WaterWired

5WWF Report 9: Some Reflections

I've been working on this post for several days; time to get this thing done.

For the first time in many months I checked my email last Tuesday morning without dreading 10, 15, or more emails about the various sessions in which I was involved at the Fifth World Water Forum. 

It was relief, but also a letdown - not unlike my return from the OU WaTER Symposium last fall.

So it's time to reflect. Was it worth it? I'll give my impressions in my inimitable stream-of-consciousness style.

5WWF vs. 3WWF
I did not 'get around' as much as I did in Kyoto, where I had fewer responsibilities. I remember going to a great session in Kyoto that was more an open-microphone session for community groups. I really enjoyed it. If there was such a session in Istanbul I missed it.

5WWF struck me as far greener than3WWF, the only other WWF I attended. At Kyoto I remember being appalled at the amount of paper being distributed by corporations, governments, and especially NGOs, some of which had reputations for being very green. And since a lot of the paper was the heavyweight glossy stuff, it must have made quite a carbon footprint. At 5WWF, there was some of that, but not nearly the amount and the high quality. Lots of material was being distributed via CDs or DVDs, or the occasional flash drive. The Turkish organizers included a 1 or 2 GB flash drive with each bookbag, with lots of stuff (programs, etc.) on the drive. Great idea.

But an argument could be made about how green it was to assemble 33,000 people (so much for the economic meltdown!) from around the globe for up to 7 days. One group had a great display of the amount of GHGs emitted flying to Istanbul from a variety of places. Definitely not a pretty sight.

5WWF as a Trade Show
Some criticized the 5WWF for being a 'trade show'. Well, it was, and not just corporations were hawking their wares, but governments and NGOs, too. So? Some of the stuff distributed/promoted was pretty nifty; some was the SOS. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans were well represented - not just the governments, but private firms (such as they are in China) as well. The Euros were out in force. Yeah, the good ol' USA was present and accounted for.

Ground Water Arrives!
It was good to see ground water start to get its due at 5WWF. Previous WWFs had all but ignored this aspect of the hydrological cycle. [Note: See this post and comments by Daniel Collins and me for some reasons why this was so.]  At one session, questions directed towards the panelists were about 90% on ground water. One of my fellow panel members passed me a note inquiring if I had packed the audience (I had not). 

I am certain that the attention given to ground water will again manifest itself at 6WWF (Durban, I hope!). But I don't necessarily want to see a bunch of separate sessions on ground water. That would be self-defeating, and a return to the days when the hydrological cycle was compartmentalized. Insofar as possible, I want to see ground water fully integrated into a variety topics.

IUCN
I encountered IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The IUCN was a revelation for me, much like my discovery of OSCE in 2002. IUCN deserves a lot of credit for getting ground water a bigger role at the 5WWF. The two co-convenors of my session, A Hidden Resource: Sustainably Managing Groundwater for the Future, Katharine Cross and Peter Laban, were from IUCN - Katharine in the Geneva headquarters and Peter in Amman, Jordan. I also met Rocio Córdoba from IUCN's Costa Rica office and Hamza Sadiki from Tanzania. All four were quite impressive, and I hope to work with them and IUCN again soon.

Old and New Friends
Some question the utility of "water megaconferences". Are they worth it? In this time of global warming, do we really need something like the World Water Forum? I say "Yes!" For me, the 5WWF was about networking and the serendipity that accompanies it.  It was great seeing long-time colleagues/friends like Bill Alley, Alice Aureli, Shammy Puri, and Ramón Llamas. It was great meeting Stefano Burchi and Jorge Rucks after hearing about them lo these many years. And meeting new friends - that's the icing on the cake. 

I especially want to acknowledge and thank Ahmet Sargin of DSI, with whom I worked very closely. Wonderful man.

Suggested 6WWF Sessions
I envision sessions on:

• Case studies of IWRM in ground water dominated basins
• Applications of IWRM to systems with aquifers underlying multiple surface water basins
• Improving IWRM to better consider ground water reservoirs
• Effects of climate change on ground water reservoirs
• Transboundary surface water - ground water basins
• Ground water reservoirs as storage systems
• Role of small, hydrophilanthropic organizations in alleviating the world's water and sanitation issues

I am sure you can think of more.

Final Thoughts
I was very disappointed that the Ministerial Statement did not recognize a human right to water. It did recognize that water was a 'basic need.' Pretty profound, guys.

I worry that the world's economic troubles will encourage countries to turn (further) inward and be less accommodating to their neighbors. Perhaps conflict over water could result. A greater likelihood is that developed countries will reduce the aid they provide to developing countries. I heard an African say that to reach the water, sanitation, and hygiene Millennium Development Goals by 2015 requires $34.5B per year. That is not a lot of money - really. Will we step up? Or will 2015 arrive indistinguishable from the present?

However, the world's economic woes could provide a catalyst for rethinking the way we do things. We humans seem to respond better to crises; perhaps some good can come out of all this in terms of the way we manage water and address water issues.

May the year 2012 bring some real good news in Durban. I'm optimistic.

“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Bingaman (D-NM) - Murkowski (R-AK) Bill Tackles the Energy-Water Nexus

Ahhh....the energy-water nexus! Haven't we heard that before? Well, it's still here.

Leslie Kryder sent me this information about a bill being introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK),  the ranking Republican.

The bill is S. 531, the Energy and Water Integration Act of 2009, and it seeks to obtain a better understanding of the relationship and interdependence between energy and water.

Here is the blurb that I was sent:

“The bill Sen. Murkowski and I introduced is a necessary first step in the
direction of integrating America’s energy and water policies,” Bingaman
said.  “Developing new policies that integrate energy and water solutions
will become increasingly vital as populations grow, environmental needs
increase and a changing climate continues to affect our nation’s energy
and water resources.”

“Energy and water resources are essential to our nation’s future and
security,” Murkowski said. “This bill provides an opportunity to identify
the major areas we should be focusing on to better understand the
interdependency between water and energy development, as well
mechanisms that could further our investment into technology to more
efficiently use these systems that are so important in our daily lives.”

A tremendous amount of water is used in this country to produce energy.
 Similarly, a tremendous amount of energy is consumed in the delivery and
treatment of water supplies.  With the exception of certain renewable
energy sources, building more power plants and creating new fuels will
impact scarce water resources.  Similarly, increasing demand for water
will drive up energy use.  The linkage between the two is too often overlooked.

The Energy and Water Integration Act of 2009 contains the following:

1) National Academy Energy-Water Study– Requires a study to assess
water use associated with developing fuels in the transportation sector,
and the water consumed in different types of electricity-generation.

2) Power Plant Water and Energy Efficiency– directs DOE to
identify best available technologies and other strategiesmaximize water
and energy efficiency in producing electricity.

3) Reclamation Water Conservation & Energy Savings Study– directs
the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to evaluate energy use in storing and
delivering water from Reclamation projects, and identify ways to reduce
such use through conservation, improved operations, and renewable
energy integration.

4) BOR Brackish Groundwater Desalination Facility– Organic
legislation to establish research priorities for this existing Facility,
including renewable energy integration with desalination technologies.

5) EIA Energy Use for Water Assessment– a requirement for Energy
Information Administration to continually report on the energy consumed
in water treatment and delivery activities.

6) Energy-Water Roadmap– directs the Secretary of Energy to
develop an Energy-Water Research and Development Roadmap to address
water-related challenges to sustainable energy generation and production.

Here is the statement of Carl O. Bauer, Director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory:

Download Bauer NETL Testimony 031009

Hey, didn't we do the roadmap thing a few years ago? The NAS study is a good idea. We'll see about the other items.

'The trouble with roadmaps is that they're usually left in the glove compartment." -- Unknown

5WWF Report 8: More Ground Water Presentations - China and Tanzania

Here are two ground water management presentations from an IUCN side event.

One deals with Water User Associations (WUAs) in northern China (Catherine Watts and Simon Howarth) and the other with ground water management in the Pangani Basin of Tanzania (Hamza Sadiki).

Download GW Management - WUAs in China

Download GW Management in Pangani Basin, Tanzania

Enjoy!

"An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea." -- Turkish proverb 

A Good Man Dies Far Too Soon: Mickey Sampson, 43

Friend and colleague Dave Sabatini of the University of Oklahoma's WaTER Center sent me a notice about Michael "Mickey" Sampson's recent death from a heart attack in Thailand, where he was being treated for heart problems. 

Dave was a good friend of Sampson's. I did not know Mickey, but had learned of his work through Dave.

Sampson, 43, was founder and director of Resources Development International-Cambodia (RDIC). He is survived by his wife Wendi and their five children.

I had posted on Sampson's work just a few months ago.

Here is the RDIC memorial announcement and press release:

Resource Development International-Cambodia is grieved to report the death of Michael Lynn (“Mickey”) Sampson, RDIC Founder and Country Director.

Sampson, 43, had been experiencing health problems. He flew March 18 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to Bangkok, Thailand, for evaluation by a specialist.  His untimely death occurred in the early morning of March 19.  His body was found at the Bangkok house where he was staying.  An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a heart attack.

Arrangements are being made for returning Dr. Sampson’s body to Cambodia for funeral services. He is survived by parents Jimmy and Diane Sampson, one brother James Sampson, his wife, Wendi, and their children, Michal, Madelyn, Isaiah, Zach, and Datelyn, their Khmai daughter. 

Resource Development International-Cambodia would not exist without Mickey Sampson’s vision, dedication, and devotion. He lived and worked in Cambodia with his family since 1998, concentrating most of his efforts on improving drinking water and sanitation for the Cambodian people. One in twelve Cambodian children dies before age 5, primarily from diarrheal disease due to contaminated water.

A native of Louisville, KY, Sampson received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Louisville and taught as an assistant professor of chemistry with the University of Kentucky college system.

He first saw the struggle of Cambodians for clean water in the 1990s while teaching chemistry in Cambodia during a sabbatical year from the University of Kentucky.

One day his wife called Mickey into their bathroom in Cambodia while she was giving their children a bath. The water was only three inches deep, but it was so murky she couldn't see the bottom of the bathtub.

“She said, ‘You know, you're a chemist. Can't you do something about this?’”   He told a reporter years later, "It was a turning point in my life."  Many others also told Mickey that he should use his skills for helping with the water needs of the poor.

The Sampsons moved to Cambodia permanently in 1998. He worked with other non-governmental organizations to improve water quality. Eventually, however, he started Resource Development International-Cambodia to address Cambodia’s health and development problems in holistic ways. The organization provides education, water testing, water filtration systems, and construction, among other community-development initiatives.

Under Sampson’s leadership, RDIC established a ceramic water filter manufacture and distribution system (manufacturing 25,000 filters in 2008), produced a Cambodian television series for children to promote literacy and healthy living, and worked extensively to alert Cambodians to the risks of drinking arsenic-laden groundwater. RDIC also has developed and implemented agricultural, water, health and educational programs in villages throughout Cambodia.

Mickey believed Cambodian communities would not be transformed for the better without behavioral changes on all levels. The results have shown his methods worked. After two years of using RDIC’s water filtration pots, participating Cambodians were 49 percent less likely to have diarrheal disease than their neighbors without the filters.

Sampson co-authored a number of publications and supported research in partnership with international universities through RDIC's water research laboratory. He also was a member of the technical working group for the Cambodian government concerning how to address the UN’s “Millennium Target” to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

Mickey was widely known and respected in the international development and academic communities. His work with RDIC has been highlighted by a number of news and media outlets. National Public Radio (NPR) featured his creative campaign to educate Cambodians about unsafe drinking water via karaoke videos in a Jan. 27 profile: Karaoke Videos Teach Safe Water Techniques : NPR.

Friends say "Mickey's faith made him compassionate for the peoples he loved and deeply cared. Countless lives have been touched by this expression of love in their lives."

Mickey Sampson will be mourned and deeply missed by his many friends and colleagues, his family – and the thousands of Cambodians who now live healthy lives because of his work.

I have a pretty good idea where Mickey is right now. I have an even better idea of what he is doing: providing a glass of clean drinking water to someone far less fortunate than he.

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality"
-- Emily Dickinson

5WWF Report 7: Heading Home; World Water Week Events at CSIS

As you read this I will probably be heading west back across the pond to SFO. or waiting in the Frankfurt airport to do so. I write this about 2030 Istanbul time on 22 March, waiting to head to the airport in six or seven hours for a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. At least the traffic won't be bad.

I'll post at least once more on 5WWF. I need some reflection time. But I can safely say that I got far more out of this Forum than the one in Kyoto in 2003. That is not a comment on the quality of 3WWF; I was just far more plugged in here than I was there, thanks to Ken Reid of AWRA. I was also less self-conscious and unwilling to take a low profile. As I said earlier, it's about making connections - seeing old friends and meeting new ones, comparing notes, learning, listening.

I enjoyed Saturday night at the Hilton Istanbul, where South Africa hosted a wonderful dinner party. Durban, on South Africa's east coast, is one of two contenders for the 2012 6WWF (Marseilles is the other one). My vote (which I don't have) is for Durban, even before the free food. It would send a wonderful message to the world; southern Africa has never hosted one of these, and Europe hosted 2WWF. The decision will be made in June.

Rumor has it that the Marseilles application was submitted incorrectly. Coincidentally, that city is the home of the World Water Council.

Bari, Italy, was promoting itself as the host for the 2015 WWF. It is on the Adriatic Sea, just above the "heel" of the boot. I sense that is a long shot.

Whoever gets the next WWF needs to work on the bags. I don't expect a Pierre Cardin leather piece that I got at a 2002 conference in Dubai, but the bag I got in Istanbul failed in two days - ultra-cheap zippers. And the water bottle that came with it could have knocked out a camel with the 'fragrance" wafting from it.

I neglected to mention that I attended a great session - SRO in a small room - on climate change and water resources in the Caucasus and Central Asia. I asked a question to which I knew the answer: are you studying and considering ground water resources? I missed the response from one of the panelists because I had to doff my earphones and talk to a succession of five people who shook my hand and thanked me for asking the question and told me that the answer is "No!" I later learned that one of the panelists answered by saying (in Russian): "We can't even agree on things we see!" Well said.

Heard by a colleague after he watched the movie,The Water Front, about Highland Park, MI: "My God! It was like the Third World!"

Rachel Posner of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) sent me the following information a few days ago. Since it deals with things about which I feel strongly - that of bringing clean water and sanitation to the world's less fortunate and increasing the USA's role on the world water stage - I thought her information was defiinitely worth posting.

On Tuesday, 17 March 2009, the CSIS hosted an event on Capitol Hill where Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) announced the introduction of his Water for the World Act, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). The bill aims to provide 100 million people around the world with sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015 by helping to implement the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005. Further information about the event (including a copy of Durbin’s prepared remarks) is available here.

Last week the Center launched a Declaration on U.S. Policy and the Global Challenge of Water, which is co-chaired by former Senator Bill Frist and Neville Isdell (Chairman of The Coca-Cola Company). The Declaration—which is endorsed by 37 major figures from across the public and private sector—calls for the United States to play a stronger role in addressing water as one of the most important, "strategic" challenges of our time. Here is more information about the event.

"It is not disgraceful to ask, it is disgraceful not to ask." -- Turkish proverb