Access to water plays a key role in development – it sustains human life, both through direct consumption and use in agriculture for food security. Because of its importance, there are many demands for water: the use of water for industrial purposes is important to fuel economic growth, and at the same time access to water is important for agricultural producers and households.
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Children fetching drinking water in the
Fergana valley city Osh in Kyrgyzstan.
Photo: Ari Mäkelä
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The FinWater WEI programme works in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia to ensure sustainable water management in the area.
Total allocation to the FinWater WEI programme 2009 – 2013 is about 5 million euro. Next water programme for the years 2014-2017 is currently being prepared. It will focus on two coutries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Part of the Wider Europe Initiative
FinWater WEI is a flagship programme under the Wider Europe Initiative that strengthens Finland’s development policy through a comprehensive approach to Finland’s development cooperation in the European Union’s eastern neighbourhood, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. It aims to promote regional stability and prosperity in the partner countries of the initiative as well as in the wider European region. The themes of the initiative are security, trade and development, information society development, energy and the environment, and social sustainability.
The Wider Europe Initiative aims to meet development challenges in partner countries through the promotion of ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development.