Kenya: Charity Ngilu appointed Minister of Water and Irrigation

On 17 April 2008, Charity Kaluki Ngilu (1952) was appointed as Minister of Water and Irrigation. She was Minister of Health from 2003 until October 2007 when she dismissed from office after switching allegiance to presidential candidate Raila Odinga. leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

One of Mrs. Ngilu’s first deeds as minister was to declare a free basic supply of 40 litres of water a day per household in slum areas.

Water and Irrigation minister Charity Ngilu with her permanent secretary, Mr Mahboub Maalim, at Maji House in Nairobi. Photo/ HEZRON NJOROGE

Is Coke full of hot air?

At its annual shareholders meeting held on 16 April 2008 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, Coca Cola faced resistance from activists and some shareholders when it came to its environmental commitments.

Corporate Accountability International and the Polaris Institute were drawing attention to the environmental and social impacts of bottled water, noting that Coke has refused to provide water quality data or label the source of Dasani bottled water, even as Pepsi has labeled its Aquafina bottled water as coming from public water sources.

In its press release, Corporate Accountability critically reviewed several recent environmental initiatives undertaken by Coca-Cola including the TERI report about the company’s water management practices in India, the CEO Water Mandate and Coke’s partnership with WWF on watershed protection.

Sources: Tara Lohan, AlterNet, 17 Apr 2008 and Andrew Eder, The News Journal / DelawareOnline, 17 Apr 2008

Dave Trouba joins Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)

After 10 years, Dave Trouba is leaving the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) where he worked as Communications Director.  As of 29 April 2008, Dave will be working for the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in Geneva.

Source: Personal emails, 15-16 April 2008

Bolivia: new water minister assumes office

Bolivia’s new water minister René Gonzalo Orellana assumed office with a call for “vigorous” investments to carry out sewerage and potable water projects. Orellana replaces Walter Valda who is running for election in Chuquisaca department. Orellana said that water will be one of the principle issues on the government agenda.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 3 Apr 2008

SODIS: 57,000 Euro from Carla Bruni picture

Frenh president’s wife Carla Bruni’s (nude) photo from 1993 by the star photographer Michel Comte fetched an unexpected 57,000 Euro at an auction in New York, April 10, 2008, various news agencies reported. The proceeds will be donated to the SODIS project of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag. Sodis (Solar Water Disinfection) is a simple method to turn contaminated raw water into drinking water. Sodis uses sunlight and plastic bottles to eliminate the diarrhoeal pathogens in the water. More than two million people in some 30 countries currently use Sodis.

Read the press release

New staff at Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)

WSP-Africa

Abdulrazak Badru, a Tanzanian national, joins WSP-Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,  as a Marketing Specialist in the Handwashing program.

Dominick De Waal, a British national, joins WSP- Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, as Senior Finance Specialist. Dominick was previously with WaterAid.

Peter Hawkins, a British national, joins WSP-Africa as Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist, based in Maputo, Mozambique.

Maria Jacobson, has joined WSP’s Uganda office as a Sida-funded Bilateral Associate Expert where she will work on Governance and Anti-corruption in the water sector in Uganda.

Seydou Nourou Koita, a Senegalese national, joins WSP-Africa based in Dakar, Senegal, as Handwashing Marketing Specialist.

Nancy Visavilwa, a Kenyan national, joins WSP-Africa based in Nairobi, as a Team Assistant working with the Kenya country team.

WSP-East Asia and the Pacific

Guy Hutton recently joined WSP-EAP as a Senior Regional Economist. Based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Guy will be in charge of the Economics of Sanitation Initiative (ESI) in the region.

Kov Phyrum joined WSP as an ETC Water Supply and Sanitation Analyst, coming from the Economics Institute of Cambodia, where he was researcher and infrastructure specialist.

Bounthavong Sourisak has joined WSP-EAP as a Social Development Specialist based in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Viengsamay Vongkhamsao is the new Country Team Leader in Lao PDR.

Vinh Than Nguyen is the new Country Team Leader in Vietnam.

WSP-Latin America and the Caribbean

Lylliam Moya (Lylli) joined WSP in Honduras a STC Communication Consultant.

WSP-South Asia

Vandana Bhatnagar is a solid waste management specialist, who in the last two years has been actively supporting the solid waste management sector program at WSP-SA and will focus on this sector in the India office.

Coming from WSP-East Asia, Santanu Lahiri has joined WSP-Bangladesh as a Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist managing the local government water supply and sanitation capacity building program.

Zaneta Mascarenhas is an Australian volunteer supporting the communications program on rural sanitation in Dhaka, which includes the Dishari Project (Total Sanitation Project).

Saurabh Sinha is a monitoring and evaluation specialist, she will primarily focus on the rural sector in India. He will work with the Rural Water & Sanitation team of WSP India.

WSP-Headquarters

Craig Kullman joins WSP from the American Red Cross.  He is taking over as the operations research analyst in supporting the Scaling Up Handwashing and Total Sanitation projects for WSP.

Sheryl Silverman has joined WSP as Web Editor.

Source: Access, Feb 2008

Amreeta Regmi appointed Water and Sanitation Sector Program (WASAP) Coordinator, World Bank Indonesia mission

Amreeta Regmi has been appointed as the Water and Sanitation Sector Program (WASAP) Coordinator at the World Bank for the Indonesia mission. WASAP in Indonesia is supported by a US$24.5 million grant from the Royal Netherlands Embassy and is executed by the Government of Indonesia. Encompassing a wider mandate, this program focuses in three critical areas of support: water supply to improve Indonesian citizen’s access to safe water; sanitation to improve people’s health and welfare and reduction in contamination of raw water; and Integrated Water Resources Management as a vehicle for ensuring adequate raw water supply. Among other targets, to maximize impact, this program provides an excellent platform to strengthen and build inter-sectoral and institutional linkages, horizontally and vertically within the water sector including with sanitation, financing and policy linkages. In her new capacity, Amreeta Regmi will support and promote a wider water vision in Indonesia.

Amreeta Regmi is an interdisciplinary water sector specialist. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from Brenau University, Georgia, USA and a Ph.D. from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Her water sector expertise includes inter-sectoral coordination, advisory services, inter-disciplinary analysis, policy assessment, institutional reform, program development and oversight, administration and knowledge management. She has worked in Africa and Asia, including in Indonesia as the Municipal Water Services Advisor to USAID. She has provided services to NGOs and UN agencies. She is one of the founding members of the ‘Gender and Water Alliance’.

Source: personal e-mail Amreeta Regmi, 28 Feb 2008

Water an issue at Canadian music awards

BRANTFORD, ONTARIO — Water became an issue at the April 5 Junos, the annual Canadian national music awards.

When Canadian country star Paul Brandt was given a humanitarian award for his charitable work providing [biosand] water filtration systems to Third World nations, the next recipient, Derek Miller, a blues-rocker who won the award for best aboriginal recording, said on the podium that better water was needed at the Six Nations Reserve, a Canadian American Indian reservation in Ontario.

Miller has been interested in water issues for some time, and currently is involved in backing the WatAir, an Israeli device that draws drinking water from the humidity in air.

Read more: WaterTech Online, 10 Apr 2008

Pro-industry NGO sponsors WASH projects

Empowering humanity through water, sanitation, hygiene and education is the mission of a new pro-industry NGO set up in the USA by employees of the oil and gas industry Industry’s Humanitarian Support Alliance (ISHAN). “IHSAN” stands for NGO but also means “benevolence” and “giving” in Arabic. IHSAN links social responsibility projects of industry sponsors with project partners and disadvantaged communities. On March 22, 2008, World Water Day ISHAN announced funding for four new projects, including construction of water pumps, eco-sanitation toilets, rainwater harvesting systems, open dams, and water education programs in Sierra Leone, Kenya, India, and Ghana.

Source: Business Wire, 8 April 2008

New Policy and Campaigns Director for WaterAid

WaterAid has appointed Margaret Batty to the post of Policy and Campaigns Director. Margaret takes over from Stephen Turner who has retired after 17 years. Margaret’s career so far has focused on promoting diversity, social inclusion and non-discrimination working in an international capacity for the voluntary sector, including Age Concern, local government, central government, EU institutions and the United Nations.

Read more: WaterAid, 31 Jan 2008