Igor Shiklomanov and James Dooge: two distinguished hydrologists pass away

Within two days of each other two world-renowned hydrologists haved passed away.

Prof. Shiklomanov. Photo: WMO

On 22 August 2010, Professor Igor Shiklomanov died at the age of 71. He was most recently the Director of the State Hydrological Institute in the St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. He is most well known for his assessments of global water resources and its availability, needs and development.

Prof. Shiklomanov is the author of over 250 publications. He contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), first as a Co-Chair of the Hydrology and Water Resources Working Group during the First IPCC Assessment and later as a Lead Author of the Hydrology and Water Resources Chapter of the Working Group II (Impacts) report during the Third IPCC Assessment .

He was an Academician in the Russian Academy of Nature Sciences and recipient of the International Hydrology Prize in 2001 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2006.

He served since 1990 as the Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Committee for UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and was the Chairman of IHP’s Intergovernmental Council from 1992 to 1994.

Prof. Dooge

On 20 August 2010, Professor James C.I. Dooge passed away at the age of 88. He was both a distinguished politician and academic in the field of hydrology.

Prof. Dooge’s political service ranged from over 15 years in the Irish Senate, serving as its chairperson from 1973 to 1977, to being appointed Ireland’s Foreign Minister in 1981.

In the academic world, Prof. Dooge is most well known for his work with Professor Eamon Nash in the founding of what is now called systems hydrology. For over a decade, he lectured at UNESCO-IHE in Delft on Deterministic Hydrology. He was awarded an Honorary Fellow of the Institute in 1992 on the occasion of it’s 35th anniversary.

Prof. Dooge served as President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) from 1975 to 1979 and shortly thereafter followed by becoming the Secretary General of the International Council for Science (ICSU) from 1980 to 1982 and its President from 1983 to 1986. Prof. Dooge also invited the International Conference on Water and the Environment, held in preparation for the Rio Earth Summit, to take place in Dublin in 1992 where the Dublin Principles were developed.

Professor Dooge was awarded the International Hydrology Prize in 1983 and the International Meteorological Organization Prize in 1999 as the only non-meteorologist to be so honoured.

Source: UNESCO Water Portal Bi-monthly Newsletter, 16 Sep 2010 ; WMO News, 27 Aug 2010

Frank Rijsberman: new Director of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Frank Rijsberman

Frank Rijsberman joins the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program as director of its Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene initiative on 11 October 2010.

Mr. Rijsberman has been responsible for public health grant making at Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, which he joined in June 2007. From 2000-2007 he served as director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a leading research organization on water, food, and the environment.

Since 2006, the Gates foundation has committed US$ 200 million to support sustainable approaches to clean water and sanitation services in developing countries. Its funding now focuses primarily on sanitation.

Frank Rijsberman was a member of the Task Force on Water and Sanitation for the UN Millennium Development Goals Project, and one of the key organizers of the second World Water Forum. He served as part-time professor at the UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands.

Originally from The Netherlands, Rijsberman received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Delft University of Technology, and earned a multi-disciplinary Ph.D. in water resources planning and management and civil engineering from Colorado State University. He has worked in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and speaks four languages including his native Dutch.

Source: Gates Foundation, 17 Sep 2010

Sanitation and Water Partnership elects first Steering Committee

Eighteen institutions have been chosen to represent Sanitation and Water for All partnership constituencies.

The Sanitation and Water for All partnership now has 59 members, drawn from developing countries, civil society organizations, donors, UN agencies and other sector partners. These partners have elected a Steering Committee—the decision-making body that represents the partnership’s various constituencies. The Steering Committee and Sanitation and Water for All’s partners will lead the global movement to raise the profile of sanitation and water, increase political prioritisation, promote evidence-based decision-making and support strong national processes.

The Steering Committee includes representatives (serving in an institutional capacity and for inclusive representation of partner interests) from six constituency categories:

• Developing Countries – African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda
• Donors – Netherlands (DGIS), Switzerland (SDC) and United Kingdom (DFID)
• Multilaterals – Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)
• Development Banks – African Development Bank
• Civil Society – African Civil Society Network (ANEW), End Water Poverty (EWP) and Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA);
• Sector Partners – International Water Association (IWA) and WaterAid.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been selected to host the Secretariat supporting the partnership, and will hold an ex officio seat on the Steering Committee.

The inaugural meeting of the Steering Committee took place in Stockholm on the 7th of September 2010 during World Water Week, the annual gathering of the global water community. The Partnership also sponsored two events at Water Week: a Sanitation and Water for All Side Event highlighting progress of the partnership, and, jointly with the EU Water Initiative Africa Working Group, a seminar entitled “Aid Effectiveness in the Water and Sanitation Sector.”

Source: Sanitation and Water for All web site, 15 Sep 2010

Arumugam Kalimuthu to become new Country Director for Water For People, India

Mr. Arumugam Kalimuthu, Director (Program Strategy and Policy), Plan India has been selected for the Country Director’s Position with Water For People, India Country Program as of 7 October 2010. Popularly known as “AK”, he has over 20 years experience in the WASH sector in India and abroad. AK has a B.SC. in Civil Engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, and an M.Sc in Water and Environmental Engineering from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. He has worked for several international organizations such as Plan International, WaterAid India and WaterAid Nepal.

AK has published a number of technical articles and guidebooks. He was instrumental in setting up a national level Water and Environmental Sanitation Network in India (WES-Net India) and the WASH Institute. AK is a member of three technical committees of the Government of India constituted by Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Science and Technology and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Source: Personal contact, AK, 13 Sep 2010

UK: WaterAid to sit on a MDG panel with Deputy Prime Minister

Juanita During. Photo: WaterAid

Juanita During, Head of Governance for WaterAid in Nigeria, will sit on a panel alongside Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, and Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for Development.

The panel discussion is being convened by Bond, the membership body for over 370 UK NGOs working in international development, ahead of the UN MDG Review Summit in New York on 20–22 September, where Clegg will lead the UK delegation. The event will be the Deputy Prime Minister’s first major speech on international development, explaining how the UK government will meet its commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Juanita, an active member of the Nigerian Government’s high level Inter-Ministerial Committee on MDGs, will be the only NGO representative at the panel.

[...]

Of the progress being made on the Millennium Development Goals, Juanita said: “Despite huge progress made in the past decade, critical areas of development still lag behind: child mortality, maternal health and sanitation.

“We need an integrated aid system that is dictated less by who can shout the loudest and more by where the need is greatest, as told by the poor and most vulnerable in the developing world for whom the MDGs are literally a matter of life and death.”

Source: WaterAid, 15 Sep 2010

IDB and FEMSA Foundation award Water and Sanitation Prize to innovative service operators

Service operators and public officials from Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil and Colombia were recognized for innovative contributions to water and sanitation by the Inter-American Development Bank and FEMSA Foundation during the 2010 World Water Week congress in Stockholm.

Federico Basañes, chief the IDB’s Water and Sanitation Division, and Genaro Borrego Estrada, Director of Corporate Affairs for FEMSA, awarded the second edition of the Water and Sanitation Prize, which was inaugurated [in 2009] with the goal of recognizing outstanding contributions to the challenge of providing sustainable and accessible water and sanitation services in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Servicios de Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey, Mexico, received the award for water management in recognition of its successful strategy to voluntarily reduce consumption and encourage conservation of water over the last 20 years.

The Government of the State of Amazonas, Brazil, received the award for sanitation management in recognition of the results of the Programa Socioambiental dos Igarapés de Manaus (PROSAMIM), which implemented an integrated solution to water, sanitation and housing problems in low-income communities in the city of Manaos.

Aguas de Cartagena, Colombia, received a special mention for its success in the commercial management of accounts in low-income districts.

Empresa Nicaraguense de Aqueductos y Alcantarillados (ENACAL)also received a special mention for the construction and operation of a waste-water treatment plant in the city of Managua.

Representatives from each of the four awardees gave presentations describing the recognized project or initiative as part of “Latin America Day” at World Water Week, considered the largest international congress specializing in this sector.

The winners, as well as the recipients of special mentions, will receive scholarships financed by the FEMSA Foundation [to] send water and sanitation professionals to the Centro del Agua para América Latina y el Caribe (CAALCA), a specialized training and research institution jointly created by the IDB, FEMSA and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Source: IDB, 07 Sep 2010

IPS Corporation becomes global sponsor of Water For People

IPS Corporation (IPS Corp.) has announced a global sponsorship and commitment of US$ 100,000 to Water For People. The gift will provide essential support for Water For People’s programs across 11 developing countries.

IPS Corp. manufactures products for the plumbing, construction, manufacturing, marine, transportation and plastic fabrication industries under names such as WELD-ON and WATER-TITE. Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, IPS Corp. has operations throughout the United States, as well as China, and a worldwide network of sales representatives and distributors.

Founded in 1991, Water For People is an international, nonprofit humanitarian organization that focuses on long-lasting, safe drinking water resources and improved sanitation facilities in the developing world.

Source: IPS Corp., 01 Sep 2010