Director-General receives the IAH Distinguished Associate Award for 2009

On 24 August 2009, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO, received the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) Distinguished Associate Award for 2009 from Mr Wilhelm Struckmeier, President of IAH. Also present at the award ceremony were Mr Shaminder Puri, Secretary-General of IAH, and Mr Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Secretary of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP).

In his acceptance speech, which was shown at the General assembly of the IAH on the 10th of September 2009 in Hyderabad, India, Mr Matsuura noted that groundwater resources were "key to finding sustainable solutions to water problems. Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material and the most important and safest source of drinking water. Agriculture and particularly irrigation systems in many parts of the world (such as India, Northern Africa, and Western Asia) strongly depend on groundwater resources."

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Mark the dates: PCCP and UNESCO-IHE short course on water and conflict management

PCCP and UNESCO-IHE will offer for the second year a short course on water and conflict management. The short course is part of a joint MSc in Water Management – specialization Water Conflict Management, LLM in Water Governance and Conflict Resolution.

It can also be followed by external candidates who are interested in a short, effective and dynamic training in water and conflict management. The course is composed of two modules:

• Negotiation skills for the anticipation, prevention and resolution of water conflicts (3 weeks, from 8-26 February 2010)
• Advanced Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques applied to water issues (3 weeks, from 1-19 March 2010).

Renowned trainers from around the world will be mobilized for this course. They will help the participants understand, design and facilitate negotiation, mediation, consensus building, trust building, public participation and other processes that are useful for the management of water conflicts. They will also cover the main legal, cultural and spiritual challenges that negotiators can face in the management of shared water resources. Software programmes and role plays will be used for actual practice and skills development.

The course is designed for current and future water managers, decision makers and others involved in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Participants should have an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject (economics, social sciences, law, engineering, biology, etc.) and preferably a few years of relevant working experience.

Participants to the short course can follow one or both modules. Mark the dates. More information will be available in the next newsletter.

For more information contact Mrs Claudia Schutter – Brakel

Launching of the database and Community of Practice on Water and Cultural Diversity

Waterandculturaldiversity.org is an informative and interactive database and community of practice around the topic of water and cultural diversity.

The database acts as an information resource on the topic of water and cultural diversity and will contribute to increasing awareness on the importance of cultural factors in water management and decision making. The database contains four main sections: library, directory of experts and institutions, events calendar, and image gallery.

The concept of a CoP refers to a group of people who have a common interest and share information and ideas to find solutions and recommendations for a certain topic or problem. The interactive space provided on this website enables information and opinions to be shared among members and users. The CoP will act as a platform through which members of the group can exchange technical information and experiences.

Visit Waterandculturaldiversity.org today, and participate in enriching the content of this website.

UNESCO-IHP for Latin America and the Caribbean launch second issue of Aqua-LAC

The International Hydrological Programme’s regional office in Latin America and the Caribbean (PHI-LAC), found in Montevideo, Uruguay, published the second issue of Aqua-LAC, a journal whose aim is to establish an international frame of reference of scientific quality and relevance, utilizing scientists and water professionals from Latin America and the Caribbean. This second issue of Aqua-LAC represents an interesting example of some of the multiple features to be considered in addressing the water issue, and the various approaches and methods used to focus it.

Second issue of Aqua-LAC

Access a complete list of water events around the world

UNESCO-IHE: Professor in Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development

The Department of Water Engineering (WE) wishes to appoint a Professor in Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development. The Department of WE conducts research and provides post-graduate education and training to professionals in the fields of water resources assessment and control, water supply, irrigation and drainage, navigation and hydropower, river, port and coastal engineering, and floods, droughts and pollution. The department’s history and mission are traced to the origins of UNESCO-IHE and are today organized into four scientific core groups:

1. Hydraulic Engineering – River Basin Development,
2. Land and Water Development,
3. Hydrology and Water Resources, and
4. Coastal Engineering and Port Development,

each headed by a professor. More information is available at the WE Department Website.

All specialized training and research at UNESCO-IHE are organized within cores, and professors compose the academic leadership that advances the institute’s mission.

More information

Urban Water Security: Managing Risks

Edited by Blanca Jiménez and Joan Rose, Urban Water Series, UNESCO-IHP

Understanding the impacts of urbanization on the urban water cycle and managing the associated health risks demand adequate strategies and measures. Health risks associated with urban water systems and services include the microbiological and chemical contamination of urban waters and outbreak of water-borne diseases, mainly due to poor water and sanitation in urban areas, and the discharge of inadequately treated, or untreated, industrial and domestic wastewater. Climate change only exacerbates these problems, as alternative scenarios need to be taken into consideration in urban water risk management.

Urban Water Security: Managing Risks – the result of a project by UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme on the topic – addresses issues associated with urban water risks. The first section of the volume describes risks associated with urban water systems and services. The volume then discusses the concept of risk management for urban water systems and explores different approaches to managing and controlling urban water risks. A concluding section presents case studies on managing urban water risks.

More information

• In the United States bringing water supply and sewerage infrastructure up to current standards will cost more than $1 trillion over the next 20 years, with hundreds of billions more required for dams, dikes and waterway maintenance.
• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development estimates that the total costs of replacing aging water supply and sanitation infrastruc­ture in industrial countries may be as high as $200 billion a year.
• In most urban public water systems charges often barely cover the recurrent costs of operation and maintenance, leaving little or no funds to recover the capital costs of modernization and expansion. A survey of such systems in 132 cities in high-, middle and low-income countries found that 39% did not recover even their operation and maintenance costs (true of 100% of cities in South-East Asia and the Maghreb) .
• Moreover, water infrastructure dete­riorates over time. Leakage (loss) rates of 50% are not uncommon in urban distribution systems.
• In rural areas neglect of operation and maintenance budgets and cost recovery contribute to widespread non-function­ality. A recent survey of almost 7,000 rural water schemes in Ethiopia found that 30%-40% were non-functional. A shortage of finance for wages, fuel, materials and spare parts was a common factor.
• If estimates of current costs are correct, resources in the sanitation sector would have to be almost doubled to meet the 2015 target (although estimates of cur­rent spending probably underestimate the contributions by households to their own sanitation services).
• The World Health Organization esti­mates the total annual cost of meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target for sanitation at just over $9.5 billion.

The section "Did You Know…?" is taken from the 3rd World Water Development Report "Water in a Changing World".

- International Hydrological Programme
- World Water Assessment Programme
- UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
- Water-related Institutes and Centres under the Auspices of UNESCO
- UNESCO Water-related Chairs

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For contributions or comments, contact the editor at waterportal@unesco.org