WaterWired

WaSH and Hydrophilanthropy Special From John Sauer

John Sauer, Communications Director of  of Water Advocates, just sent this around; I received it from Robert Adamski:

 

I thought you might be interested in these stories this week surrounding the first High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, a global partnership aimed at achieving universal and sustainable access to sanitation and drinking-water for all. The first item is my latest Huffington Post blog. The activities this week included the release of the 2010 GLAAS report – the UN’s annual assessment of the sanitation and drinking water sector.

Please check out these stories and share them with your networks. Also please retweet and post comments.

Why US Philanthropists Should Care About Sanitation and Water

Water, Sanitation Funding Decline as Share Of Overall Development Aid, WHO Report Finds

 Opinion: Toilets are not glamorous but they are necessary

Sanitation for all - but not for another 300 years

Good stuff, but not necessarily all good news.

"Under certain circumstances a wanted poster is a letter of recommendation." -- Wieslaw Brudzinski

Micropollutants Clearinghouse Unveiled by Texas Tech Center for Water Law and Policy

Friend and colleague Gabriel Eckstein just sent me an email about a new WWW site he's developed, the Micropollutants Clearinghouse. It is a project of the Texas Tech Center for Water Law and Policy, which Professor Eckstein directs.

From the homepage:

The purpose of the Micropollutants Clearinghouse Project is to provide an on-line, publically accessible, research resource on the legal, regulatory, institutional, policy, and related scientific aspects of micropollutants in fresh water systems. It is designed as a dynamic and robust database of documents, reports, information, analyses, articles, and other materials that:

1. relate to micropollutants -- such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, and personal care products -- that affect fresh water quality;
2. address existing, proposed, and alternative legal, regulatory, and institutional mechanisms for dealing with water quality issues;
3. present the scientific underpinning for existing, proposed, and alternative legal, regulatory, and institutional mechanisms for dealing with water quality issues; and
4. address related decision-making mechanisms or processes.

The long-term objective of the Micropollutants Clearinghouse project is to continue building on the existing knowledge of information and to expand the contents available in the Clearinghouse on this important topic. This is critical for developing and evaluating water laws, regulatory actions, and policies relevant to the presence and effects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.

The expected audience that may be interested in and should benefit from the Micropollutants Clearinghouse include the general public, academic and industry researchers, legislators and legislatures, government agencies at all levels of civil society, and stakeholders involved in various decision-making scenarios related to micropollutants in fresh water systems. It should prove especially useful for individuals and groups involved in the development and implementation of water laws, regulations, and policies throughout the United States and internationally.

The Micropollutants Clearinghouse was developed as part of a Study Grant provided through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that was designed to undertake three distinct but interdependent components.

• Project 1 involved the development of this database as an on-line, publically accessible, research resource on the legal, regulatory, institutional, policy, and related scientific aspects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.
• Project 2 entailed a field study in Lubbock, TX that focused on improving our understanding of the fate, transport, and presence of mixtures of micropollutants in the environment.
• Project 3 involved analyzing existing and alternative legal and regulatory strategies for addressing the presence and effects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.

As the outcomes and work-product of Projects 2 and 3 are finalized, they also will be presented on this website.

In order to achieve this objective and to provide visitors to the Clearinghouse with an updated and productive experience, we ask that anyone identifying material that is missing from or that otherwise should be included in the database, please kindly submit this information to us (see Contact Us  page).

This looks like an incredibly valuable resource.

"When water chokes you, what are you to drink to wash it down?"-- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 384-322 BCE

The Way to Develop A State Water Plan: Oklahoma Does It Right

I've seen the way a state water plan should be developed, and it's in Oklahoma. As their license plate once said, 'Oklahoma is OK."

I'm in Norman, OK, where I  keynoted the Oklahoma Water Town Hall last night. The Town Hall is being run by the Oklahoma Academy, a nonpartisan organization that is acting as an honest broker in this phase of the planning process. The Town Hall will provide recommendations to the state to consider in its plan, which will then go to the public and then the legislature.

Here is a copy of my Power Point:

Download OK_Town_Hall_Campana_23_May_2010

It's a remarkable process, especially when you consider that almost 90 meetings around the state preceded the Town Hall.

I want to give a shout-out to Will Focht (Director), Mike Langston (Assistant Director) and Jeri Fleming (Communications Manager) of the Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute (OWRRI) at Oklahoma State University, who did the heavy lifiing with all those meetings. And the same to Julie Knutson, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Academy for her organization of the Town Hall.

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board deserves a great deal of credit for providing much of the funding, but then stepping back to let others do the 'listening' to Oklahoma's citizens. The OWRB knew that it would be a far better approach to employ honest brokers without the OWRB's baggage. 

Had a great, but all too brief, visit. Wonderful hospitality and WaterWonks everywhere!

The planning process? Take a look for yourself.

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." -- Unknown

Jim Thebaut and Erik Webb: A Water Strategy for the United States

Friend and colleague Erik Webb of Sandia National Laboratories, one of the smartest water and energy guys in the room, recently sent me a document that he and Jim Thebaut wrote over a year ago. I posted  an 'Op-Ed' version of this in January 2009 but never the entire document. Here it is, with the abstract below.

Download A_Water_Strategy_for_the_United_States_D6

Abstract

The world faces a serious water crisis. The United States faces water stress and potential water disasters.

The only hope we have of establishing effective and to the degree possible unified water policies is to develop a set of goals and principles for water management to which we progressively conform our policies and actions.  The U.S. statement of goals and principles that underpin our international policies are more coherent than are the principles underpinning our domestic policies.

Guiding goals and principles for domestic water management should be developed with an eye to our stated international principles.  These principles include:

• Understand the Status and Trends in Water Resources
• Expand Partnerships and Coordination Across Federal, State, Local and Native American Government Organizations
• Continue Federal Investment in Water Infrastructure
• Connect Water Quantity, Water Quality and Environmental Land Use Planning 
• Seek Sustainable Development – Bridge the Gap Between Public Good and Private Rights
• Seek to Expand Supplies
• Provide a Strong Scientific Base for Water Management Decisions
• Value Water Resources Appropriately
• Value Ecosystems and Their Human Benefits

The progressive application of these principles will require coordination of policy development and implementation of programs across Federal agencies.  The now defunct National Water Council provides an interesting example of how our nation approached these same problems 50 years ago and may hold clues to how we should proceed in the future.

Enjoy!

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people." -- Chinese proverb

Seven Myths of the Rural Water Supply Sector

This little publication was sent to me by Trisha Freeman of NGWA. It is from the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) out of Swittzerland.

If you want to provide feedback, please email Kerstin Danert ([email protected]), the author.

Download Final Myths 2 2009

Enjoy!

"She who knows others is wise. She who knows herself is enlightened." -- Unknown