EnterpriseWorks/VITA Receives Gates Foundation Grant to Develop Low-Cost Domestic Rainwater Harvesting System

EnterpriseWorks/Vita (EWV) has received a five-year grant from the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to analyse domestic rainwater harvesting systems throughout the world, conduct research to reduce the costs of water storage units, and develop and test a market-based approach for the introduction of domestic rainwater harvesting systems to provide drinkable water to areas in need.

EWV will first embark on a year-long, 20-country study of past usages of rainwater harvesting and current technological innovations. This research period will allow EWV to learn more about the market’s needs, and design a product to adequately meet them. During the second phase of the project, EWV will implement a pilot project to produce and market a prototype system in a selected region.

The amount of the grant to EWV was not mentioned in the press release. In 2005 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a Global Development Special Initiative in water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Read more about EMV’s water and sanitation projects here.

Source: EnterpriseWorks/Vita, 25 Jun 2008

UNEP GPA Coordination Office Relocates

In a letter dated 30 May 2008, Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, officially communicated the relocation of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Sources (GPA) Coordination Office from The Hague, the Netherlands, to Nairobi, Kenya. In his letter, Steiner emphasizes the benefits of the move and extends UNEP’s gratitude to the Government of the Netherlands for their invaluable support. The move is expected to take place in August 2008.

Source: MEA Bulletin, no. 50, 27 Jun 2008

KnowledgeHubs: New Asia-Pacific Network Launched to Tackle Water Problems

Twelve centres of excellence from across the Asia-Pacific region have launched a network to share solutions for improving water management to tackle the region’s many pressing water challenges.

The network, known as “KnowledgeHubs,” is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, which was established in 2006 with support from Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote leadership and boost investment in the water sector.

KnowledgeHubs is supported by ADB, Singapore’s national water agency PUB, UNESCO, and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

Candidate Hubs for Sanitation and for Water Supply for Rural Areas and Small Towns, still need to be identified.

Below is the list of the 12 founding members and their topics

• Urban Water Management: Pub WaterHub – Singapore
• Disaster Risk Reduction and Flood Management – ICHARM – Japan
• Water and Climate Change Adaptation in Southeast Asia: NAHRIM – Malaysia
• River Basin Organizations and Management: CRBOM – Indonesia
• Water Quality Management in River Basins: K-water – Korea
• Decision Support Systems for River Basin Management (Hydroinformatics): CHIRB – China
• Water Governance: Institute of Water Policy (IWP), LKY School of Public Policy – Singapore
• Irrigation Service Reform: IWMI – Sri Lanka
• Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia: Central Asia IWRM Resource Center – Uzbekistan
• Integrated Water Resources Management in the Pacific: Pacific IWRM Resource Centre – Fiji Islands
• Erosion and Sedimentation in River Basins: IRTCES – CHINA
• Healthy Rivers and Aquatic Ecosystems: IWC – Australia

Candidate Knowledge Hubs and their topics are:

• Transboundary Water Resources Management: Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) – LAO PDR
• Water and Climate Change Adaptation in South Asia: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) – India
• Groundwater Management: Candidate Hub to be identified
• Sanitation: Candidate Hub to be identified
• Water Supply for Rural Areas and Small Towns: Candidate Hub to be identified
• Water and Energy: Candidate Hub to be identified

Source: ADB, 26 Jun 2008

IBM Expands Advanced Water Management Capabilities With Dublin Centre of Excellence

On 16 June 2008, IBM and the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA Ireland) announced the establishment of an IBM Centre of Excellence for Water Management.

Located in Dublin, the new facility will focus primarily on innovative research and services for monitoring, managing and forecasting environmental challenges such as the movement of pollutants in fresh water, marine and oceanic environments.

Earlier in 2008, IBM established a Centre of Excellence for Water Management in Amsterdam where the primary focus is on flood management and levee systems. In 2007, IBM announced with The Beacon Institute, New York a technology-based monitoring and forecasting network for the Hudson River and estuary.

Read more: IBM, 16 Jun 2008

Dr Valerie Curtis gets promotion

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have promoted Dr Valerie Curtis to the position of Reader in Hygiene. Dr. Curtis, behavioural scientist, directs the Hygiene Centre at the London School. She was a founder of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap and is on the steering committee.

Nepal: minister’s decision to transfer officials fuels protests

The recent decision of Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hisila Yami to transfer three top-level officials at the ministry has invited protests from trade unions.

On June 8, Yami had transferred three officials -Hari Prasad Sharma, Ishwari Paudyal and Rajkumar Malla. Sharma, who was heading Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS), has been brought to the ministry as joint secretary. Similarly, Paudyal, joint-secretary at the ministry, has been sent to Bagmati Sewerage Management Project while Rajkumar Malla, the chief of BSMP, has been transferred to DWSS as director general.

In March 2008 Yami was criticised for appointing relatives and maoist activists in different agencies under her ministry.

Read more: Himalayan Times / NGO Forum, 15 June 2008 and Kantipur / NGO Forum, 9 June 2008

Norconsult exits Tanzania to avoid corruption

Norconsult, will no longer bid for contracts managed by local authorities in Tanzania due to widespread corruption.

The findings of a new audit, revealing irregular payments to several projects, have made the company decide to close down its local subsidiary Norconsult Tanzania Ltd (NTZ), and to fire the Managing Director.

The new audit is the company’s follow up of an on-going World Bank investigation launched more than a year ago in connection with an irregegular USD 146,500 cash payment in the Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Project.

Read more

Inés Restrepo, CINARA, selected to write essay for Expo Zaragoza 2008

Inés Restrepo of CINARA, Colombia, is one of more than 15 influential authors selected to write an essay for the Water Words collection for Expo Zaragoza 2008. Her essay “Water sustainability in rural communities: advances, experiences and lessons”, focuses on Latin America. Other essays writers are former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachov, Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

Read more

Mike Leonard Assumes Presidency of American Water Works Association

Mike Leonard, water operations manager for the City of Roswell, Georgia, assumed the presidency of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) on Wednesday night. His one-year term as president of AWWA, the world’s largest and oldest water organization, began at a Gavel Passing Ceremony held during AWWA’s Annual Convention and Exposition (ACE08). Leonard succeeds Nilaksh Kothari, general manager of public utilities for Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The new president-elect is Craig Woolard, treatment division director of the Anchorage (Alaska) Water and Wastewater Utility.

Read more: AWWA, 12 June 2008

Pacific Institute Works With U.N. on CEO Water Mandate

10 June 2008. Mandate Endorsers Urge Attention to Global Water Crisis at G8 Summit

The Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., has signed a formal agreement to work with the United Nations on implementation of The CEO Water Mandate. This significant initiative represents both a call to action and an actionable framework for companies around the world to advance toward water sustainability in their operations and supply chains.

Endorsing members of The CEO Water Mandate, representing almost 30 of some of the world’s largest companies, have started an international campaign urging governments at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Japan in July 2008 to address the emerging global water crisis, especially in response to climate change.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a group of committed businesses officially launched The CEO Water Mandate in 2007. The Mandate it addresses six key areas: Direct Operations, Supply Chain and Watershed Management, Collective Action, Public Policy, Community Engagement, and Transparency. In particular, the Mandate’s 2008-2009 work plan calls for the development of a Transparency Framework describing general expectations for transparency as it relates to both Mandate endorsers and the initiative as a whole.

Activist group, the Polaris Institute in Canada, has dismissed the The CEO Water Mandate as an example high-level “greenwashing”.

Read the full press release.