The following organizations (UNW-DPC, UN-HABITAT, ACWUA and ONEP) are jointly organizing the 3rd ACWUA Best Practice Conference and Exhibition which is also the 3rd Regional Activity on Capacity Development of UNW-DPC and UN-HABITAT, on the theme of "Non-Revenue Water Management in the Arab Region Strategies to reduce unbilled, apparent and real losses of drinking water". The Conference will take place in Rabat, Morocco, on 20-21 January 2010.

The new Capacity Pool is out! It is dedicated to the topic of Climate Change and includes an article on Capacity Development in the Area of Water and Climate Change and an interview with the Avinash Tyagi, WMO, on the UN-Water Task Force Water and Climate Change.

Please download the new Capacity Pool here.

UNW-DPC and FAO, in partnership with the Ministry of Energy of Iran, Deputy for Water and Wastewater Affairs, have successfully organized the second of a series of 5 regional workshops on "Capacity Development for Farm Management Strategies to Improve Crop-Water Productivity using AquaCrop" on 9-13 August 2009 in Tehran, Iran.

UNW-DPC and FAO, in partnership with the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE), have successfully organized the first of a series of 5 regional workshops on "Capacity Development for Farm Management Strategies to Improve Crop-Water Productivity using AquaCrop" on 27-31 July 2009 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

UNW-DPC, UN-HABITAT and the Bulgarian Water Association (BWA) are jointly organizing the Capacity Development for Improving Water Efficiency: Regional Workshop on “Water Loss Reduction in Water and Sanitation Utilities”, in Sofia, Bulgaria 16-18 November 2009. The workshop is aimed at decision-makers responsible for water supply and sanitation in major cities from countries in the SEE region (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Kosovo and Turkey).
Deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 August 2009.

On behalf of the Chair of UN Heads of Agencies, Dr Ardakanian gave a speech at the event to observe the World Day to Combat Desertification on 17 June 2009 in Bonn, organized by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in cooperation with the City of Bonn, the Institute of the University of Bonn and the BIMUN.

UNW-DPC, which has been granted the honorary membership of the Council of the International Hydropower Association (IHA), will be attending the IHA World Congress 2009 on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower (23-26 June 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland). Dr Ardakanian has been invited to attend the Consultative Council and will be a panelist in the session on water policy. The event is intended not only to be informative; but is designed to challenge current strategies and to stimulate future thinking. For more information, please visit the IHA Congress website.

The training workshop, jointly organized by UNW-DPC, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Regional Centre on Urban Water Management - Tehran (RCUWM) took place from 11-14 May 2009 in Tehran, Iran. More than 29 participants, including top and mid-level managers and professionals in water resources management, disaster management, land use management and spatial planning, met in Tehran to share their experiences and best practices regarding the national situation of Integrated Flood Management in their countries.

The training of trainers workshop took place in Skopje, FYR Macedonia from 20-24 April 2009 and was jointly organized by UNW-DPC, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and supported by the Consortium for Capacity Building of Colorado University (CCB) and hosted by the Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Skopje in FYR Macedonia.

UNW-DPC in collaboration with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) and UNESCO's International Hydrological programme (UNESCO-IHP) are organizing the 3rd Workshop on "Groundwater and Human Security - Case studies" (GWAHS-CS) to be held in Shiraz, Iran, between 16 & 18 May 2009.