Water Day - 22 March 2006
What happened since the last World Water
Day in water research and its use to advance understanding and developing
solutions to problems? What conditions impact? What is planned in 2006?
of making research more directly useful to citizens through improving
communication and engagement (
883 KB). This year’s motto for World Water Day is ‘Water
and Culture’ .
- Water and Culture
- EU Member States set up an ERA-NET on
international water research in developing countries
- New research in support of the water-related
Millennium Development Goals
- Independent review panel recommends multi-stakeholder
approach to IWRM
- Europe engages with partners
in other parts of the world in search of robust solutions to water
Additional information on the general
web portal of the EU Water Initiative, the EU's Water for
Life scientific research site and also at UNESCO's Water Portal.
Water and Culture – the Motto in 2006
This year’s emphasis on Water and Culture brings home the essential
message that water means many different things to different people.
To some, particularly the most vulnerable, it is foremost a human right,
as also affirmed by UN bodies. To some others, it is a sacred good deeply
embedded in their belief systems.
To scientists, it may be an exciting
object of their most inspiring investigations as they try to unravel
the secrets of life and edge forward in understanding of ecosystems
and how human societies relate to nature and its goods. To the economists
it is also an economic good that in times of increasing scarcity we
need to pay a fair price for. Politicians might also explore how such
a price can be distributed fairly among different groups in society.
Water structures have shaped human societies
for millennia. The Chinese and Roman empires had some of their defining
moments from water management. The Water Atlas by Pietro Laureano, published
a few months ago by UNESCO, documents these traditions in many parts
of the worlds, particularly where water is scarce. These traditional
approaches and techniques arising from those needs can be classified
and hold many lessons for today. A global web archive is being developed
to document, preserve and modernize the associated traditional knowledge
and practices in ways that are socio-economically viable: www.tkwb.org
(traditional knowledge world bank).
Under profoundly changing socio-economic
conditions, with now 6 billion humans on this planet, widely degraded
ecosystems and evolving needs and aspirations, many of these once effective
techniques require scientific study and judicious innovation to continue
delivering sustainable benefits to today’s societies and people.
Research is proving its worth in making this happen. Just one example:
SHADUF - Traditional water techniques:
Cultural heritage for a sustainable future
Ancient practices of water harvesting,
catchment and distribution had guaranteed for years water supplying
to the countries and the towns all over the Mediterranean. They were
rooted in society and the environment, thus becoming as a part of the
local knowledge able to create the identity and the harmonious management
of landscape. An variety of water systems, such as the foggaras, the
qanats, the khattaras - drainage tunnels -, the shadufs - wells with
a balance bar, the filter cisterns, the terracing, die drainages, the
stone barrows, the harvesting soils and the diversion dikes, shaped
in time the Mediterranean landscape, thus acting on its functionality
and on its beauty as well. Current risks of water shortage, desertification
and degradation of soils from global warming, the increase of demography
and urbanisation and the agricultural industrialisation are high. Studying,
innovating and reusing the traditional water systems is a fundamental
contribution to the water resource management based on local sustainability
and also the recovery of aesthetical values of the monuments which are
a further resource for people, but need adaptation to a changing socio-economic
context to be fully successful. Duration: three years, budget €1.11
EU Member States
set up an ERA-NET on international water research in developing countries
The pilot phase of a European Research
Area (ERA)-Net coordination of EU Member States research activities
on all aspects of water supply and sanitation in developing countries
got underway in 2005. This ERA-Net is developing under the coordination
of DFID (UK).
The strategic objectives of the EUWI-ERA-NET
- To improve the effectiveness of EU member state funded research
on water for development, through better communication and coordination
of research activities, and thus contribute to achieving the Millennium
- To provide global leadership in the OECD-DAC coordinated efforts
to increase harmonization and alignment of donor actions with developing
- To facilitate the transfer of knowledge from research in support
of the EU Water Initiative (EUWI).
- To improve synergies between Member State water research programmes
and the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development.
The EUWI-ERA-NET is a consortium of so far 14 ministries,
funding agencies and national RTD authorities from 11 European countries.
EUWI-ERA-NET will work with other ERA-NET’s in
related fields. The EUWI-ERA-NET is one building block in the process
of preparing the Art 169 action focusing upon of research on infrastructure
(water, energy, transport) in international development. The EUWI-ERA-NET
will also complement the activities of the Water Supply and Sanitation
Technology Platform (WSSTP) in working with industry towards delivery
of the MDG’s.
Project Web site : www.euwi-era.net
New research in
support of the water-related Millennium Development Goals
Within the 6th Research Framework Programme,
continued attention was focused on the water-related Millennium Development
Goals as amended at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) in 2002. The sobering five-year
assessment report of the United Nations (2005)1 is food
- Progress has been made in ensuring sustainable access to safe drinking
water in most parts of the world since 1990. However, people in rural
areas and particularly also the rapidly growing numbers of urban slum
dwellers are the groups with least access.
- Access to sanitation remains the biggest challenge. Sanitation
coverage in the developing world role from 34% in 1990 to 49% in 2002.
If present trends continue, however, close to 2.4 billion people worldwide
will still be without improved sanitation in 2015, that is, almost
as many as there are today. Sanitation problems are most critical
in urban slums, where little progress has been achieved and growth
in numbers of slum dwellers outpaces improvements of urban habitats.
- Numbers of slum dwellers in 2001 were highest in Southern Asia
(253 million), Eastern Asia (194 million), Sub-Saharan Africa (166
million) and Latin America and the Caribbean (128 million).
- Waste and associated contamination and pollution problems are a
growing risk to improvements in water supply.
- Strengthening protection against forced evictions, access to credit
and other flanking measures are among the demonstrated methods to
encourage residents to invest in their home and bring about structural
- Aid is critical for the poorest countries, while middle-income
countries benefit more from trade.
Importantly, in addition to the identification of promising
approaches and conditions of success, education, research and innovation
are important create, organise and disseminate the knowledge required
to scale up workable solutions, develop new or adapt existing technologies
to changing socio-economic conditions to help deliver faster progress
on the MDGs. That also requires adopting integrated approaches to water
resources and allocation management, based on multi-stakeholder involvement
and improved communcation of results outside the scientific community
to help uptake and social innovation. Mainstreaming attention to social
roles of men and women (gendering research and implementation agendas)
is of utmost importance for effectiveness and social equity.
Recently started research projects include:
SWITCH – Sustainable Water Management
Improves Tomorrow’s Cities Health
This Integrated Project (IP) is coordinated by Unesco-IHE
Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands and will run from 1
February 2006 through 31 January 2011. Partners from Brazil, China,
Colombia, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Israel, Netherlands,
Palestinian Authority, Peru, Poland, Spain and Switzerland collaborate
to achieve the following objectives
- Development, application and demonstration of a range of tested
scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions and approaches
that contribute to the achievement of sustainble and effective urban
water management (UWM) schemes in ‘The city of the future’
(projection 30-50 years from now);
- Development of efficient and interactive urban water systems and
services at city level in the context of the city’s geographical
and ecological setting (river basin level), which are robust, flexible
and adjustable to a range of global pressures (global level).
The budget of the project is € 23 million.
GEWAMED – Mainstreaming Gender
Dimensions into Water Resources Development and Management in the Mediterranean
This INCO Coordination Action (CA) is coordinated by
the Institute for Mediterranean Agriculture in Bari (Istituto Agronomico
Mediterraneo di Bari del CIHEAM), Italy and will run for four years
until 2009. Eighteen partners from 14 countries participate from all
around the Mediterranean basin, of which five are from the EU and nine
from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. FAO’s gender programme
lends external support, as does Italy’s National Observatory for
Female Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Work (Osservatorio nazionale
per l’imprenditoria ed il lavoro femminile in agricoltura). Agriculture
is the biggest consumer of freshwater. Women account for about 60% of
the agricultural workforce, but tend to be excluded from decision making.
The purpose of the project is to
- Build up an extensive knowledge base on gender for the widest possible
sharing among stakeholders in the Mediterranean to support gender
- Build up a dynamic network of competent individuals and institutions
that is developed through 10 national multi-stakeholder workshops,
three regional conferences/discussion fora and an internet platform
for complementary support. Special emphasis is to be placed on women
in rural contexts.
The budget of the project is €1.25 million. Synergies
will be sought with other projects related to integrated water resources
management in the Mediterranean that are committed to stakeholder engagement,
such as MELIA – Mediterranean dialogue on integrated water management
(€1.5 million) – and INECO – Institutional and Economic
Instruments for Sustainable Water Management in the Mediterranean Region
(€0.74 million) – and WADI - Sustainable management of Mediterranean
coastal fresh and transitional water bodies: a socio-economic and environmental
analysis of changes and trends to enhance and sustain stakeholders benefits
(€1.82 million) - to maximise value for money. MELIA and INECO
are also CAs, WADI is a specific targeted research project.
panel recommends multi-stakeholder approach to IWRM
A newly engaged and engaging approach
to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is at the heart of recommendations
of an external expert panel2 reviewing a sample of 67 international
water research projects spreading over research framework programmes
4 to 6 (1994-2006). The panel devised a new screening methodology based
on sustainability principles and relevant theoretical work. Against
this background it examined project documentation between July and December
2005 and also collected additional information, particularly on communication
and impact through questionnaires sent to all projects. The report was
made more robust by integrating additional advice from a mirror group
of independent experts3 , who generously commented and provided
Key findings of the report are that
- The challenge is to converge the water policy and
management determined by political processes with the fundamentals
exposed by ecosystem and social science.
- Researchers working on underlying fundamentals
using ecosystem science and economics must recognise that their task
should include learning how to communicate their science
and the underlying fundamentals which their methods reveal to other
stakeholders in society.
- Governments, private sector and civil society
movements should seek to incorporate scientific results
more systematically in their deliberation and decision making processes
to reach more robust solutions.
- The partnership approach to water research and
problem solving as expressed through IWRM oriented research has been
evolving effectively in international cooperation;
- The approach to and practice of Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM) needs to evolve further to deliver the full meaning of the
defining term ‘integrated’. Integration
implies inclusion of all sustainability dimensions: environmental,
social and economic. Integration also implies inclusion
of all social actors in consultative, planning and decision
making processes related to water allocation and management. This
evolved version of IWRM could be called Constructively Engaged
Integrated Water Resources Allocation and Management.
- The focus of the EU-INCO water research has been progressively
more policy-relevant and starts to show results.
- Future investment, for example through FP7
in water management and water policy, has good potential
to increase its impact by adopting more systematically
the constructively engaged approach to IWRAM.
- Links to other policies, education, capacity building
and innovation should be systematically sought to shorten impact times.
In the international arena, links to Member States and Partners’
water-related policies, External Relations, Development Cooperation,
Trade, Enlargement, Environment etc. are of particular importance.
14 KB) was first presented to a wider public at the 4th World Water
Forum in Mexico. Review panel members participated in several sessions
sharing their results and recommendations. The key messages sont contained
in a succinct policy
A journalist accompanied the panel’s work and
produced a brochure illustrating the challenges and achievements of
integrated water resources management to a general public. The principles
are explained based on real life experience of international collaborative
research and its use ‘on the ground’. The brochure offers
highlights on opportunities afforded to citizens and organisations to
make use of research results. It is available in English, French, Portuguese
and Spanish on this website.
1) United Nations, 2005. The Millennium Development
Goals Report 2005. New York, United Nations, 48 p. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf
2) Pragya (Academician) Dipak Gyawali (Royal Nepal
Academy of Science and Technology, Nepal: Chair); Prof. John Anthony
Allan (King’s College London and SOAS, UK: Rapporteur); Prof.
Paula Antunes (New University of Lisbon, Portugal); Dr Basim Ahmed Dudeen
(Land Research Center, Jerusalem, Palestine Authority); Visiting Professor
Pietro Laureano (University of Florence and Director of IPOGEA, Italy);
Prof. Cassio Luiselli Fernández (Instituto Technológico
y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico); Dr Pedro M. Scheel Monteiro
(CSIR and University of Cape Town, South Africa); Dr Hong Khanh Nguyen
(Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam); Prof.
Pavel Novácek (Palacky University and Charles University, Czech
Republic); Prof. Claudia Pahl-Wostl (University of Osnabrück, Germany)
3) Prof. Peter J. Ashton, Principal Scientist,
CSIR - Natural Resources & Environment, Pretoria, South Africa;
Prof. Fatma Abdel Rahman Attia, Professor Emeritus, National Water Research
Center, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Director of the
Water Boards Project, Cairo, Egypt; Dr. Brunello Ceccanti, National
Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Ecosystem Studies (CNR-ISE),
Pisa, Italy; Ms. Ulrike Ebert, External Affairs Manager and International
Water Policy, Thames Water, UK; Dr. Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Secretary
(Water Resources), Government of India, later Research Professor (now
Honorary Research Professor), Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi;
Dr. N.Vijay Jagannathan, Sector Manager (Water and Environment), Middle
East and North Africa Region World Bank, Washington DC; Dr. Luciano
Mateos, Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (CSIC), Córdoba,
Spain; Dr. Jack Moss, Director Environment Services, SUEZ, Paris and
The International Federation of Private Water Operators, Paris Office;
Prof. Peter Rogers, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA;
Prof. Muhammad Shatanawi, UNESCO Chair and Professor of Water Resources
and Irrigation, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; Dr. Pasquale Steduto,
Chief of the Water Resources, Development and Management Service (Land
& Water Division), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations with collaborators, Rome, Italy; Ms. Lesha Witmer, Women for
Water, NGO Representative in the EUWI Steering Group, The Netherlands