WASH Governance News

International Conference on Water Resources Policy in South Asia, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 18-20 Dec 2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:54:07 GMT

This conference is organised by SaciWATERs as part of the regional capacity building project Crossing Boundaries. The conference will bring together regional and international water professionals, academics, policy makers, activists, politicians and others involved and interested in South Asian water resources issues. As part of the ongoing water resources policy dialogue, the conference aims to [...]

Water democracy : reclaiming public water in Asia

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:54:55 GMT

Manahan, M.A., Yamamoto, N and Hoedeman, O. (2007). Water democracy : reclaiming public water in Asia : workable alternatives to privatisation of water sector. Bangkok, Thailand, Focus on the Global South and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Transnational Institute. 65 p. Download here This collection of 19 essays by civil society activists, trade unionists and other water practitioners, presents [...]

Financing water and sanitation at local levels

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:50:11 GMT

Huck, L. (2008). Think local, act local : effective financing of local governments to provide water and sanitation services. London, UK, WaterAid. 39 p. Download here Mehta, M. and Mehta, D. (2008). Financing water and sanitation at local levels : synthesis paper. London, UK, WaterAid. 83 p. Download here WaterAid carried out analyses in 12 developing countries in Africa [...]

Financing water and sanitation at local levels

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:43:07 GMT

WaterAid carried out analyses in 12 developing countries in Africa and Asia (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia) to identify some of the key blockages and systemic weaknesses that stand in the way of development finance reaching the local authorities who are responsible for delivering water and sanitation [...]

Latrines Trounce Toilets: barriers to sanitation coverage

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:57:39 GMT

While Americans may consider flush-and-forget-it indoor plumbing to be the pinnacle of sanitary science, the lowly latrine could be a far better solution for many parts of the developing world, say researchers at Michigan Technological University. Associate Professor David Watkins, Professor James Mihelcic and PhD student Lauren Fry of the University’s Sustainable Futures Institute analyzed worldwide [...]

Small-scale providers: success story highlights the need for cheap and accessible financing, Philippines

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:02:41 GMT

Elsa D. Mejia is General Manager of the Inpart Waterworks and Development Company (IWADCO), a family enterprise that started as a small construction company specializing in the production of water tanks for small towns and municipalities in and around Metro Manila, Philippines. During the 1990s, IWADCO (then known as Inpart Engineering) invested US$350,000 over a 5-year [...]

Food & Water Watch releases Biwater brief

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:59:57 GMT

US consumer and anti-water privatisation activist group, Food & Water Watch, has released a new brief on water multinational Biwater in its corporate profile series. This brief details the “failures” of Biwater’s global activity, giving particular reference to the recent Initial Public Offering (IPO) of their Cascal subsidiary. It provides a summary of Biwater’s [...]

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Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:02:33 GMT

Water Financing and Governance [report]

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:38:09 GMT

Rees, J.A., Winpenny, J. and Hall, A.W (2008). Water financing and governance. (TEC background papers ; no. 12). Stockholm, Sweden, Global Water Partnership. 56 p. ISBN: 978-91-58321-70-4 Download here Traditionally, within the water sector, financing issues have not had a high profile and are mostly related to supply side investments. This is no longer sufficient as population growth, [...]

Dominican Republic: Indrhi signs agreement with Conagua (Mexico) to create national water law

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:21:18 GMT

The Dominican Republic’s national water resources institute (Indrhi) has signed a cooperation agreement with Mexican water authority Conagua to create the legal and institutional structure necessary to establish a national water law. Indrhi executive director H?ctor Rodr?guez Pimentel has visited Brazil and Mexico in search of experience and support for the establishment of his country’s water [...]

Peru: Legislators okay outsourcing of responsibilities of national sanitation authority, Sunass

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:33:42 GMT

The Peruvian congress’ consumer defense committee has approved the outsourcing of national sanitation authority Sunass‘ responsibilities for the supervision and control of water utilities. According to an analysis carried out by the committee, a team of only six specialists currently supervises 50 water utilities operating across the nation, many of which handle potable water and sanitation [...]

Nigeria: FCT Draft Water Policy to Be Presented to Nass

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:27:08 GMT

“The Director of FCT Water Board, Engineer Jibril Ibrahim has said the FCT draft water policy and bill will soon be presented to the National Assembly for consideration. [...] Engineer Ibrahim said the policy done in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) is meant to provide FCT water Board with a new mandate, autonomy, improved [...]

Annual Global Development Awards and Medals Competition - 2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:41:29 GMT

The Global Development Network is now accepting submissions for its annual competition for development research proposals/papers and development projects. The finalists win cash prizes and a round-trip air fare with all boarding and lodging expenses paid to travel to a different country where the finalists present their proposals/papers and showcase an interesting project on any development [...]

Web Based Training: Sector Governance in Urban Sanitation, 29 Sept - 30 Nov 2008

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:04:11 GMT

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) InWEnt Capac

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Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:02:33 GMT

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Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:13:47 GMT

Transparency International and Water Integrity Network (2008). Global corruption report 2008: corruption in the water sector. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. xxix, 367 p. ISBN 978-0-521-72795-2 Download by chapter Also available in Spanish and French Information on ordering hardcopies is available here In its thematic section, the report demonstrates that corruption is a cause and catalyst for the global [...]

1st Ordinary Congress of the United Cities & Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), Accra, Ghana, 7-11 July 2008

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:29:25 GMT

Theme: Leadership for Local Governance, Development and the Delivery of MDGs in Africa Sub-themes include: Innovative practices in the provision of basic services at the local level The MDGs in Africa One of the Special Workshops will be on the UCLGA/WISA Water Programme. UCLGA and the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA), signed an MOU for a five year partnership [...]

Mali: Support for the decentralisation of hydraulics management in the region of Gao (PADH) [video]

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:49:43 GMT

This video [in French] titled “L’eau en mode decentralise”, presents the activities of the project “Support for the decentralisation of hydraulics management in the region of Gao (PADH)”, implemented by Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) in northern Mali. Gao, in the North of Mali, is located in a semi-desert region. The number of drinking wells is insufficient [...]

Tanzania: Norconsult exits country to avoid corruption

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:57:37 GMT

Norconsult, a prominent consultant firm in the Norwegian aid market, 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 [...]

Water Remunicipalisation Tracker

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:50:07 GMT

This new website, launched on Thursday 12 June, reveals how more and more water services are returning to public management, with news that water in the city of Paris will be returned to public control by 2009. The site will track the “remunicipalisation” of cities, regions and entire countries around the world, providing case studies from [...]

Southern Africa: Local Government and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) set of materials

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:57:52 GMT

The set of materials entitled ?Local Government and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)? aims to assist Local Governments with active participation in IWRM. The information provided addresses both the theory and practice of developing and implementing a process through which the IWRM principles of social equity, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability can be applied. The materials [...]

IDB showcases water and sanitation providers from Latin America at Expo Zaragoza

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:38:23 GMT

To highlight successful solutions to the water and sanitation problems facing low-income communities in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter-American Development Bank will sponsor eight participants to Expo Zaragoza 2008.? Case studies of water and sanitation initiatives in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras and Uruguay will be presented. The Bank has also commissioned [...]

Strengthening the Regulatory Framework for Water Supply and Sanitation in Sri Lanka

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:54:17 GMT

As part of its program, the Government of Sri Lanka embarked in 2001-2002 in the preparation of a series of sector reforms to improve its capacity to provide for new investments and improve the operation and maintenance of existing ones. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided technical assistance (TA) to: (i) developing adequate legislation and guidelines to [...]

South Africa: Minister to Take Over Municipal Water Supply, Country Shocked by Infant Deaths

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:58:00 GMT

The government plans to step in where councils have failed to provide safe drinking water said Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks during her budget vote debate in Parliament on 23 May 2008. The decision was sparked by recent events including the deaths of babies who allegedly drank contaminated tap water in the Eastern Cape [...]

Peru: New water authority to have 14 nationwide offices

Mon, 19 May 2008 09:36:08 GMT

Peru’s new water authority ANA (Autoridad Nacional del Agua) will have 14 decentralised branches around the country, said Carlos Pagador, head of water resources at the natural resources institute, INRENA (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales). He added that authorities are currently designing the organization and functions of the new entity, which should be ready by [...]

Local governance: the critical challenges facing urban municipalities in India

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:49:50 GMT

A paper from the Asia Research Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK examines recent urban sector reforms and their implications for urban governance in India. Data was obtained on key local government characteristics for six urban centres based in the northern and north-western states of Haryana, Rajasthan and [...]

Colombia: more than 800 municipalities risk losing access to water funding

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:16:44 GMT

Almost 80% of Colombia’s municipalities risk losing their participation in the Sistema General de Participaciones (SGP), or general revenue sharing system, according to Colombia’s public services regulator Superservicios. This is because they have either not transferred resources to the solidarity and income redistribution fund (FSRI) or they have failed to submit reports to the national [...]

Brazil: new proposal seeks to assign joint responsibility for water and sanitation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:45:00 GMT

Since 1998, Brazil’s supreme court has been discussing whether the state or city governments are responsible for urban water and sanitation. The future president of the supreme court, Gilmar Mendes, thinks he has the answer. He proposes that state governments should be given a 24-month deadline to design a joint sanitation plan with city [...]

Introducing participatory budgeting for better service delivery and transparency in Africa

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:36:35 GMT

Senior officials representing governments, local authorities and NGOs from 29 African countries gathered from 10-14 March 2008 in Durban, South Africa, for the first Africa Regional Seminar on Participatory Budgeting ? participatory budgeting (PB) is a system that gives the public a say and an eye on how municipal funds are spent. From an experimental [...]

Chinese study questions water investments by foreigners

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:30:34 GMT

BEIJING ? A Chinese government study on foreign investment in its water industry says that some foreign companies get too much, for much too long, and sometimes promise more than is delivered or even needed, said a February 19 news summary on the Web site of the American Chamber of Commerce of the People?s Republic [...]

Ecuador, Guayaquil: campaign ?Don?t Let History Repeat Itself? aimed at Bechtel

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:00:33 GMT

Activist NGO Food and Water Watch has launched a campaign? to force Bechtel to pay all debts and fulfill its contractual obligations before selling off it concession for the management of Guayaquil city’s water supply service. Bechtel was involved in the failed privatisation of Cochabamba’s water supply in Bolivia which lead to the infamous “Water [...]

India: Engaging With Citizens to Improve Water and Sanitation

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:42:33 GMT

Thursday, January 24, 2008 Engaging with citizens results in service improvements, enhanced efficiency and greater public goodwill, a number of forward-looking Indian public service providers are discovering. A new publication, Engaging with Citizens to Improve Services, published by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) examines 10 initiatives designed to improve service, extend coverage and make public service [...]

Google.org launches ?Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services? initiative, focus on India & East Africa

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:34:10 GMT

On 17 January 2008, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, announced five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. The announcement included US$ 25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners. One of the five core Google.org initiatives is “Inform and Empower to [...]

A French Water Company?s Cautionary Tale in China

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:50:51 GMT

Suez Group, a global player in water treatment projects, is shying away from China’s impoverished northeast after a joint venture in Siping turned bad. Promises to buy a fixed amount of water every year and to close down the city’s illegal wells were not kept. Nevertheless, Suez is reluctant to take legal action because this [...]