An initiative of the 5-year RiPPLE programe (Research-inspired Policy and Practice Learning in Ethiopia and the Nile Region). The RiPPLE blog aims to “initiate debate, invite comment, stimulate creative thinking and push forward [water and sanitation] sector learning in Ethiopia and Nile region countries.

Discussions focus on the following main topics:

• Ethiopia Water Sector Progress
• Learning and Practice Alliances
• Mapping for equity
• Supporting Nile-region learning
• Sustainable sanitation delivery
• Understanding water and growth

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.

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This collection of 19 essays by civil society activists, trade unionists and other water practitioners, presents examples of both struggles against water privatisation and people-centred public water management from across Asia.

The papers show that

* the ideology-driven privatization wave has now also reached Asian countries where public water delivery has been very successful.
* in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, where public utilities have largely achieved water for all, the governments are planning to boost the role of the private sector.
* in Malaysia, the process of widespread privatisation has already led to predictable problems such as increased tariff
* in India, Cambodia, Indonesia and many other Asian countries where large parts of the population have for far too long remained without adequate access to water and sanitation, concrete, workable alternatives to water privatisation do exist.
* public water solutions are being developed and implemented in numerous Asian countries, i.e. progressive public water management models, often involving new forms of local cooperation between public water operators, communities, trade unions and other key groups.
* experiences in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala show that empowerment of communities and the democratisation of governance are strong positive tools for improving public water supply
* an important new trend is the emergence of public-public partnerships (PUPs), in which a well performing water operator assists a utility in need of support. Examples include PUPs in Indonesia and Cambodia

The overall conclusion is that although numerous public water utilities in large parts of Asia fail to supply safe water for all, privatisation is not the answer. The papers here show that there is no lack of workable public service reform approaches that could dramatically improve access to water supply and sanitation for people across the continent, if the political will is there.

The India Environment Portal was launched on 11 August 2008. It is set up and managed by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and promoted by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC), Government of India.

The portal aims to be a “one-stop shop” on environment and development issues. It is built on an open-source platform and includes proprietary information held by CSE and other selected (government) documents.

All information in the portal is manually tagged with a comprehensive thesaurus of environmental terms, Users can search by environmental subjects, geographical location and names of the agents involved (government institutions, NGOs, industries, individuals).

Topics covered include climate change, mining, forests, water management, sanitation and environmental impact assessments.

The portal currently includes the entire archive (some 40,000 articles) of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth and 300,000 newspaper articles, features, magazine articles, books and documents. Each day over 400 new items are entered.

The India Environment Portal has been developed by the India IT consulting company Srijan, using Drupal, an open source content management system, and the Apache Solr search platform.

“Water supply and sanitation in Pakistan” is the latest country page to be added to the Wikipedia Category “Water supply and sanitation by country“, an initiative of the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). There are currently 50 country overviews in this category, mostly from developing countries.

The Pakistan page provides an overview of the water and sanitation sector covering access, service quality, history and recent developments, sector institutions, efficiency, financing, and external cooperation. It also has a list over 60 references.

Huck, L. (2008). Think local, act local : effective financing of local governments to provide water and sanitation services. London, UK, WaterAid. 39 p.
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Mehta, M. and Mehta, D. (2008). Financing water and sanitation at local levels : synthesis paper. London, UK, WaterAid. 83 p.
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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 services. The research showed that in spite of policy commitments to decentralisation, local governments are consistently by-passed by those financing development, resulting in a high risk of duplication and inequitable coverage. In the countries studied, on average nearly two-thirds of capital expenditure for the water and sanitation sectors is outside of the local government budget and their direct control. This undermines governance and accountability at the local level. Local government’s own expenditure on water and sanitation barely gets above US$ 6 per capita per annum. And yet, even the simplest hand-dug wells cost US$ 30 per capita. National governments and donors in particular need to step back and allow local governments to make decisions (and mistakes) in response to local pressures. Recommendations are provided for the different stakeholders - national governments, donors, NGOs and local government - to improve financing and governance at the local level.

Listed above are the synthesis paper (Hucks) and the full research report (Meera and Meera).

World Bank, FAO and IFAD (2008). Gender in agriculture sourcebook.
The conference version is available here
The print final copies and e-Sourcebook will be available on September 29, 2008.

“The sourcebook provides an up-to-date understanding of gender issues and a rich compilation of compelling evidence of good practices and lessons learned. The sourcebook is aimed at the practitioner both in international and regional development agencies and national governments. More specifically, it speaks to the needs of operational staff who design and implement lending projects and technical officers who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. It is intended to provide guidance on how to integrate gender into agricultural projects and programs, and captures and expands upon the gender equity and women’s empowerment principles of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development”.

Module 9 on “Gender in Rural Infrastructure for Agricultural Livelihoods” includes a Thematic Note on “Sanitation, Hygiene, and Potable Water”.

Sourcebook Modules
1 Gender and Food Security
2 Gender and Agriculture Livelihoods: Strengthening Governance
3 Gender and Rural Finance
4 Gender Issues in Land Policy and Administration
5 Gender and Agricultural Markets
6 Gender Mainstreaming in Agricultural Water Management
7 Gender in Agricultural Innovation and Education
8 Gender Issues in Agricultural Labor
9 Gender in Rural Infrastructure for Agricultural Livelihoods
10 Gender and Natural Resource Management
11 Gender and Crises: Implications for Agriculture
12 Gender and Crop Agriculture
13 Gender in Fisheries and Aquaculture
14 Gender and Livestock
15 Gender and Forestry
16 Gender Issues in Monitoring and Evaluation

Palaniappan, M., Lang, M. and Gleick, P.H. (2008). A review of decision-making support tools in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector. Oakland, CA, USA, Pacific Institute and Washington, DC, USA, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 101 p.

Available online from both the Pacific Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

A project of the Pacific Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), this report evaluates 120 existing resources in the WASH sector, including books, manuals, and websites. Additionally, 18 support resources, which most closely resembled decision-making tools, were evaluated in depth. The authors conclude that existing support resources fail to adequately serve WASH practitioners. Most commonly missing among the resources evaluated were: an effective user interface; consideration of social implications; regional specificity; information on costs and financing; hygiene approaches; project replicability; and evaluation and monitoring. The authors recommend that an effective decision support tool for WASH projects should not only include these missing elements but should also be multilingual; available in both web and print form; should include success stories; and should be complimented by a comprehensive and ongoing dissemination and support system.

Prüss-Üstün , A. … [et al]. (2008). Safer water, better health : costs, benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. 53 p.
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By depicting country-by-country estimates of the burden of disease due to water, sanitation and hygiene this WHO report highlights how much disease could be prevented through increased access to safe water and better hygiene.

It provides the epidemiological evidence and economic arguments for fully integrating water, sanitation and hygiene in countries’ disease reduction strategies — a pre-requisite to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It also provides the basis for preventive action by all relevant sectors managing critical water resources and services in support of public health efforts.

From the Introduction:

“This document summarizes the most recent water-related findings on global health impacts; presents recent information on effective interventions ; summarizes information from economic evaluations; and describes recent insights on financing.

The global health impacts presented are based on both rigorous assessments (for diarrhoea, trachoma, schistosomiasis and intestinal nematode infections) and reviews of expert opinion (all other addressed diseases). The scientific rigor of the estimates based on expert opinion is not at the same level as that of the estimates based on rigorous assessments; nevertheless, the opinion-based estimates are the best ones currently available”.

Obregon, R. … [et al.] (2008). Communication, water, and sanitation in Latin America : the contribution of communication for development in water resource management and service implementation projects. Washington, DC, USA, Water and Sanitation Program. 32 p.
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This report summarizes the results of a study on the role played by communication for development (CfD) in water and sanitation projects and programs in Latin America based on a review of 39 case studies and on documented experiences in this field. The 39 cases correspond to different types of intervention and levels: local community, national, institutional and regional levels, 72% of which are from Latin America. The report centred on three study categories regarded as critical to the strengthening of CfD in the water and sanitation sector:

• types of intervention and communication strategies employed
• experiences based on the achievement of results and measurable goals, with an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation processes, and
• the added value of CfD in sector interventions.

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 canceled contracts (including the Dar es Salaam contract, Tanzania), challenges to existing contracts (e.g. Nelpsruit, South Africa) and the numerous withdrawal and rejection of project proposals (Philippines, Ghana, Ecuadaor etc.).

Other corporate profiles of water multinationals are available for:

American Water
Suez
Veolia
Bechtel
American International Group
Saur

The Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), UK, maintains a database of companies involved in the private provision of public services, focusing on multinationals and their subsidiaries in water, energy, waste management, and healthcare.  Some of the information in the database is available to the general public. Full access is normally only available to trade unions affiliated to Public Services International (PSI).