Water Information Management System

GEF CReW+ has been partnering with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH ) to enhance water and wastewater management in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR).

The overall goal of this collaboration is to incorporate existing databases and other water sector stakeholders to inform national decision-making using WIMS. WIMS is a web-based open data portal where water-related data and information can be discovered and analyzed, making it easier for the users to store, manage, find, access, and use spatial and non-spatial water-related data and information. WIMS is designed using an open-source technology stack to ensure the data portals' cost-effectiveness, ease of use, interoperability, and sustainability.

Costa Rica, Jamaica, Guyana, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago have developed water management systems to improve evidence-based decision making using WIMS. The system also enables information sharing between national agencies to facilitate reporting on regional and global commitments.

Expected Outcomes

By valuing water as a scarce resource, the concept of Integrated Water and Wastewater Management (IWWM) applied in GEF CReW+ is based on the four R´s of the circular economy approach: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. The project views wastewater not as waste, but as a valuable resource with potential for reuse in agriculture, industry, and other sectors. In this way, GEF CReW+ contributes directly to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 15.