industry in the region was
characterized by sporadic small and isolated pilot projects
that were not able to scale up and over time broke down or
worked below rated capacities due to lack of maintenance,
repair and/or rehabilitation.
Therefore, enhancing the region’s small hydro operations
and maintenance capacity is likely to be a low-cost and highimpact approach for turning around the fortunes of small
hydro development in the region.
The assistance aims at identifying technical training gaps
in the small hydropower sector, including improved
coordination of small hydro development and effective
knowledge sharing in the region. Moreover, the project is
meant to trigger further support within EAC in building
up a portfolio in RE and energy efficiency (EE) within the
region and to complement the ongoing efforts by Austria
and UNIDO in setting up the East African Centre for
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE). The
East African Community (EAC) with support from RECP
will carry out an advanced scoping exercise to identify key
interventions to enhance the region’s technical capacity on
operations and maintenance for small hydropower.
The East African region is endowed with a substantial
small hydropower potential which should have resulted in
a large and rapidly growing small hydro industry. However,
until recently, the small hydro industry in the region was
characterized by sporadic small and isolated pilot projects
that were not able to scale up and over time broke down or
worked below rated capacities due to lack of maintenance,
repair and/or rehabilitation.

World Water Development Report 2015, Water for a
Sustainable World
The 2015 edition of the United Nations World Water
Development Report (WWDR), titled Water for a
Sustainable World, demonstrates how water resources and
services are essential to achieving global sustainability.
‘Water is at the core of sustainable development’. Water
resources, and the range of services they provide, underpin
economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental
sustainability. From food and energy security to human
and environmental health, water has been shown to
contribute to improvements in social well being, affecting
the livelihoods of billions. Progress towards the achievement
of most sustainable development goals requires significant
improvement of water management across the globe.
The year 2015 marks a critical milestone on the road to
sustainable development. As the Millennium Development
Goals come to a close, a new cycle of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) is poised to guide national
governments and the international community in the quest
to achieve a sustainable world.
This latest