December 2012: The December issue of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Water Front newsletter highlights, inter alia: the drought affecting the US; SIWI’s thematic areas; water cooperation – the theme of 2013 World Water Week; and water integrity and sustainable development in the Lake Victoria basin.

The newsletter also highlights SIWI’s participation in the UN Climate Change Conference, which took place from 26 November to 7 December 2012, in Doha, Qatar, as part of the Water and Climate Coalition. The cover story on the US drought underscores that 81% of the US was “abnormally dry or in drought” by mid-July and emphasizes the importance of building resilience to enable farmers and policy makers to adapt to droughts and the changing climate.

The newsletter addresses the development of SIWI’s 2013-2017 strategy to achieve a vision for a “water wise world,” which places all SIWI activities into five themes: climate change; transboundary water management; water governance; water, energy and food nexus; and water economics.

The newsletter notes the upcoming 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation forms the theme for the 2013 World Water Week, which will seek to answer questions including “why do we need to cooperate, on what, for what aim, at what level, with whom and, not least, how?” Among areas of cooperation, the newsletter identifies: cooperation between actors in different sectors; cooperation between stakeholder groups – recognizing water as a common good; cooperation across traditional management – from hilltop to ocean; cooperation between jurisdictions and levels – from village to transboundary basin; and cooperation between scientists and uses – bridging the science-policy gap.

The newsletter also profiles a SIWI and Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) Water Integrity Training programme, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2012, which aimed to reduce corruption in drinking water and sanitation services, with the objective to improve investment outcomes. [Publication: SIWI Water Front No. 4]