GIWA Assessment of the Guinea Current Sub-region
The Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) is a UNEP Project aiming at producing a comprehensive and integrated global assessment of international waters including the ecological status of and the causes of environmental problems in 66 water areas in the world.
UCC-Water has since 2001 supported (GIWA) both in the development of the GIWA methodology as well as in applying the methodology through on the ground assessments. Thus, a major activity has been to assist the elaboration of the GIWA assessment of sub-region 42 (Gulf of Guinea or Guinea Current). The assessment was finalised in November 2003 and the draft report was presented at the Pan African Partnership and Implementation Conference on Water in December in Addis Ababa.
The Guinea Current sub-region is one of the largest GIWA sub-regions and covers a wide range of climatic, economic and cultural/linguistic zones. In order not to level out the specific problems, four major river basins was selected and each of them has been subject to a specific assessment by a "river basin expert team". The four river basins are the Congo River Basin, the Niger River Basin, the Volta River Basin and the Comoé River Basin.
The Main report is now available in a "pre-print" version, which is still subject to final revisions. Download of the report is possible at the GIWA site.