Hydrophilanthropy Special Session at the AWRA Annual Conference

         Let me put in a plug for a conference related to hydrophilanthropy.

   

     At this year’s American Water Resources Association (www.awra.org) Annual Water Resources Conference, Dave Sabatini ([email protected]) of the University of Oklahoma and I will convene a special session on hydrophilanthropy. To our knowledge, no AWRA conference has ever hosted such a session and we want to make this not only a memorable session but also a model for future AWRA conferences. The conference will be in Albuquerque, NM, November 12-15, 2007, at the Embassy Suites Hotel.

      For the purposes of this session, we define hydrophilanthropy as those activities designed to: 1) improve access to potable water, health, and sanitation for people in developing countries or poor areas in developed countries; 2) empower poor communities to solve their own water, health, sanitation, and related economic problems; 3) assist developing countries in building water resources capacity by training students, professionals, and lay persons in water and related health and sanitation issues; 4) employ water as a mechanism to foster peace, conflict management, and cooperation; and 5) train students, professionals, and lay persons from developed countries to improve the lives of “those less fortunate” through water and water-related projects. Implicit in the concept of hydrophilanthropy is that the work is done for little or no personal financial gain.

     We seek abstracts and posters on topics consistent with the aforementioned definition of hydrophilanthropy. We encourage individuals from a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals to present: PVOs (private voluntary organizations, both faith-based and secular); NGOs (non-governmental organizations); donors; private industry; academic institutions; US governmental organizations (USAID, et al.); and foreign organizations (UN, EU, OSCE, CIDA, SIDA, DFID, et al.).

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

·          Project case studies, including lessons learned from unsuccessful efforts

·          “Dos and Don’ts” of working in developing countries

·          Recruitment and training of volunteers

·          Fundraising and consciousness-raising

·          Training of aid recipients

·          Courses centered on hydrophilanthropic projects

·          How to get involved

    To submit an abstract, go to www.awra.org/meetings/New_Mexico2007/abstracts.html and follow the instructions. On the submittal form, please enter “A” in the Special Session code section so the abstract will be routed to our session. Note that there is a $25 fee for abstract submittal and all presenters must pay the conference registration fee. Please let us know you are submitting an abstract, and contact Michael E. Campana ([email protected]) should you have any questions. Abstracts are due May 14, 2007.

      I have attached a pdf of the announcement.  Download awra_2007_hydrophilanthropy_session.pdf

     Also - at the upcoming Ground Water Summit (Albuquerque, April 29 - May 3, 2007) Dave Sabatini and Vic Heilweil of the USGS will be convening a session on Ground Water In Developing Countries and yours truly will be doing the same for The Many Facets of Transboundary Ground Water. For information, visit

www.ngwa.org/e/conf/0704295095.cfm.

"Beyond mountains there are mountains." -- Haitian proverb

Comments

[Sumant]

If you haven't done so already, you should probably send out an email to the hydro group of AWRA ([email protected]) about this.