Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London. Photo: Marc Cowan / Survival International
Supporters of tribal people’s rights demonstrated on 3 February 20010 outside Tiffany jewelry stores in London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin and San Francisco to protest the company’s support of Botswana government policies that provide water for wildlife but not for indigenous people on their ancestral lands. Demonstrators want Tiffany to stop all cooperation with the Botswana government until the Bushmen are allowed to exercise their right to water. The protests are being coordinated by Survival International; Bushman spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone stated: “Tiffany is supporting the government but ignoring the Bushmen. It should not be giving money to the government while we don’t have any water.”
In 2002 the government evicted the tribesmen from their land, which is part of a huge nature reserve. That action was overturned in 2006 by a High Court ruling that allows the Bushmen to remain, however the Botswana government has blocked the tribe’s access to their water borehole, forcing them to go outside of the reserve – a 500 km round trip – to get water.
The Bushmen were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and forbidden access to the water that has sustained them for centuries. In the mean time a tourist lodge with swimming pool, requiring new boreholes for water, has been built within the reserve.
Tiffany have told news agency Mmegi that “they remain as proud as ever in their funding of wildlife and other charity works in Botswana”. The Tiffany & Co. Foundation recently released US$ 500,000 towards the drilling and rehabilitation of 10 boreholes and pans in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and a further four boreholes and pans in the nearby Khutse Game Reserve.
This grant is part of the Foundation larger programme to promote wildlife conservation as a source of sustainable economic development in Botswana. Together with the University of Pennsylvania, the Foundation is also building a facility for HIV/AIDS treatment at the Princess Marina Hospital in Botwana’s capital Gaborone.
On her first ever visit to Botswana, President of Tiffany Foundation Fernanda Kellog said: “I think water is precious. We are giving the wildlife the most precious thing, water. There is nothing more important we can do than help wildlife get water.”
Panama’s environment authority Anam and Mexico’s Querétaro University are interested in duplicating programs that have been developed by the Dominican Republic’s water authority Indrhi, the Dominican Republic’s local paper Listín Diario reported.
Representatives from Anam and Querétaro University visited Indrhi last week to learn more about its basin management policy, its institutional structure and the initiatives it has implemented to improve potable water supply.
The Panamanian group said they want to create a program, similar to Indrhi, to teach people the correct use of water resources, while the Mexican delegation showed interest in signing cooperation agreements with Indrhi.
The foreign delegation also visited the Centro para la Gestión Sostenible de los Recursos Hídricos en los Estados Insulares del Caribe (CEHICA), which is managed by Indrhi president Frank Rodríguez and supported by Unesco. (See also: Republica Dominicana: el INDRH alberga la sede de centro para la gestión del agua en los estados insulares del Caribe, Boletines de Noticias, 26 Oct 2009)
Ing. Alejandro Hitcher nuevo ministro del Poder Popular para el Ambiente
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced that Alejandro Hitcher will take over as the new environment minister.
Hitcher is currently president of state-owned waterworks company Hidrocapital and will replace Yubirí Ortega who resigned on 25 January 2010 “for strictly personal reasons.”
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has appointed María Esther Urdaneta as the country’s new environment and water minister as part of a cabinet shuffle on the second day of his new presidential term.
Urdaneta, a former researcher at the center for investigation and promotion of rural communities, will replace former minister René Orellana. She has campaigned for recognition of the right to water as a universal human right, according to the ministerial web site.
The ministry will now redouble efforts to improve potable water, sanitation and irrigation services, Urdaneta said at a handover ceremony in La Paz.
Mary Esther Udaeta (r) inaugurated as new water minister
The new Central American and Caribbean water resource centre Hidrocec (Centro de Recursos Hídricos para Centroamérica y el Caribe) will open in Costa Rica in March 2010, local paper La Nación reported.
The centre will provide technical assistance to help countries in the region preserve their water resources.
Located in Guanacaste province’s Liberia city, Hidrocec will operate under the state-owned college <a href=”http://www.una.ac.cr/”>Universidad Nacional</a> (UNA).
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided US$500,000 to build the center, the report said.
Hidrocec will oversee the protection and management of surface and underground water; the use and recuperation of basins; the development of technology to treat domestic, industrial and agro-industrial wastewater; and review legislation and the management of water resources.
The centre will also offer undergraduate and master’s programs in water resource management.
<strong>Source</strong>: <a href=”http://www.bnamericas.com/content_print.jsp?id=504751&idioma=I&sector=4&type=NEWS”>BNamericas.com</a> [subscription site], 19 Jan 2010
Malcolm White, former Water and Sanitation Sector Adviser at Irish Aid in South Africa, has taken up a new position as CoWater Project Manager for a rural water supply and sanitation project in Lesotho. Funded by Government of the United States through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and managed by the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), the project aims to supply 250 new or upgraded water systems and up to 10 000 VIP latrines in the rural (mainly mountain) regions of Lesotho. Cowater is the Canadian Consulting company that won the bid to manage the project for MCC/MCA – Lesotho. The project also intends to support and provide capacity building activities with DRWS (the Lesotho Government/Ministry of Natural Resources Department of Rural Water Supply). It is an approximately US$ 37 million project over three years.
There will be no new Water and Sanitation Sector Adviser at Irish Aid in Pretoria, as a result of budget uncertainties. The Irish Aid budget has been cut by € 222 million (US$ 328 million) in 2009.
The ICIWaRM is now the 13th member of UNESCO’s global network of water centres. The new centre would notably increase support to developing countries, especially in Africa, but also in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The overall mission of the new centre is “the advancement of the science and practice of integrated water resources management to address water security and other water-related challenges by regional and global action, through new knowledge, innovative technologies, collaborative interdisciplinary scientific research, networking, training and capacity development within the framework of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme.”
Besides the USACE which acts as the lead organisation and host of the UNESCO ICIWaRM, other participating institutions include USAID, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. State Department, U.S. Geological Survey, University of Arizona, Oregon State University and the International School for Water Resources at Colorado State University (CSU).
On 26 November 2009, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso was awarded his fifth honorary doctorate in recognition of his efforts for the environment. This time, the degree was bestowed by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) in Ouagadougou. Director Paul Ginies pointed out that not only had the president founded the Institute in 2006, but he was also actively involved in its future plans. Compaore hopes to make Ouagadougou the African science capital by enticing 5000 PhD candidates of all nationalities to enroll at the Institute, which focuses on climate change and water issues. He has previously received degrees from universities in France, Japan, and Thailand.
Source: Louise Shaler, Global Water News Watch summary taken from Hamidou Ouedraogo, L’Observateur Paalga [in French], 29 Nov 2009 ; 2iE, 02 Dec 2009
UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka was given the coveted Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development on 24 November 2009. Widely known as the “Nobel Prize for the Environment”, she shared the 2009 award with Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, and the world renowned hero of the environment, Sören Hermansen, of Samsö, Denmark.
The ceremony marked the 10th anniversary of the award, which this year stressed the the urban dimension of the climate change and environment debate. The Göteborg Award, one million Swedish crowns (US$ 144,000), is shared equally by the three winners.
The jury commended Dr. Tibaijuka for “leading a successful global undertaking that includes water supplies and empowering women to improve their surroundings” and as one of the initiators of Cities in Climate Change, for “advancing the practical climate work being carried out in major cities”.
The Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development is funded by the City of Göteborg, together with the Second Swedish National Pension Fund, Carl Bennet AB, Elanders AB, Eldan Recycling, Folksam, Götaverken Miljö, Handelsbanken, Nordea, Peab, Schenker AB and SKF.
Chile’s water and sanitation service authority SISS (Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios) has received an award from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the success of its reforms and water management program, which have been implemented over the last decade, the country’s public works ministry (MOP) reported in a release.
SISS, a decentralized organization with its own budget, controls water and sanitation services in urban areas of Chile. Its main responsibilities are to set rates for sanitary services for the economy ministry, oversee compliance with norms, and regulate the control of environmental waste. It also receives user complaints, assesses their validity and acts on them
Some of the achievements in the Chilean sanitation sector in recent years include reaching 99.8% potable water coverage; 95.3% sewage coverage; increasing wastewater treatment coverage from 16.7% in 1998 to 82.6% in 2008 (this is expected to reach 98% in 2011); the cleanup of the country’s coastline and beaches; implementing fresh water irrigation; and reducing infant mortality.
Public works minister Sergio Bitar praised the progress made by the Chilean state since the late 90s, and emphasized the role of the SISS which regulates and supervises potable water, sewage and wastewater treatment with a firm hand.
The award was delivered by IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno and the president of the Femsa foundation, José Antonio Fernández to SISS head Magaly Espinosa in Mexico city on November 16, during the IWA Development Congress.
Femsa supports initiatives for the conservation and sustainable use of water in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A project implemented in Brazil to integrate waste recyclers was the runner-up for the award.
