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Guidance towards climate-proofing of water management

505

Under the work plan of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) Convention of the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (“Water Convention”, done 1992 in Helsinki) and its Protocol on Water and Health, a `Guidance on Water and Climate Adaptation' is currently being developed. The Guidance is a unique document developed to support cooperation and decision-making in transboundary basins on a range of relevant or emerging issues resulting from climate change. The Guidance will address adaptation to possible impacts of climate change on flood and drought occurrences, water quality and health related aspects. Likewise, it will focus on practical ways to cope with transboundary impacts through, inter alia, integrated management of surface and groundwater for flood and drought mitigation as well as for response and recovery after extreme events.
The Guidance is developed as a joint activity by the Task Force on Water and Climate, co-chaired by Germany and the Netherlands, and the Task Force on Extreme Weather Events under the Protocol on Water and Health, chaired by Italy. The drafting group for the Guidance consists of representatives from Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives from UNECE, UNESCO, WHO-Europe and WMO.
The Guidance will illustrate a stepwise approach on adaptation measures that are needed in order to develop a climate-proof water strategy, taking in particular into account the transboundary context. The Guidance focuses on the additional new challenges for cross sectoral water management deriving from climate change: what are the impacts of climate change on water management planning and how this planning should be modified to adapt to climate change. Moreover, the Guidance will promote the integration of specific water management aspects in general national adaptation strategies.
The Guidance builds on a questionnaire that was sent out in early 2008 to identify expected impacts of climate change on water resources as well as the adaptation measures planned or implemented in the UNECE region, especially in countries in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. Moreover, the Guidance builds on the outcomes of an international workshop on adaptation to climate change in the water sector that was held in Amsterdam on 1-2 July 2008 to discuss the first draft of the guidance document. The Guidance will be finalized by November 2009. Currently, the possibilities are investigated for developing pilot projects to test and improve the Guidance after finalization, to support countries in their adaptation planning, and to develop a knowledge base on adaptation practices.

The purposes of presenting the Guidance at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul are:
- to introduce and discuss the document as an adaptation tool to be used by countries inside as well as outside the UNECE region;
- to discuss the possibility to develop pilot projects based on the Guidance; and
- to investigate the possibility and feasibility of developing an exchange community on best practices in climate change adaptation.

Europe

Jos Timmerman (RWS Centre for Water Management)

Understanding the impact of climate change, vulnerability assessments and adaptation measures

607

Given the fact that mitigation measures alone cannot sufficiently deal with problems associated with the likely impacts of climate change on water resources, despite what is commonly practiced (viz. greater emphasis on mitigation), I prefer to focus on adaptation issues. Besides, water managers should markedly be concerned with adaptation options in response to climate change effects. My contributions will accordingly be focussed on relationships among the likely impact of climate change on water resources, sensitivity of the vulnerable (i.e. the affected party), acclimation and necessary resilience adaptation options.

I shall argue that understanding the likely impacts and the degree to which impacted systems (communities or ecosystem) are vulnerable informs coping strategies or appropriate adaptation actions that may most likely ensure resilience.

Africa

Chris Moseki (Water Research Commission)

Transboundary Water and Climate Management Issues: The Ganga Basin and the Kosi River

886

This contribution will use the recent case of the breach in the embankments along the Kosi river in Nepal to explore critical issues in transboundary water management that are likely to intensify as climate change progresses. In specific, the contribution will focus on the relative roles “hard” structural measures such as dams and embankments can play both in contrast to and conjunction with more distributed, “softer,” people-centered strategies for water management. Particular attention will be paid to the disjuncture between physical systems (the highly mobile, sediment laden nature of rivers in the Ganga basin) and the knowledge and institutional systems that have been developed for guiding water management over the last century. The contribution will address these issues from a combination of institutional, political and physical science perspectives.

Our perspective focuses on the need to move beyond old debates that presented infrastructure systems in opposition to softer measures (e.g. the for and against “dam” debates) into a more nuanced and balanced set of perspectives that reflects the relative roles each type of approach can and needs to play as part of strategies for responding to climate change in the water sector.

Asia-Pacific

Zeynep Saglam (5th World Water Forum - Turkey 2009)

How to tackle with Climate Change in the field of irrigation and drainage in Asia

890

(1)ASRWG Activities to Date

The third World Water Forum (WWF3) ministerial meeting on "Water, Food and Agriculture" held in March 2003 led the Asian Regional Working Group (ASRWG) to deliberate on the theme, "The Diversity and Multiple Roles of Irrigation Water" from the standpoint of the Asian monsoon region not included the whole Asia. The results of these deliberations were summarized as "suggestions" presented at WWF4 (held in Mexico in March 2006) and efforts have been made to gain broad understanding.

These activities by the ASRWG have been rated highly by International Executive Council (IEC) of ICID, and a certain degree of understanding has been achieved with respect to "The Diversity and Multiple Roles of Irrigation Water."

(2)Recognizing the Status Quo with Respect to Irrigation

The global demand for cereals has increased with population growth and improved eating habits. (Demand for cereals in 2050 will be 1.6 times that of 2000.) In order to achieve the required increase in food production, it is necessary to continue expanding irrigated farmland in order to keep up with those increases.

Securing water resources from dams and the like is becoming increasingly difficult, however. In addition, irrigation is only continuously effective when there is sufficient maintenance and management, and because of the various conditions in different countries, such as insufficient maintenance and management, and aging facilities, there are cases in which the effectiveness of irrigation is decreasing. Furthermore, there have been adverse effects on the environment in some areas, such as accumulation of salt and depletion of groundwater, because of inappropriate use of irrigation.

It is prospected that there will be a lack of water resources due to Climate change in the Middle East, parts of south Asia, parts of central Asia and in northern China. Conversely, east and southeast Asia and parts of south Asia are expected to be subjected to extremely heavy rain and the frequency of floods is expected to increase. At the same time, it is also prospected that there will be a lack of water during dry periods. Because there will be many different effects of Climate change in Asia, each country and region will have to assess those changes and take measures to alleviate their effects.

(3)New Theme for the ASRWG

Up until now the ASRWG has conducted activities under the theme of achieving sustainable irrigation on the basis of the diversity of irrigation water use in various countries. In the future, the ASRWG will have to add adapting to Climate change as a new theme and to that end it will have to share information with the member countries. The new task force under the ASRWG chaired by Mr. Ota, Vice President of ICID, is formed in order to conduct activities under the new theme.

The core idea is “How to tackle with Climate Change in the field of irrigation and drainage. And then, specifically, the ASRWG will have to make". A Strategy for Irrigation and Drainage adapted to Climate change in Asia" a theme, and consider the following items.

In the first step, an inventory of the items listed below will have to be taken by conducting a questionnaire to be filled in by each member countries and efforts will have to be made to share the experiences and information of various countries.

Some example of the contents of a possible questionnaire is the following;

- Existing Policies regarding irrigation drainage.

- General recognition and assessment of the effects of Climate change.

- Specific examples of the effects of Climate change.

- Studies and research results concerning Climate change.

- National strategies or the basic direction for measures to cope with Climate change.

In the second step, more studies and research concerning the effects of Climate change should be conducted and reviewed in the effort to promote the awareness of this problem. Studies and researches should not necessary mean those done by the member countries. Results by other groups should be taken into consideration in order to deliberate methodology how to evaluate future risks and to find out possible counter measures. As the other groups, Working Group on global climate change and irrigation should be included, and universities, research institutes and projects funded by international donors can be expected.

In the third step, new irrigation and drainage strategy will have to be worked out to cope with Climate change. This can be done by integrating efforts in the first and second step. This strategy will include not only technical aspect but policy matters.

Progress of the activity
The task force sent the questionnaire mentioned the above to 27 countries in Asia, Middle East, and Australia. We have received filled out questionnaires from 13 countries. The purpose of this study is as follows;
- To overview countermeasures in the field of irrigation, drainage and flood control to cope with climate change, in view of present policy, people’s perception and countermeasures,
- To make country wise comparison and find out some similarity or mutual relation and.
- To study possibility of applying leading case in particular country.

We categorize the countries, which we received filled-out questionnaire, by the current water sector condition, the future condition of Water Sector, and countermeasure and adoption measure on climate change.
We will discuss the proper future policies of water sector under the condition of global warming among ASRWG member countries, based on the analysis of the questionnaire.

Asia-Pacific

Shinsuke Ota

Climate change and sanitation networks. What adaptations for the future?

896

Climatic change is a current issue. According to the most probable IPCC scenario, global warming between the end of the 20^th and the end of the 21^st century should be of about 3°C, with impacts on extreme climatic events: it is foreseen that the frequency of heavy rainfalls will increase in the winter while summer drought periods will last longer.

But the IPCC forecasts say nothing on the specific consequences climatic evolutions could have over water and sanitation services. At a time when there’s a growing awareness on the need to take into account sanitation – in the sense of effluent treatment - as one of the major stakes of the century for health, the environment, human and economic development, it is essential to shed a new light on political choices that today and tomorrow’s decision makers will have to take for sanitation networks and their design.

From the most probable to the most improbable forecasts, it is time to assess how climate change can destabilize our systems.

Practically speaking, the impacts will quite probably involve the production of annoying or even hazardous odors (hydrogen sulfide), impact the sensitivity of the receiving environment and, in coastal areas, affect the level of discharges to sea and requirements in terms of bathing water quality. We will need to adapt existing systems and take measures for the new designs.

Regarding rain water management systems, the evolution of rainfalls is too uncertain to be quantified. However, the legitimate uncertainties on calculation methods could be taken into account for new projects thus covering the predicted variability of rainfall intensity. This could lead to change our way of thinking concerning urban hydrology and to introduce, as in other engineering domains, a weighting factor that can take into account all the variables which affect our sizing methods. It is quite clear that separate networks will better help adapt than unitary networks. In fact, the latter could give rise to a paradox: on the one hand, adapted works to reduce residence time in dry weather conditions, and on the other, larger works to better satisfy operating requirements during rain events.

For future works, the concept of adaptability still needs to be developed and certainly on the basis of separate networks where conventional or alternative rainwater works could be used along with source runoff control techniques from the public and private sectors. For existing networks, managing the works will call for new approaches to optimize the systems and develop crisis management scenarios in case of pollution, overspills or flood type failures.

Information to users on the risks whether regarding the quality of the receiving medium, of bathing waters, overspills or floods, will obviously form a main component for future management methods. Predictive management, based on rainfalls and works remote management will form one of the tools allowing to reach these objectives. The control of runoffs at the source could also, if needed, help maintain at low cost the existing networks service levels.

 Impact oriented: At a time when everyone talks about climate change and its damaging effects, we are badly lacking concrete examples on the impacts of this change over water and sanitation. This contribution aims at fuelling the debate with concrete elements and technical solutions.
 Policy oriented: This contribution should help political decision makers to take decisions regarding the design of future sanitation networks and better manage the existing works.
 Bridging divides: This contribution aims at fuelling the debate with technical and scientific elements to better adapt to climate change.
 Multistakeholder dialogue: This contribution aims at fostering a dialogue between political decision makers, public and private operators and scientific research centers.

Europe; Mediterranean

Sonia Briki (Société des Eaux de Marseille)

Bridging Gender Divides for Safe Water and Sanitation

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 1.2 - Water-related Migration, Changing Land Use and Human Settlements ‎(1)

650

World Water Forum 2009 - Bridging Sessions - A Proposal:
By UN Taskforce on Gender and Water / UN Water

Title: Bridging Gender Divides for Safe Water and Sanitation.

Rationale:
As has been underlined in UN meetings, conventions, outcome documents and reports, and in earlier session of the World Water Forum: access to safe water and sanitation should be recognized as basic human rights and are imperative to achieving human wellbeing and development in general and the Millennium Development Goals in particular.

However, `Bridging Divides for Water' - the theme of this 5th World Water Forum - not only calls for technical and political solutions, social aspects and equality in access and control over these resources and services are as important to reach those goals. More in particular, gender mainstreaming has been proved to be imperative in guaranteeing safe water and sanitation for all. There is an urgent need to bridge the gender divide in the water and sanitation sector, and to bring not only men's, but also women's voices, concerns, needs, priorities and visions to the forefront. Therefore a specific and crosscutting focus on gender issues is essential in making the World Water Forum and the discussions around its themes realistic and a success.

The UN Taskforce on Gender and Water (UN Water) and partners, therefore are proposing to co-organize, along with the themes of the World Water Forum, a series of longer and shorter sessions, that will highlight and present good practices around these gender aspects. The Taskforce has decided to focus both on gender, water and sanitation issues, as sanitation is an area that has been neglected along. The scope of the sessions will be global, with presentation of local realities and practices, and reflections on global policy implications.

Purpose of these efforts is to promote gender awareness in the discussions, debates and follow-up of the World Water Forum, to offer inspiring examples, and to ensure gender equality in the water and sanitation agendas, policies and practices. Therewith, not only ensuring safe water and sanitation supply and management, but also bridging the gender divide in these areas. And by doing so, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of water and sanitation efforts.

World Water Forum topic questions which this session proposes answer to:
· Under what circumstances is micro-financing an effective strategy for providing sustainable water and sanitation services?
· What should pro-poor policies and strategies concretely contain to give access to water and sanitation to poor people and especially the poorest (slums, villages, popular suburbs ...) over one billion?
· What are the best financial measures or decisions (tarification, subsisdies etc..) that facilitate the access of the poorest people to water and sanitation? What are the bes practices?
· What appropriate measures should be promoted at various levels (from national to local) to make the right to water and sanitation a tool to raise water higher on the political agenda?
· Land and water rights for women will better the situation and create opportunities for better management. How can we achieve that / speed up this process?

Conveners of these bridging sessions are:
UN Task Force on Gender and Water / UN Water
Contactperson: Ms. Kenza Robinson (robinson1@un.org)

WECF Women in Europe for a Common Future;
Contactperson: Ms. Sascha Gabizon, director (sascha.gabizon@wecf.eu)

GTZ;
Contactpersons: Ms. Elisabeth von Münch, Mr Sören Rued (elisabeth.munch@gtz.de, Soeren.Rued@gtz.de)

UN Habitat?

Gender and Water Alliance?

UNFPA/WEDO?

Outline
The outline of the sessions is so that gender aspects are integrated in the programme themes and topics. During one major session high-level policymakers and experts will present overarching issues related to gender, water and sanitation. Three other sessions will focus on specific aspects of that area. There will be short presentations and ample room for dialogue and discussion. The gender bridging sessions are all part of specific World Water Forum thematic sessions, and will be organized as follows:

(1) Theme area: Advancing Human Development and the MDGs. -
Plenary session - Ensuring and implementing the human right to water and sanitation: the gender component (1 hour)

This high-level session will argue why there is a need for the human right to water and sanitation, and why a gender component is essential for ensuring those rights. It will identify the state of the art of the human right to water and sanitation from a gender perspective. Best practice in identifying the human right to water will be presented. And policy recommendations will be formulated.

Proposed speakers:
· President Ms. Ellen Johnson, Liberia
· Minister Charity Ngilu, Minister of Water and Irrigation, Kenya
· Ms. Anna Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary General UN and Executiv Director of UN HABITAT
· Dr. Maude Barlow. Council of Canadians, author or `Blue Convenant'
· Prof. Tamara Sleger, Budapest University, Hungary

(2) Theme area: Global Changes and Risk Management -
Plenary Session - Climate Change Adaptation, Gender and Human Security (1 hour)

This session aims to present the gender aspects of climate change and human security. Presentations will be held on actual situations on the ground, and an overall analysis will be put forward. Focus will be on access to and control over safe water and sanitation in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Proposed speakers:
· UNFPA/WEDO partnership: case study presentations from Senegal, Ghana and Nepal
· WECF partner presentation (Sevtlana?)
· Turkish women's organization(s)
· Irene Dankelman, Radboud University of Nijmegen

(3) Theme area: Finance -
Plenary session - Implementing the human right to water and sanitation from a gender perspective: financial and other instruments (1 hour)

This session will look into specific instruments that can support the implementation of the human right to water from a gender perspective. Institutional and local strategies will be shared and discussed.

Proposed speakers:
· Andreas Knapp, Water and Sanitation Programme, World Bank
· Elisabeth von Münch, GTZ, Germany, Ecosan programmes
· Gender and Water Alliance, Kerala Women's Masons, India.

(4) Theme Area: Education, Knowledge and Capacity Building -
Plenary Session - School sanitation: the right to sanitation for girls and boys. (1 hour)

The absence of safe sanitation in schools is a major obstacle for girls school enrolment. Therefore, implementing the right to safe sanitation in schools is essential in achieving the goal of equal education for boys and girls (MDG2) and in reaching gender equality (MDG3). Hygiene education for boys and girls in school curricula is another prerequisite for ensuring children's health. These findings and practical solutions to this challenge will be presented and discussed.

Proposed speakers:
· Manjula Pradeep, director Navsarjan Trust, India
· Gulbachar Izantaeva, Mehriban NGO, Uzbekistan
· Elena Manvelian, Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment, Armenia
· UNICEF/WASH/IRC school sanitation programme.

Outcome:
Short reports will be prepared of all these sessions, and specific recommendations of all the sessions will result in a policy agenda on gender and the human right to safe water and sanitation.

Claudia Wendland (WECF - Women in Europe for a Common Future)

Topic 1.2 - Water-related Migration, Changing Land Use and Human Settlements

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 1.3 - Managing Disasters ‎(10)

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Water Crisis in the offing

Many villagers around Cherangany Hills in Kenya are angry thata harvests are falling and water sources declining but the state is not punishinsg wood poachers. The Chirangany Hills is known to be one of the largest water reserviors in East Africa. Danger is that its the most threatened eco-systems due to illegal logging and wood poaching and human encroachment.Water in rivers coming from the hills have over the years shrunks especially during dry spells. the one time water crystals clear rivers are now filled with muddy water nufit for human anad livestock consumption. Thousands of Kenyan people have depended on fresh water from the Hills for decades. While we manage disasters many African Leaders have failed to realize that water criss is not only a disaster but a vital non-renewable natural resource that need to be handle with care for sustainable development.

Form Members lets give our voices and push the world to stop the messes so far

Africa

Charles Owino Ogallo (n/a)

Preliminary African Regional Perspectives

128

Directions originating from recent African Heads of State (bold), and Ministerial (italics) Commitments and Conferences

AMENDED - This contribution supercedes the one above

* Promote cooperation in the development of effective early warning systems for water-related disaster prevention and mitigation to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on economic development, food security and poverty eradication efforts

* Risk reduction strategies; Community-led responses

Africa

Tefera Woudeneh

İnterventions in the flood control facilities in human settlements

247

Regularly, there are such interventions in flood control facilities have been constructed by DSİ, existing in human settlements. This interventions may be occurred as a release of domestic and industrial disposes to water course, construction of some facilities over it for example; inaccurate bridge construction straitening flow cross section and covering water course, also this straitening flow cross section. Even there are some examples of constructing such buildings on the water course.
We see that local authorities, may be for political concerns, can’t prevent, in contrast they encourage these cases.
Since existing legal arrangements are not effective on these cases, we need to establish a social conciousness and to apply some sanctions against such interventions in water courses and flood plains.

Have the interventions in the flood control facilities by local authorities for political concerns impact on the increment of flood damages in human settlements ?

Turkey and surrounding countries

Emin Argun BARAN

Global Warming, flood disasters and Turkey

398

This paper aims to examine the current situation and to determine the main causes of flood disasters in riverain cities of Turkey. By considering the common strategies of international experiences about river flood management this paper proposes general strategies that conform with Turkey's situation.

ince the Communication Document (2004) and the Directive (2007) on flood risk maps and management European Countries have launched several joint research projects as well as implementation programmes through river basins due to the increasing impacts of global warming. Nevertheless, Turkey is deprived of river flood management through basin wide. Hence, the legislative and administrative system of Turkey ought to be re-organized in order to establish more effective flood management in riverain cities that share a particular basin.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Meltem Senol Balaban (Middle East Technical University)

Climate adaptation in the IJsseldelta

462

The river IJssel in the Netherlands is a major branch of the river Rhine, the 3rd largest river of Europe. It discharges its flows to the Lake IJsselmeer, which is a former sea (Zuiderzee), closed off in 1932. The IJsseldelta is a low-lying area that is threatened by floods from both the river IJssel and from the Lake IJsselmeer. Although the delta and its major cities Zwolle and Kampen are protected from flooding by dikes, the safety standards can not being guaranteed in the near future because of the effects of climate change. Predictions of climate models indicate that the extreme high water levels of the river IJssel will rise with up to 40 cm. in 2015 (figure 2) and up to 1 m. in the long term (2050-2100). In 2005 the province of Overijssel initiated the process of drawing a sustainable development plan for the IJsseldelta area, with a strong focus on climate adaptation. Within this plan several spatial developments (housing, infrastructure, leisure, nature) are being combined and integrated together with the construction of a so-called bypass of the river IJssel (figure 3).
Figure 3:
The spatial strategy of project IJsseldelta:
- to combine and integrate developments together with the river bypass in the southwest (the arrows on the map);
- to prevent large scale developments in the northeast of the delta, which will also preserve the resilience of this area towards climate adaptation in the future (the green area on the map).
The bypass is one of the international measures along the river Rhine system to increase safety against flooding. Instead of building higher and stronger dikes a new strategy has been chosen: to add space to the floodplains of the rivers. This strategy – a real „paradigm shift‟ in water
2
management – is being adopted within the Dutch project „space for river‟. Instead of foe, water is becoming more and more a friend for the planners and water managers. The IJsseldelta project is a good exponent of this new philosophy. With the construction of the bypass some 350 hectares will be added to the floodplains of the delta of the river IJssel. The effect will be that the water levels of the river IJssel will decrease substantially during situations of high river discharges. This contributes to the safety and resilience of the area.
The plan for the IJsseldelta is being made in close cooperation with the stakeholders such as the municipalities, neighbour provinces, the water boards and many nongovernmental organizations in the region. Also the public mobilized to participate (figure 4).
Figure 4: Broad and intensive public participation during the phase of the Masterplan. The participation process started with 5 different, initial scenario‟s for the future of IJsseldelta. During the process a 6th scenario, developed by the public, was added. This scenario became an essential building block for the Masterplan.
The national Government also committed itself to this project. The national ministries involved are Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. The collaborative approach to planning as applied in the IJsseldelta project has proven to be a successful recipe for sustainable development planning. The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment selected the IJsseldelta project as a “best practice”. The project has received a lot of attention in the media and many members of the national parliament and government have already visited the IJsseldelta, including our Prime Minister Balkenende. In spring 2006 the Prince of the Netherlands, who has a special interest in water management, came over to see the project.In 2006 the Masterplan IJsseldelta came out. The Masterplan is broadly supported by the public, because it is based upon a draft of the bypass (the 6th scenario, see figure 4) that was made by the public (mostly farmers, assisted by planners and professionals). Worth mentioning is that the path of the bypass follows the alignment of an old sea arm that still can be seen on an historical map of the IJsseldelta area of 1724 (figure 6). In 2007 a gentlemen's agreement was signed by 11 governmental organizations, with the intention to work together to implement the Masterplan.
Recently the spatial plans of the provinces of Overijssel and Flevoland have been reviewed. An strategic environmental (impact) assessment (SEA) was part of this review. Within this SEA several alternatives for the Masterplan were studied. Also a so-called most environmental friendly alternative. The decision making process has led to several modification of the Masterplan. As a matter of fact, these changes have made the plan even more climate proof. The current plan resembles in almost every aspect the most environmental friendly alternative of the SEA. The figures give an impression of the current plan (figure 7 and 8).Figure 7: Impression of the plan IJsseldelta, after the review of the provincial plans (autumn 2008).
Figure 8: Bird‟s eye perspective of the plan IJsseldelta (autumn 2008). The numbers on the map refer to the adaptations of the infrastructure (1= tunnel of the railway; 2= the fly-overs of both railway and highway).
The review of the provincial plans is a next step towards the implementation of the plan. Financing the project (which will cost about € 300 million in total) is another important thing that needs to be arranged before the end of 2008. Already € 30 million has been invested, as a part of these total costs, to finance the necessary adaptations of the infrastructure (see figure 8). A new railway is already under construction; the bypass will cross this railway two times. Furthermore, the province of Overijssel has funded € 20 million for anticipatory purchases of land and real estate (on a voluntary basis) in the bypass area.
At this moment the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is being made for the review of the local land use plan and the „levee relocation plan‟. The final step, after the finish of these procedures, will be the application for licenses and permits. When everything goes according to plan and without delay, the construction of the levees, sluices, tunnels, bridges, etcetera can start in 2011. This tight time schedule is a necessity because the bypass needs to be operational in 2015.

I would like to contribute to session 2 about planning (“Climate Change: Friend or Foe?”)
Perspectives that I could highlight/accentuate:
- the paradigm shift in water management (water as a friend instead of a foe, „space for the river‟, the bypass as an example of a robust climate adaptation measure for rivers and river basins);
- bridging the gap between global (climate) problems and local action (capacity building);
- bridging the gap between „climate models‟ (science) and „politicians‟ (decision making);
- the importance of dedicated and highly motivated project leaders/members and politicians (e.g. the deputy of the Province of Overijssel as a director and figurehead of the project);
- how to involve the public in planning processes (awareness raising and communication);
- how to coop with uncertainty and complexity in planning;
- the role of SEA/EIA for climate change and adaptation;
- river deltas as important hotspots for climate change and adaptation;
- climate proof nature development: creating a robust, resilient corridor with habitats that are able to coop with - and are dependent on - water dynamics (Lake Peipsi in Estonia as an example);
- the need and demand for climate proof housing (e.g. dwelling mounds, floating houses).

Europe

Arjan Otten (Province of Overijssel)

Are disasters gender-biased?

467

The Gender and Water Alliance has ample examples of the gender aspects of disasters. Although at first sight the disasters strike indiscriminately, there are big gender differences in impact of disasters. Not only in who is reached by early warning systems, but also who is a victim of disaster as well as when people are picking up their lives after disaster. The Gender and Water Alliance can give evidence on any aspect, and can give examples of gender sensitive measures of disaster management.

Session 1: Trialogue Session
Droughts, floods and the threat of Climate Change has activitated the discussions between academia, governments of different levels and various stakeholders to work towards effective planning, for example in India and Bangladesh. Results are different, and the degree of inclusion of different categories of effected people: poor women and men, indigenous people, and different socio-economic groups varies as well. The Gender and Water Alliance can give such examples, and could organise a “live trialogue”.

Session 2: Technologies for Water Related Disaster Management
Technologies for people need to take into account that people are different. And so are disasters. A one-size-fits-all approach will not do. Examples to be provided by GWA.

Session 3: Managing water related risks in changing climate
GWA suggests to take a place in the panel: Dr. Sara Ahmed, who is practically and theoretically knowledgeable in this subject, including her knowledge about various examples.

Session 4: Water Management During and after Disasters/conflicts
Not only in water related disasters different groups of people are affected differently, in armed conflict this is often even worse so. The daily responsibilities of women to feed their families and provide them with water continue, whilst they have lost all access to resources. Furthermore their safety and integrity is harassed whilst they try to fulfil their tasks. The Gender and Water Alliance suggests to present examples from Africa and Asia (Iraq).

Although disasters happen indiscriminately to everybody, their effects are different for different people. For example in the Tsunami of December 2004, 70 % of the fatalities were women and also other disasters show that some groups of people suffer more from disasters. This is partly caused by difference in access to information about predictable disasters (like Tsunamis, Hurricanes and typhoons), and partly because of cultural constraints (e.g. women do not learn to swim). Early warning systems should target the most vulnerable groups, and take aspects into account that limit their access to this information.
The tasks related to daily needs of people are mainly women’s responsibilities. Even during and after disasters, these tasks are not suspended. Also during reconstruction after disasters, men and women have different duties and are therefore affected differently. They have different needs and demands for picking up their lives again after disaster has struck.
A gender perspective is essential to lower the number of casualties caused by disasters as well as to improve and speed up reconstruction after disaster has struck.

Asia-Pacific

Esther de Jong (Gender and Water Alliance)

Risk Management for Floods and Landslides

551

Catastrophic floods and landslides endanger lives and cause human tragedy as well as heavy economic losses. These are natural phenomena but through the right measures we can reduce their likelihood and limit their impacts. In addition to economic and social damage, floods and landslides can have severe environmental consequences, for example when installations holding large quantities of toxic chemicals are inundated or wetland areas destroyed. The coming decades are likely to see a higher flood and landslide risk in Turkey and greater economic damage. More information are needed on future flood and landslide risk. Many factors impact on what future flood and landslide risk might look like, including changing land use patterns, climate change and how well flood and landslide risk is currently being managed.

Impacts of floods and landslides range from site destruction, through problems for the maintenance of buildings and infrastructure, to an impediment for economic development. Previous attempts to address flood and landslide risk have either treated components of the problem in isolation or characterized the wider issue from just a single discipline perspective. Approaches to limit disruption and damage from flooding and landslide have changed significantly in recent years. Worldwide, there has been a significant move from a strategy of flood and landslide defense to one of flood and landslide risk management. However, the success of this approach depends on integrating: enhanced defenses and warning systems with improved understanding of the river system and landslides and better governance, emergency planning and disaster management actions. This change in approach reflects the future uncertainties in flood and landslide prediction arising from climate change and recognition that continuing to rely on raising and strengthening defenses against flooding is no longer tenable in an era of climate change and socio-economic development. Therefore, this paper takes a holistic and brief view of flood and landslide hazard and risk through the development of integrated disaster risk management approaches to analysis, perception and disaster management.

Americas; Turkey and surrounding countries

Mikdat KADIOĞLU

"Delta Dialogues: exchanging innovative solutions for flood risk reduction in deltas

724

Deltas around the world share similar challenges: how to effectively adapt to rising sea levels, increased river discharges, extreme weather conditions and other impacts of climate change while safeguarding and promoting sustainable (social, economic and ecological) development. Although specific geographic conditions, economic development, ecological and environmental conditions, institutional arrangements, cultural setting differ from delta to delta, all share this challenge: how to deal with risks of flooding, and how to limit the vulnerability to floods in deltas. What solutions can be found to reduce flood risks? A paradigm shift is necessary from mitigation to adaptation and integrated flood risk reduction.

We can share and learn much from each other’s knowledge, strategies and solutions with regard to flood risk reduction. Around the world, different solutions are found, different innovations are developed and applied, new insights are found, new approaches introduced, and different measures are implemented to reduce flood risks in deltas. In general, we see a shift in strategies from relying solely on structural measures to applying als non-structural measures to both prevent floods as well as reduce victims and damage as a result of floods.

Delta dialogues aim to create an interactive setting in which different stakeholders from different delta’s “bridge the divide” and learn from each others views on the challenges, the strategies they have adopted and work together to find and formulate concrete solutions. The Delta Dialogues aim to identify and present the rapidly expanding range of solutions for flood risk reduction and discuss its applicability and application. The dialogues will focus on strategies for both urban and rural parts of deltas.

Examples of innovative flood risk reduction strategies from the Dutch delta

Below some illustrative examples of flood risk reduction strategies and measures that have been explored in the last years in the Netherlands.

Overtopping resistant flood defences: in the Netherlands overtopping test have been carried out and techniques have been developed to make the flood defence more overtopping resistant. Further experiments will be carried out in the United States and Vietnam
Example of coastal defence zone in the Netherlands (COMCOAST)
Spatial flood defence zones (e.g. in the European COMCOAST project). In this project investigations and applications of coastal flood defence zones have been explored. These zones provide opportunities for for example ecological development
Flood defences with combined functions (e.g. housing, offices): By a recent governmental advisory committee (the Delta committee) the use of so-called delta dikes has been strongly recommended. These delta dikes are wide flood defences that offer opportunitites for combination with other functions.
Land use planning and flood risk zoning
Emergency management (shelter, evacuation) and their implementation

Of course many other examples have been developed in other deltas and these have to be explored during the dialogues

In this session we aim to exchange information on risk reduction and flood management strategies and measures used in different deltas. We focus on combinations of measures along the full “safety chain”. The aim is to exchange information on old and new measures and different strategies (and innovative combinations of strategies).

The Delta Dialogues are organized by Royal Haskoning and the Netherlands Water Partnership, and include partners from the Netherlands, New Orleans, Vietnam and Indonesia. Other possible partners may also be included at a later stage.

Delta Dialogues on flood risk reduction are meant to be a continuous process. Not a single meeting at the WWF5, but a sequence of dialogues throughout a time period which starts before the World Water Forum, and which will continue thereafter. In this context, we aim to set-up a series of three Delta Dialogues between the southwestern delta in the Netherlands, Jakarta, New Orleans and Japan. We may also expand to other deltas, sharing similar problems and challenges , such as the Mekong delta (Ho Chi Minh City) and the Nile delta,. The last of three dialogues between stakeholders of these three or four delta cities will be at the World Water Forum. This allows us to – besides sharing the strategies and solutions with a wider audience - reflect on the results of the dialogues, share with the audience their usefulness, and come up concrete recommendations to city governments, national governments, knowledge centres, NGOs and (international) donor agencies for setting-up and using similar dialogues to achieve knowledge sharing about challenges, strategies and solutions.

Disaster management focuses especially on the actual mobilisation of aid and relief services during the disaster and increasing the effectiveness of this response. This requires a solid preparation: in order to respond effectively to disasters one needs to be well prepared. A good example of preparing for disasters is drafting a disaster management plan that clearly stipulates who does what and when (and with what resources) if a disaster occurs. In other words, disaster management focuses on responding to disasters and to do that effectively institutions, businesses and people need to be well prepared. But another important element of disaster management is recovery: disaster management finishes only when the situation is completely restored and brought back to normal. Part of the recovery is also the immediate evaluation of the disaster and the management of the disaster, in order to be even better prepared the next time. Only recently experts have started to realise that we should anticipate even more, and try to prevent as much as possible disasters and mitigate the possible consequences of disasters. In other words, we should look at all elements of the risks in stead of just the disaster itself. Therefore the concept of risk management has been introduced.

The delta dialogues will be organised and facilitated by Royal Haskoning in cooperation with the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP).

We focus the delta dialogues on flood risk reduction strategies. We propose to focus in every session on a specific issue:

Session 1: inventory of strategies, solutions and measures
Session 2: Determine applicability of various strategies in other deltas and assess possibilities for exchange and mutual learning.
Session 3: Develop a plan for implementation and financing of proposed strategies

The results will be presented and shared at the WWF. A wide evaluation of various types of strategies to problems faced in various deltas will be presented. This enables other deltas to learn from the process and the outcomes.

Delta Dialogues are characterized by the highly interactive nature of the discussion. Delta dialogues are not the sum of different presentations about strategies and solutions focused on flood risk reduction. Delta Dialogues aim to translate these strategies and solutions quickly in a discussion about applicability and application: what concrete solutions can be found in one delta and (how) can they be implemented in another delta.

In order to achieve that, Delta Dialogues:
 are well prepared;
 are strongly facilitated;
 maintain a degree of flexibility;
 allow participants to identify and share challenges;
 facilitate the identification and sharing of possible strategies;
 stimulate the discussion (working together towards concrete solutions);
 bring in – if necessary – specific experiences and state of the art knowledge;
 afterwards communicate widely about results.

Delta Dialogues will thus contribute to the sharing of knowledge and raising awareness of the challenges facing delta areas with regard to flood risks as well as finding concrete solutions to safeguard a sustainable development in deltas around the world.

Not only the diverse ways to approach the subject of flood risk reduction (governmental, cultural, technical, environmental, economic) which are brought forward, but also the interaction with the audience present at the WWF5, will create a wide spectrum of contributions to the challenge of reducing flood risks in deltas.

Europe

Stefan Nijwening (Royal Haskoning)

New Design Criteria for Extreme Events/ Climate Change

745

According the OECD’s the vulnerability if cities towards flooding in terms of exposed population and assets will increase dramatically over the next decades. Especially the unprecedented growth of Asian mega-cities will contribute substantially to a global increase of flood risk. While trend changes caused by climate change pose major challenges for deltaic cities in especially developing countries, the increasing frequency of extreme events could induce major demographic and economic disruptions. The subsequent ripple effects could be global and long lasting.

In Asia not only the mega cities that expand rapidly, but also the medium and smaller urban areas pose a tremendous challenge to disaster managers. Traditionally, intense rainfalls common in the region coupled with very high variability has spawned a culture of living with nature rather than trying to control it. However, the success of Western countries in controlling floods through preventive infrastructure development has convinced Asian countries to adopt the Western technological measures, and secure lands from recurring floods to pave way for uninterrupted economic development. While succeeding to a great degree in reducing frequent and medium frequency flood risks, thereby greatly assisting the development in the region, these measures have also increased the vulnerability of many parts of Asia against rare extreme events where targets set by flood control plans are not yet achieved. The potential increase of rainfall intensities from climate change therefore has very serious implications in Asia requiring urgent measures, new approaches and paradigm shift. Especially, the medium size cities where urban growth is forecasted to be the highest are the most vulnerable as their flood control standards are set for much lower return periods compared to major cities.

Within Europe, the alarm bells set by climate change seem to induce a phase transition in the opposite direction. Increased uncertainty within climatic probability distributions urges for a transition in which residual risk forms a central component. This results in a policy framework that provides more room for the acceptance of floods and a risk based approach with more emphasis on flood impact reduction. In that respect much can be learned from Asia where much advancement has been made in flood response and recovery. Contrary to Europe, many Asian countries are dealing with multi-hazards and therefore adopt a strategy of continuous adaptation towards hazard impact from which much can be learned on integrated disaster management.

In addressing increased residual risk of extreme events it is vital to limit primary and secondary impact of major floods. Creating learning alliances in which both structural and non-structural responses stemming from both East and West are adopted in integrated flood risk management would one of the most effective and fruitful strategy to meet this challenge. In managing flood risks, especially catastrophic events, much need to be done in reducing impacts as well as improving resilience and capacity to recover. As the globalization process bring urban communities closer with similar lifestyles, infrastructure and lifelines, many lessons can be learned from experiences of not only floods but various other disasters as they act on similar urban communities. Ultimately, there would be some form of universality within extreme events regardless of the origin of the event. While the manifestation of the tragedies of 9/11 and the recent earthquake in China are different, many of the consequences, responses and successful recovery strategies might be similar.

Potential Topics:

-Integrated Urban Flood Management

-Urban Growth and Climate Change as agents of increasing vulnerability

-Universality of the impacts of Extreme Events, and response including financial measures

-Scale and Time issues in vulnerability analysis and adaptation strategies

Europe

Chris Zevenbergen (Duravermeer)

Innovative methods based Dynamic Optimization & Geo-information Technology for Disaster Management

863

Modern geo-information technologies provide tools for operational solutions of many real-world problems in many fields such as, managing effects of environmental, natural, industrial and man-made disasters, etc. Spatial and environmental planning, and early warning coupled with these technologies have to support sustainable development that has important influences on disasters risk reduction. So far, these problems have been solved by traditional methods which are inefficient, very time-consuming and can not match scientific and technological progress in this domain. Therefore, is a clear need to optimise multi-objective processes associated with the design of support tools for effectively solving these problems, as well as in implementation of high quality real-time solutions which are computationally competitive. A scientific approach to the solution of these problems requires dynamic methods in which many objectives need to be quickly and efficiently evaluated and optimised at the same time. In these problems, modelling and monitoring of a hazard whilst creating and evolving an appropriate behaviour in real-time is a complex task. Moreover, the volume of data collected for these problems is growing rapidly and sophisticated means to optimise this volume in a consistent and economical procedure are essential. Therefore, we need innovative ways of thinking and new concepts; dynamic optimisation methods concerned with the uncertainties in these problems. Specifically, this project aims to provide new and powerful optimisation techniques extending current highly successful ideas of artificial intelligence to develop and improve solutions to these problems. These techniques have the potential to provide vital information in real-time that is quicker, better and at lower cost than existing traditional methods. Unfortunately, the use of these techniques in disaster management and planning for rapid emergency response is still to date very rare. This project is intended for researchers and practitioners in many scientific disciplines (e.g., environment, economy, engineering and geosciences, etc).

Many scientific studies have considered the effects of these disasters, but few have searched for ideal solutions. Scientific analysis of hazard data is needed before, during, and after a disaster to understand its effect and dimensions and to determine how best to respond to existing and potential losses and how to aid effectively with recovery activities. A scientific approach to the solution of these problems, which often contain irregularities that influence the performance, is still to date very rare. Much more research is needed as there are many gaps in terms of our knowledge and understanding of the changing environment of these problems which so far have been solved by traditional methods (that deals with one type of process) that are inefficient, time-consuming, and can not match scientific and technological progress in this domain. These non-differentiable problems require robotic algorithms that can provide a degree of functionality for spatial representation and flexibility suitable for quickly creating real-time optimal solutions that account for the uncertainty present in the changing environment of these problems. Moreover, the volume of data collected for these problems is growing rapidly and sophisticated means to optimise this volume in a consistent and economical procedure are essential. Therefore, we need innovative ways of thinking and new concepts: dynamic optimisation methods (that deals simultaneously with several types of processes) concerned with the unpredictable environment of these problems. In particular, there is a lack of the efficient use of the advanced geo-information technologies which are powerful sources for providing accurate information, facilitating communication, and permitting the monitoring of emergency conditions and impacts. This session involves the application of the-state-of-the-art geo-information technology and latest research on how Dynamic Metaheuristic Algorithms can effectively optimise these problems. The development of computationally efficient methods that can address the special needs in spatial decision support applications of disaster managment (e.g., large and complex spatial data management, real-time solutions, location-allocation methods, exploring thoroughly the search domain and speeding up the optimisation process, evaluating and optimising simultaneously a large number of design parameters, and the spatial resolution of the data being used, etc) are lagging behind the general development in the functionality of these technologies used in these applications. By modifying these dynamic methods with their hybrid capabilities to optimise and advance the use of these technologies in disaster management monitoring, the session will be making a significant contribution in this domain. This will have a significant impact in spreading the new and sophisticated tools and producing valuable benefits in efficiency, economy and safety. Therefore, this interdisciplinary session is a promising direction for producing an effective time-efficient solution to disaster management where other methods failed and can not satisfy their requirements

Mediterranean; Turkey and surrounding countries

Hussain SALEH

Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables and nuclear power

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 2.2 - Water for Energy, Energy for Water ‎(20)

Energy use and energy production is perhaps the most important economic, enviromental, and social topic of the 21st century, because anything that matters for economic growth, improvement of the quality of life, environmental sustainability depends on how humanity produces and uses energy. Hydropower is one energy source, and it is important in countries with propitious topography and streamflow. I propose a theme of presentations at the 5th World Water Forum focused on transitioning from a world dependent on fossil fuels to one where renewables, hydropower, nuclear, conservation and efficienty, and to a lesser extent than at present, fossil fuels become a more balanced portfolio of water sources that will meet the pressing needs of economic development, quality of life, and environmental sustainability.

see the text above:

Global

HUGO LOAICIGA GUILLEN (University of California)

Falling Water Levels in Kenya's' Rivers pushes cost of Electricity Higher.

117

Receding Water Levels in Kenya's major rivers have cast a dark shadow on the prospects at a number of hydro power projects in the Country. Experts now warn that new power projects could collapse due to falling water levels caused by the on-going environmental destructions at Mau Forests complex. About ten rivers originating from the Mau Complex also drain into lake Victoria, Africa's largest Fresh-water lake. The Sondu Miriu Hydro-Power project which feeds from the Mau Forests faces collapse as local Power generation and supply companies threaten to hike power charges , only unless urgent and sustainability measures are taken to restore the badly devistatated Forests

How can forum members assist Kenyans push the Government to act fast to restore and sustain the Mau Forest Complex and any other endangered Water towers in Africa. Do we need to wait until we see Rivers disappear and poeple die without fress water? No!

Africa

Charles Owino Ogallo (n/a)

Interdependency of Energy and Water Production Systems

198

I would like to organize a session on how water is used for energy production and how energy is used for water production and delivery. We will also look into the potential for using renewable energy sources for sustainable water treatment and distribution.

The major perspective would be the role of energy in developing sustainable water management systems.

Americas

Tamim Younos (Virginia Water Resources Research Center)

Redefining maximum water level in a stroage reservoir.

233

The basic of reservoir operation principles is determined operation rules in a way to get maximum benefit in terms of storage facility purposes, Which is constructed with high investment. A dam operation policy is defined between maximum water level and minimum water level. Minimum water level is shown possible lowest water level. Maximum water level is also shown possible highest water level.

İn this subject, İt is significant that maximum water level be evaluated as a result of reducing of active volume by siltation. Seyhan dam is given as a sample in order for the subject is understood beter. Seyhan dam is an one which has multiple purposes namely irrigation, energy, flood control and supplying domestic water. Annual forty five percent income water of the dam is gained in the months of March, April and May. İt is important that determining the safely possible level in these months in terms of downstream conditions. İn order to determine this level, İt is required that historical inflow series of the dam and bati metrik map values periodically meausred.

As having had 1.2 km³ active volume in 1956 which is year of starting operation , Seyhan dam had 0.831 km³ active volume in 2005, Thus İt lost 30.75 % of its active volume in 50 years. That’s why , It is required that the maximum water level be generated.

Newly determining of maximum operation level which indicates flood treshold level by taking care of reducing of active volume resulted by sedimantation in storage reservoir.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Hikmet Eroğlu

Water and Power Efficiency of Distributed Recycled Water Systems

273

Water and energy are inextricably linked. Moving water, heating water, treating water are all enormously energy intensive. Further, the production of power consumes vast quantities of water. In an ironic twist, as the world reaches deeper into the ground for water supplies, and moves farther afield to access water, the capability of getting that water to where it is needed requires more power which in turn requires even more water.
Water efficiency then, is power efficiency. And vice versa. If we can reduce the amount of water required for use in a development, a community, a state, a nation and the world, our power requirements will be dramatically decreased. This in turn will reduce the volume of water required for power production, thereby assuring an extended potable supply for humanity. Reducing power requirements also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and their contribution to global climate change.By employing advanced water recycling techniques, the specific energy consumption (kWh per Dwelling Unit per Day) can be reduced by 25 to 50% depending on the source and treatment requirements.
The Global Water Distributed Energy/Water sites are designed around the service requirements of a township (six by six miles, 36 square miles). At a build-out capacity in the order of 70,000 dwelling units, each of these facilities when employed in an Advanced Reclamation configuration can save in the order of 83,000 kWh per day - the equivalent of 3.5 MW of production capacity. When advanced potable water treatment is required (for example seawater desalination) or that source water is required to be transported any appreciable distance, the power savings increase to 290,000 kWh per day - or 12 MW of production capacity.
The deployment of water recycling then, means substantially less power production capacity will be needed. This configuration reduces capital expenditures on power production and transmission facilities, and substantially reduces the production of greenhouse gases. The elimination of greenhouse gas release to the atmosphere will increase the stability of our environment, and decrease variability in water availability.

Global Water is a leader in water reclamation and re-use in the United States. Our mission is to reduce the impact of development on natural resources through the deployment of infrastructure designed to minimize water consumption - and by extension power consumption.

Americas

Graham Symmonds

ENERGY-IRRIGATION AND USAGE OF WATER POWERED PUMP

278

Demand fort the electricity is increasing all over the world. The fossil fuel that is negatively affecting the environment is not a renewable energy. So, the importance of the using the renewable energy is getting popular. The most important renewable energy is water power. Our country is reach for the water potential, but this potential has not been utilized widely. Our country is faced to have drought, global warming thread and desertification risk in the future. The water resources capacity may decrease in the log run.

The energy is necessary for providing water for irrigation, from the different energy sources (such as electricity, diesel fuel or gasoline): The inputs of the energy cost for the agricultural production are quite high and cost of the energy goes over the farmer payment capacity. Most of the time the farmers are not able to get enough income for the payment of the energy cost for the irrigation.

Water powered pomp (WPP) that has been develop in the country recently, does nor need any electricity, diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas for the pumping the water to high elevation. WPP provides irrigation or domestic water without any energy cost. That is a burden for the farmer. The WPP has a water turbine that rotates by kinetic energy of water. Special designed pump and air tank those preventives the cut flows.

Te discharge of the water amount is effecting the pumped water amount and pump height. WPP is a dependable pump which does not have any negative effect on the environment. There will be an investment cost for WPP but the minimum maintenance cost in the long run. WPP can be used for providing domestic or irrigation water in rural areas that does not have electricity a far away from the lect4ricty lines. The WPP has been implemented at different locations successfully in Turkey.

The WPP can be used for providing irrigation and domestic water for the rural areas. It can be used in following conditions:
a) If the farmer pumping the irrigation water by using the electrical or diesel driven motor, it can be replaced by WPP in the rural areas. The farmer will not pay any energy cot for the production of the farm products. The implementations have been done in different locations. For example; 1000 tons/day water has been pumped up to 50 meters by using WPP, without any well known energy types.
b) The rural setlers may provide domestic water from the running water to high elevation by using WPP.

The WPP have some advantages that can be described as follows:

WPP does not need any diesel motor, electricity and natural gas. It has a special pump which gets water from the sources ant pump the high elevation.
WPP uses running water kinetic energy for the pumping water to the farmer fields,
WPP can be use for providing irrigation water, domestic water and industrial water,
WPP is simple device and it can use in many different places,
WPP can be use for drip and sprinkler irrigation method,
WPP works 24 hours a day without stopping,
All the parts can be produced in Turkey; it does not need any imported parts,
Service life is long.
WPP does not need any guard or protective measures.
Maintenance cost is always minimum level.
Dry farmland gets water by implementing WPP. The farmers raise different crops in irrigated land. It is possible to get two or thee harvest from the field if the climatic conditions are suitable.
The farmers get high income from the irrigated fields.
Elimination the energy cost sustains the irrigated farming practice.
WPP is environmental friendly. It does not harm to the nature.
It use small drop of the running water.
WPP is a new invention in all over the world. The patent application has been done in Turkey Patent Office and Switzerland Patent Office (WIPO).

Turkey and surrounding countries

Sahin BEKISOGLU (Dolsar Engineering Limited)

WATER SAVING IN AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT DRIP IRRIGATION AND USAGE OF WATER POWERED PUMP

312

Drip irrigation use water efficiently. A well-designed drip irrigation system loses practically no water to runoff, deep percolation, or evaporation. Irrigation scheduling can be managed precisely to meet crop demands, holding the promise of increased yield and quality. Drip irrigation systems use 30 - 50% less water than conventional watering methods, such as sprinklers.
The main principle of drip irrigation is to give irrigation water to the soil with less amount and short intervals without any stress in the plant because of water shortage in the soil. Irrigation water is given to the soil as drips with low pressure and the entire soil surface is not wetted. Water application efficiency is very high. Yield and quality is high because of soil water content near to field capacity.
Before the installation of drip irrigation system, data needed for design should be collected by a basic investigation, drip irrigation system should be designed according to the present conditions and scientific rules, the dimensions of all the elements of the system should be determined, the farmer should be trained, the problems encountered by farmer should be monitored and the way of solution of these problems should be determined. If only one or some of these actions are omitted, it will not be possible to get a successful irrigation and to get expected benefits.
In the operation stage of drip irrigation, the number of operation unit and the way of scheduling irrigations (time of irrigations, the amount of irrigation water, and irrigation duration) should be determined. Crop water requirements and some instruments such as tensiometers can be used to determine when to irrigate. The main problems encountered in the operation stage of drip irrigation systems are the plugging of emitters, irregular pressure in the system, seepage losses in pipelines, not paying attention to irrigation scheduling. A drip irrigation system can be automated.
With drip irrigation agricultural chemicals can be applied more efficiently. Since only the crop root zone is irrigated, nitrogen already in the soil is less subject to leaching losses, and applied fertilizer N can be used more efficiently. In the case of insecticides, less product might be needed. Drip irrigation prevents soil erosion and nutrient runoff, water logging and soil salination.
Demand fort the electricity is increasing all over the world. The most important renewable energy is water power. Turkey is reach for the water potential. Turkey is faced to have drought, global warming thread and desertification risk in the future. The water resources capacity may decrease in the log run.
The energy is necessary for providing water for irrigation. Energy requirements in modern irrigated agriculture can be considerably high, particularly in those cases when water is lifted from deep wells.
The inputs of the energy cost for the agricultural production are quite high and cost of the energy goes over the farmer payment capacity. Most of the time the farmers are not able to get enough income for the payment of the energy cost for the irrigation.
The energy required to pump irrigation water for irrigated agriculture is measured in terms of fuel use or electric power use. Energy use depends on the amount of water pumped and on the fuel or electric power required to pump each unit of water. The energy required per unit of irrigation water pumped depends on the total dynamic head and the efficiency of the pumping system. The total dynamic head depends on the vertical distance, the pressure required to operate the drip emitters, and the friction losses in drip irrigation system. The efficiency of the pumping system depends on the efficiencies of the pump, power unit, and connecting drive units.
The total dynamic head is the sum of the pumping lift, operating pressure, and friction losses within the drip irrigation system. The pumping lift is the vertical distance from the water source to the entrance to the subunits.
The operating pressure is the pressure required at the entrance to each subunit for the emitters to operate effectively and water to be uniformly distributed. The required pressure is defined by the choice of emitter and the subunit pipe network design. Pipelines are designed to distribute water to the emitters with controlled pressure losses so that water can be uniformly applied throughout the subunit. Operating pressures can be minimized by selecting emitters that operate at low pressures.
Friction losses must be minimized in order to minimize the energy requirements for irrigation pumping. Energy must be provided to overcome friction losses which occur as water flows through all components from the water source and throughout the irrigation system. Some friction losses are unavoidable, even in well-designed, well-constructed, and properly-maintained irrigation systems. However, excessive losses waste energy and should not be tolerated. Proper selection of irrigation system components requires that the cost of energy lost to friction be compared against the cost of larger components with lower friction losses. Then components with the overall lowest cost throughout the expected life of the irrigation system should be selected. In general, friction losses can be minimized by selecting pipe sizes to limit the velocity of flow to 5feet per second (fps) in all mainlines and submains, and selecting valves and fittings compatible with the pipe sizes. Proper maintenance is essential to prevent excessive friction losses as water flows through an irrigation system, especially at points where large pressure losses can easily occur, such as filters and intake strainers on pumps.
The overall efficiency of the pumping system is the multiple of the individual efficiencies of the pump, power unit, and connecting drive units. Energy losses can be minimized by properly selecting, installing, and maintaining each of these components.
The efficiency of irrigation pumps typically ranges from 60 to 90 percent. Pump efficiencies can be much lower than 75 to 80 percent if a pump is not properly selected for a specific application, if it is not operated at the proper speed, or if the impellers or other components are worn or damaged.
Irrigation pumps operate near peak efficiency over a fairly narrow range of discharge rates and pressures. When an irrigation pump is considered for a given application, its pump characteristic curves must be studied to verify that it can operate efficiently at the required discharge rate and pressure. If it cannot, another pump which is efficient at the required operating point should be selected.
Irrigation pumps can be operated at a range of speeds, and the proper speed is required to obtain the required discharge rate and pressure. This is not a problem when the power unit is an electric motor, because the pump will be directly connected to the motor, and the pump speed will be the same as the speed of the electric motor. When an irrigation pump is driven by an internal combustion engine, the proper engine speed must be set by throttling the engine to obtain the desired pump output at high efficiency. The engine should be equipped with a tachometer so that the engine and pump speeds can be accurately set.
Water powered pomp (WPP) that has been develop in Turkey recently, use only hydraulic energy and does nor need any electricity, diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas for the pumping the water to high elevation. WPP provides irrigation or domestic water without any energy cost. That is a burden for the farmer. The WPP has a water turbine that rotates by kinetic energy of water. Special designed pump and air tank those preventives the cut flows.
Te discharge of the water amount is effecting the pumped water amount and pump height. WPP is a dependable pump which does not have any negative effect on the environment. There will be an investment cost for WPP but the minimum maintenance cost in the long run. WPP can be used for providing domestic or irrigation water in rural areas that does not have electricity a far away from the electricity lines. The WPP has been implemented at different locations successfully in Turkey.
The usage of WPP in drip irrigation is very important because this pump doesn’t have any energy cost if there is an flowing water. The drip irrigation system should be designed and managed to minimize energy requirements. There are some drip irrigation products (drippers and other equipments) which can operate at low pressures (LPS-Low Pressure System type). If drip irrigation can be operated with WPP, this will get an important advantage for farmers, decrease the production input costs in suitable areas and also more natural resources are conserved.

Water for agriculture is critical for food security. New investments in irrigation and water supply systems and improved water management can meet part of the demand. Total global water withdrawals for agricultural, domestic, and industrial use are projected to increase and water scarcity for irrigation is projected to decrease. Scarcity of water has always been the dominant factor in agriculture throughout most of the arid regions. Sources of water, especially under arid and semi-arid conditions, are usually very limited in quantity and are not readily available. Competition for water from growing cities, industry and the environment means that irrigated agriculture will not get additional water.
Most of the water in turkey have been using in agriculture (about 70-75%). Water amount which will be saved in agriculture will be very important for the other sectors (domestic or industry).
In Turkey, open canal systems and surface or traditional sprinkler irrigation methods are used mostly. It is possible to get 60% water saving when the irrigation system is changed from surface to drip, and 30% from sprinkler to drip. Excess irrigations cause some problems as soil salinity, decreasing in soil quality and desertification. Pressurized irrigation such as drip irrigation preserve soil, increase yield and quality, decrease water, labor, fertilizer and chemical usage and obtain quality and standardization.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Süleyman KODAL

Water for Energy, Energy for Water- NETAFIM

362

The importance of sustainable Agriculture in general and sustainable water management specifically in the battle for reducing usage of clean water and maximizing energy efficiency.

The importance of sustainable Agriculture in general and sustainable water management specifically in the battle for reducing usage of clean water and maximizing energy efficiency.
As the drip irrigation pioneer Netafim shows a comprehensive approach incorporating cutting edge technologies on the one hand and step by step capacity building process on the other.

Limor Tzion

Water - Energy - Climate: Critical Links

374

Water and energy are inexticably linked. The production and generation of energy uses a significant amount of water. When water is in short supply, energy production can be constrained, and there are concerns that climatic changes will threaten energy production because of the increased risk of drought. The production and use of water also consumes a significant amount of energy. In California, for example, an estimated 19% of the electricity and 33% of the non-electricity natural gas consumption is water-related. As water becomes increasingly scarce, we have a tendency to develop more energy-intensive supplies, e.g., importing water from further away or developing seawater desalination. Climate change, which is projected to increase the intensity and frequency in droughts, along with continued development in water-scarce regions makes securing a safe and reliable water supply increasingly difficult. Fortunately, these challenges present opportunities. This session will explore some of the possible solutions, particularly those that allow us to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change, e.g., solar, wind, water conservation and efficiency, and recycled water.

Many of the discussions about water and energy at past forums have largely focused on hydropower. We have done substantial work on the many other connections between water and energy which will help broaden people's understanding of this complex issue.

Americas

HEATHER SUZANNE COOLEY (n/a)

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRUSTAL CONDUCTIVITY STRUCTURE AND GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

415

It is known that the geothermal potential is higher in the sites where the relatively high conductive zones occurred within tectonically active regions. Several examples on the intepretation of electrical structures found at some geothermal sites using geophysical exploration are firstly presented in this study to stress and to show that the geothermal systems are always seem as the geoelectrically characteristic place. In fact, the bulk resistivity of the rocks in these areas is decrease to the lower values due to circulations of the hydrothermal fluids. On the other hand, the regions where high electrical conductivity and high heat flow due to geothermal activity coexisted are quite much in Western Anatolia.

In this study, the relationships between heat flow regimes and crustal conductivities at the regions where totally six magnetotelluric profiles measured in the Western Anatolia are reviewed. In the Northwestern Anatolia (Sakarya region), Aegean and Southwestern Anatolia the conductive zones were therefore determined from the interpretation of electrical structures obtained by magnetotelluric studies. These zones are considered to investigate relationship mentioned above. In the Sakarya region, two conductive zones could be described; first conducting layer at a depth of 15.8±6.2 km and second conducting layer in the lower crust at a depth 60.0±15.0 km. The SiO2 and Na-Ca-K geothermometer calculations are firstly made using hydrochemical analysis data in these geothermal regions. The heat flow distributions produced from obtained data then linked to the depth data characterized highly conductive zones. Earth’s interior temperature are finally calculated for the interested regions using mathematical equation described this relation, and the depth-temperature graphics are plotted.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Ilyas Caglar

Small regulator type dams in Coruh River Basin

544

Artvin is one the richest city in terms of water resources in our Country. To prevent energy shortages in the Country, establishment of small regulator type dams have been fastened. For this purpose, 101 small dams have been planned on the branches of Coruh river. However, when we examined these projects, one can easily see that they lack careful
examination of environment. Irrigation and drinking water needs of surrounding villages haven’t been considered. Ecologically important areas such as riparian forests will be
negatively effected from the small dams. Aquatic plants and animals will lose most of their habitats.

Decrease in the number of small dams, closing regultors during the times when the water level is low, careful consideration local peoples irrigation and drinking water needs, are the measures that need to be taken to solve the problems.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Sinan Güner (Artvin Çoruh Üniversitesi)

El Cajon and La Yesca Hidropower Plants

559

The Federal Commission of Mexico (CFE), in order to face increasing demands of electricity of a growing country, has built the hydroelectric plant “El Cajón”, the second largest hydropower plant in the country (750 MW). “El Cajón” provides an additional 8% hydropower capacity to Mexico. It is a major Mexican civil engineering work with an investment of 800 million USD. It represents a breakthrough in terms of unique financial structuring. The dam was completed in 2007.

Using a similar scheme, “La Yesca”, another hydropower project located 65 km upstream of “El Cajon”, will add an additional 8% of hydropower capacity for Mexico. These works show the priority Mexico is giving to renewable energy generation, using the great potential that exist in the region for hydropower development.

The National Water Commission of Mexico (CONAGUA), organizer of the 4th World Water Forum, and the federal agency responsible of water policy and management in a country with 105 million inhabitants and 6.5 million hectares of irrigated land, would like to continue strengthening partnerships internationally, to share experiences in the application of two basic principles: integrated water resources management using watersheds as the management unit, and stakeholder participation as an indispensable ingredient to successful project planning and implementation.

Knowing that water problems require the coordinated efforts of several institutions, CONAGUA has strengthened partnerships with different agencies and ministries of the Federal, State and Municipal Governments, as well as with international organizations, to implement its projects.

Americas

José Luis Luege Tamargo

Jose Antonio Rodriguez Tirado (Comision Nacional del Agua)

Water for energy, energy for water

593

Basin management and basin transportation with taking energy and so or.

The importance of basin management and requirement of energy consuming from reservior.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Sezai Sucu

Water Energy: Difficulties and Opportunities

642

According to the world leaders, water is the most important issue among the top priorities. Even poverty and food security comes after this issue. In this contribution, the potential of the water energy, the situation of water energy within other energy sources will be presented. Additionally, the difficulties encountered in the development of water energy and the opportunities and factors affecting the market will be explained. Finally, the condition of water energy in Turkey along with some suggestions will be expressed.

Local renewable energy resources should be considered initially and the use of these sources should be encouraged. Sustainability principle should be the basis in the production and usage of energy. The technical evaluations should be carried out on a catchment basis in order to determine and develop the small hydroelectricity potential and feasibility. The on-going investments, in Turkey, should be accelerated, the licences given should be monitored carefully and necessary sanctions should be put in force. The last but not the least, the educational policies should be developed to provide necessary human resources in energy sector.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Doğan Altınbilek (International Water Resources Association)

Wastewater as a resource - sanitation and agriculture

657

Wastewater must be considered as resource in terms of water, nutrients and energy. If wastewater and excreta are collected at source, they can easily be recycled after adequate treatment. These closing the loop-systems (in particular for single households or small settlements) are designed for the collection of source separated wastewater fractions such as urine, faeces, blackwater and greywater. These products are of interest in the agricultural sector as substitutes for chemical fertilisers and irrigation water. The nutrients from the excreta of 30 persons are sufficient to fertilise about one hectare agricultural land. With increasing costs for chemical fertilisers as well as rising prices for agricultural products, organic fertilisers of this type will be on demand in a way that we have not yet seen. Of particular interest is the recovery and reuse of phosphorous (P). Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource and similarly limited as oil. It is a mineral and it is easy to recycle. When P is recycled, it is simple to recycle nitrogen at the same time. Sustainable wastewater management allows major recycling of all nutrients.
Farmers are however not aware of the potential of these fertilisers or hesitate to use these products although they present a reliable source.

In this session, success-stories and good experiences of using treated wastewater and excreta in agriculture are presented from all over the world. Ways to improve the communication and cooperation between sanitation and agricultural experts are suggested.

Proposed coordinators:
Prof. Gerald Rahmann, Institute of Organic Farming, Westerau University, Germany
Dr. Joachim Clemens, Bonn University
Dr. Susanne Herbst, Bonn University
Anna Richert, Stockholm, Sweden
Myrzabay Dooranov, NGO ULGU, Kyrgystan
Vishvanath Srikantaiah, Bangalore, India, reuse of urine and wastewater

WECF and its partners have local experiences as well as on policy level and want wastewater to be considered as a resource.

Claudia Wendland (WECF - Women in Europe for a Common Future)

Optimization of energy requirements of desalination and wastewater reclamation

663

The contribution will analyze energy use of desalination processes and wastewater reclamation technologies. New engineering solutions that result in reduction of energy requirements will be discussed. Feasibility of integration of desalination processes with renewable energy sources will be evaluated. examples of low cost, energy efficient technical solutions for improving potable water quality at remote locations will be presented.

The contribution will provide information on possibilities and limitations of current state of the art of commercial desalination technology as an alternative for augmentation of potable water supply. It will include information on affordability and environmental impact of present technology and projected future development

Turkey and surrounding countries

Mark Wilf

Water for energy and energy for water

666

I propose that a moderated session be held on the following topic. I would be willing to moderate the session. The goal of this session is to develop frameworks for identifying the most significant and likely gains in water savings in energy use sectors and energy savings in water use sectors that can be made in the next 30 years and the accompanying policy changes need to realize these gains. This assessment needs to be made geographically and under key scenarios, such as future energy and water policy, energy and water price trends, energy infrastructure development, climate change, population change, and land use change. Outcomes from this assessment will include critical information for energy and water policy makers for making strategic decisions on issues such as water resources allocation, energy development portfolios, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

I am a hydrologist at a technological university in the US, interested in water resources policy.

Americas

ALEX MAYER (n/a)

Water for Energy, Energy for Water

675

I will like to participate this and similar topics to share mutual experience on Fluids. With the reduction of water sources and increase at population of nations, these two items shall have major importance for sustainable development of nations. More reliable and cost effective solutions for the design of the Treatment and Usage of portable water can be done. For example instead of using lower efficient equipment we can use Eff1 equipment, even though the initial cost will be high, covering time will be short. I will like to share my engineering way of look in this discussion topic. I can send more comments if you like...

*Lowering the energy consumption at particular usage of water. This will lower the energy consumption.
*Increasing the awareness via meetings.
*Focusing on new technological innovations to reduce energy consumption and reuse of Treated waste water.
*To increase the educational level of the site engineers and technicians.
*Developing more reliable and restrictive water policy and controlling the leakage from the source to residence.

Turkey and surrounding countries

Bahri Kerem Yalkın (Grundfos Management A/S)

The Use of GIS for the Prediction of the Drainage Basins Runoff

711

The curve number method developed by the Soil Conservation Service is being used for the planning of water structures. This method which has developed taking into account soil group, vegetation cover, land use parameters of a basin, has been used extensively in Turkey. The accuracy and sensitivity of the method in calculating curve number is based how accurate these parameters determined in the basin conditions. In the classic SCS method, curve number shows surface runoff coming from the basin area as a whole without being distributed. In this study, SCS curve number calculated with measured rainfall and runoff hydrologic data from a basin has been used with modified topographic index and taking into account these indexes, distribution of areas contributing to runoff has been determined through GIS. According to the results of this study, water amount coming from a basin has been predicted quantitatively in the pixel scale, it will also be available to make a qualitative prediction with the addition of water quality data.

The importance of basin water management and requirement of run off for the energy projects.
To increase the educational level of the technicians and engineers

Turkey and surrounding countries

İnci TEKELİ (Soil Fertilizer and Water Resources Research Institute)

The necessity and importance of redesign and re-engineering of energy resources configuration, regarding to water supply and agricultural production situation

880

Meanwhile the global price of fuel is being increased presently and available water expenses is not independent from the energy price, therefore agricultural production price is being mainly enhanced with rising of fuel price. It seems that it is essential to carry out redesign and re-engineering of energy resources configuration for reducing energy expenses. for example, changing the contribution of unconventional hydro station ( such as pumped storage) or renewable source of energy in the total configuration of power system, would affect fuel consumption amount in thermal stations, and therefore play main role in energy crisis.

Consequently, the price of available water would be affected by any variation in the configuration of power production system according to different sources of energies.

1-What is the role of unconventional hydropower station such as pumped storage in water and power supply stability?
2-what is the best configuration of energy resources to meet main goals of "energy for water" and "water for energy" .In this regard, how much is the best contribution of renewable resources of energy to achieve sustainable development?
3-what can we do for prevention of energy prices enhancement as well as agricultural production price? Do we need to change our targets , objectives and tools?

Asia-Pacific

Eisa Bozorgzadeh

Agriculture and Lack of Access to Safe Water in Sub-Saharan Africa

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 2.3 - Water and Food for Ending Poverty and Hunger ‎(4)

496

In terms of the proportion of the poor, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the only region in the world where poverty has been rising overtime. Moreover, the poor are relatively worse off compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world. Various studies demonstrate a strong link between poverty and water. For example, in the report of SESRIC titled “Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Situation in the OIC Member Countries” (2007), results of the empirical models show that percentage of rural population having access to safe water sources is a significant determinant of both under-five mortality rates and life expectancy. Water is an essential element to sustain life. The dependency of secure food and freedom from diseases on water is obvious. Availability of clean water is an important determinant of social development. For these reasons, access to safe drinking water is a development target and linked to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals.
There are fundamental global climate changes in the world that are affecting water resources. Water quantities in rivers, lakes and groundwater storage are diminishing due to lower precipitation and higher evaporation. Moreover, the increasing problem of pollution damages the lives of those without access to adequate and safe drinking water. In UN Millennium Development Goals Report (2008), it is stated that although there is not yet a global water shortage, about 2.8 billion people, representing more than 40 % of the world's population live in river basins with some form of water scarcity.
Water is essential for improvements in agriculture which in return affects social development. Given the above statement of the UN report, it can be concluded that although water is not limiting for agriculture globally, due to the heterogeneity of countries, some of the countries may require water management systems. Countries in SSA, especially the land-locked ones, are among these countries. There are five land-locked member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in SSA. These countries, together with Sudan and Nigeria, account for over 70 % of the total population and land area of the Sub-Saharan OIC members. In this connection, SESRIC 2007 report strongly recommends researches to identify the determinants of agricultural productivity differentials among the member countries.
Since availability of water is among the determinants of the agricultural productivity, the aim of this proposed study is to review and examine the performance of the countries in the region in terms of water use in agriculture and food production with special emphasis on irrigation. In the first part of the study, a clear picture of the state of water resources and their use in agriculture in the SSA member countries with emphasis on the importance of groundwater resources and irrigation systems will be provided. In the second part, depending on the findings of the first part, short and long-term policies, water management systems which will lead increases in the productivity performance of these countries will be suggested. It is hoped that the conclusions reached will serve the policy makers while they make their decisions to improve the situation in SSA.

The special position of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa

sidika basci (SESRIC-Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries)

Topic 2.3 - Water and Food for Ending Poverty and Hunger

555

Food security for Mexico

Sinaloa State has the highest grain and vegetable production in Mexico with an annual yield of 11 million tons.

In order to achieve this degree of development, it has been necessary to build a very important infrastructure that is very efficiently operated. As part of it, we can mention 11 reservoirs, 9000 km of conveyance channels and 8600 km of drainage channels.

It has also been very important the capacity building process orientated to farmers and the implementation of adequate commercialization schemes.

The annual value of farming production in the State of Sinaloa is around 3000 million USD.

The National Water Commission of Mexico (CONAGUA), organizer of the 4th World Water Forum, and a federal agency responsible of water policy and management in a country with 105 million inhabitants and 6.5 million hectares of irrigated land, would like to continue strengthening partnerships internationally, to share experiences in the application of two basic principles: integrated water resources management using watersheds as the management unit, and stakeholder participation as an indispensable ingredient to successful project planning and implementation.

Americas

José Luis Luege Tamargo

Jose Antonio Rodriguez Tirado (Comision Nacional del Agua)

Topic 2.3 - Water and Food for Ending Poverty and Hunger

585

Some comments

Page 9
I didn’t find in external factors one very important growing competition between hydropower production and irrigation, taking into account difference in the regime of rivers required for both users. Preferable winter regime of HPS created artificial water scarcity for irrigation instead of multiyear regulation in the reservoirs. As cost of energy jumped already up to 8-10 cent/kwh - irrigation that benefit 4-6 cent/kwh, can’t compete with growing hydropower egoism. We need to be carefull!!!
Page 10
Failure of 8-10 Mha irrigated lands from cultivation since 1990 remained without attention in the report (I sometime underlined such especially of Eastern Europe and NIS). But it is almost 5 % of global irrigated capacity. We should stress and concentrate view of Ministerial level on this harm to achievement MDGs, because it is connected with huge losses in food production, welfare of rural population and employment. Results - new flow of “guest workers” to Western Europe and urban settlements of NIS.
Page 12-13
Key question II. I want to repeat again - importance of irrigation is not only food market in rural development and poverty alleviation. Irrigation creates accompanied effect in agroindustry, rural service at least 2,5 times more than direct benefit from irrigated agriculture (without account of market benefit). It’s data from our investigation in Central Asia. Data from Western states in USA even more - 1 $ of benefit in irrigation created 4,3 $ accompanied effect. So we must underline that irrigation is a driver for rural development not only through market but through chain of processing of raw products and promotion of service sector in rural area. I can prepare for WWF an analysis for presentation. Another specific - food market has transfer benefit from rural area to urban because most of wholesale profit remained in urban banking system. Promotion of development in agroindustry on the rural area is the most effective way to combat poverty in rural area.
Page 16-17
Key question IV. Increase of global food process led to unproportional growth of price for end-users. Last tendency indicated that one reason of increasing quantity of undernourished people is unability to buy food. As an example - market prices of rice in Uzbekistan (3-4 $/kg) are threefold more than wholesale price and even more as compared with world price.
So, measure for limitation of huge profit of market dealers should be recommended for natural policy in developing and emerging countries.
Page 20
Recommendations should be added by the development of IWRM and consulting services as two principal ways for solution of food problems in the world.

Victor Dukhovny

Topic 2.3 - Water and Food for Ending Poverty and Hunger

649

organizing a session with inputs from staff at IWMI, UNEP, FAO, and other multilateral organizations.

A session that will focus on the inter-linkages between efficient and effective agricultural water use, food security, water security, environmental sustainability and public health

The centrality of sustainable agricultural practices to ensuring food security and water security, and achieving other related MDGs globally

Global

M. Gopalakrishnan (International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage)

Topic 2.3 - Water and Food for Ending Poverty and Hunger

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 2.4 - Multiple Use and Functions of Water Services ‎(1)

898

Water management on the Lower Durance (Basse Durance): an example of multi-participant cooperation to balance varied water usage

Over centuries, canals for agricultural use have multiplied in the Durance Valley, enabling a gravitational supply of water for an extensive part of the Bouches du Rhône and Vaucluse, 2 administrative regions of the South of France. The increase in demand and the Mediterranean regime of the Durance quickly give way to shortages in the summer season. To deal with these problems, the State passed a law in 1907 creating the Durance Executive Commission (CED). This Commission, placed under the direction of the French Ministry of Agriculture, is comprised in equal parts, of State representatives and agricultural canal managers. In this capacity, it manages distribution apportionment on the basis of availability of the natural flow rate of the waterway.

In 1955, hydroelectric development projects implemented throughout the valley by Electricité de France (EDF: the main electricity generation and distribution company in France.) have made it possible to safeguard the resource to a great extent by the construction of the Serre-Ponçon Dam (1.2 billion cubic meters, 200 million of which are reserved for agriculture and can be used in the summer season).

Since it is largely dependant on weather conditions, the natural flow rate of the Durance cannot fully meet the canal supply needs. The CED centralizes data, assesses the situation and, if necessary, dictates preventive restriction measures.

The effects of the various crises that have occurred over the past several years, including the crisis of 2007, were lessened as a result of the solidarity between members and the development of consensus. They required ever-increasing interaction with EDF, key partner in the management of agricultural reserves as provider of both raw data and weather forecasting.

Water is used for numerous purposes: agriculture, replenishment of the water table, maintenance of the lush Provençal countryside, tourism development and water supply for towns located along the irrigated zone. New environmental and economic constraints - climate change, extensive droughts, security, water conservation, hydroelectric production, alluvium management, flooding, water quality, the overall ecological condition of the Durance and the tourism aspect of Serre-Ponçon Dam - are all involved in this manifold usage of water.

A major development plan can ensure equilibrium between these various uses. “Using Water Well” is a cultural reality in Provence. The concept depends on cooperation between the various parties involved and on the continuous modernization of the gravity-flow canal for balanced, resource-safeguard management.

Shows how the multiple uses of water and ever-increasing constraints require cooperation between the many parties involved - which sometimes have diverging interests - It shows also the necessary development in the functioning of the structure in charge of this cooperation and created on purpose, so as to better deal with evolving conditions (fluctuations in demand, climate change, etc.).

Europe; Mediterranean

Topic 2.4 - Multiple Use and Functions of Water Services

Topic as originally proposed : Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation ‎(16)

445

Iran and Afghanistan cooperation in Hirmand (Helmand) River and rehabilitation of Hamoon Lakes by in

According to Hirmand (Helmand) River Water Treaty 1973 between Iran and Afghanistan and with regards to its Protocol No.1, both countries have participated Hirmand (Helmand) River common commissioners sessions since 2003. During above sessions two countries try to solve problems about Iran water rights based on monthly table of water distribution (Protocol No.2) and also other common activities in the river. Because of droughts of 2 past decades and also water consumption in upstream of river (Afghanistan), the unique Hamoon Lakes ecosystem harms severely and both countries decided to rehabilitate Hamoon Lakes with cooperation of international organizations such as UNEP, UNDP and GEF. The process of proposed project started at 2003 and 3 trilateral sessions between Iran, Afghanistan and UNEP has done in Geneva and Tehran.

What we want to discuss now, is international special attentions and its role for implementation of agreements between two countries and international organization and accelerates the previous attempts for rehabilitation of Hamoon lakes ecosystems for living of human, agriculture and animals.

Asia-Pacific

Alireza Najafi

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

776

Water governance at the catchment scale in South Africa

In South Africa, the 1998 National Water Act introduced new, decentralized management organizations: catchment management agencies (CMAs) and committees (CMCs) as well as water user associations (WUAs). These organizations have encouraged the emergence of public policy networks, which operate based on negotiation between stakeholders. However, despite a clear political will and considerable economic investment, these mechanisms are having difficulty getting off the ground. Their operation has so far been hampered by a lack of skills and information, and by conflicts of interest.

The UMR G EAU and its South African partners are working to consolidate these organizations by offering them tools and methods that should support them in conducting negotiations and making decisions. Research has been conducted since 2002 on the socioeconomic approaches, tools and methods that would enable stakeholders to negotiate and make collective decisions more effectively, to ensure sustainable water management.

A partial equilibrium economic model has been developed to interpret the intersectorial competition in terms of demand for water on the Steelpoort catchment area level. It also makes it possible to calculate an equilibrium price for the resource. The economic value of water, for domestic and production use, has been estimated based on surveys in rural areas. Likewise, a precise typology of stakeholders and uses has also been established for the Steelpoort, Kat River and Sekororo catchments. A dynamic system model (AWARE) and an educational role-playing game, derived from the model, have been used during training sessions organized for staff members from the Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry, and included as part of training programmes for staff members from the new catchment management agencies. Using an adaptive modelling approach, the multisectorial WUA established in Kat River has been able to draw up a catchment management plan in line with the new Water Act.

Experimental use of the role-playing game developed in the field with the Kat River WUA attempted to address a very specific research problem: the intrinsic lack of repeatability of adaptive modelling approaches, which makes it impossible to extrapolate information from one play session to other situations. To address this issue, an experimental protocol was developed to test the economic hypotheses that emerged during role-playing game sessions. The problem of the repeatability of the approach is also being studied under another UMR G-EAU project in South Africa, aimed at building an abstract catchment area model and establishing an easily transferable participatory approach that could be adopted on a larger geographical and institutional scale than that of small and medium-sized catchment areas.

Research is continuing: a project entitled ARISE was launched in 2007 within the South African-French Network for Research in Water Science and Technology (SAFeWater), for a four-year period. It aims to develop ways of solving multi-stakeholder water resource governance problems in rural areas. It will also serve to strengthen cooperation between French and South African research teams, particularly in terms of university teaching and capacity building of young researchers.

Site Web: www.ceepa.co.za/arise.html

References

Farolfi S., Gumede H., Rowntree K., Jones N. 2008. Local water governance in South Africa: to which extent participatory approaches facilitate multi-stakeholder negotiations? The Kat River Valley experience, Proceedings of the XIII World Water Congress, Montpellier, 1-4 September,

http://wwc2008.msem.univ-montp2.fr/index.php?page=proceedings&abstract_id=123

Speelman S., Farolfi S., Perret S., D'haese L., D'haese M. 2008. Irrigation Water Value at Small-scale Schemes: Evidence from the North West Province, South Africa, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 24 (4): 621-633.

Dinar A., Farolfi S., Patrone F., Rowntree K., 2008. To negotiate or to game theorize: evaluating water allocation mechanisms in the Kat Basin, South Africa. In: Dinar et al. (ed.). Game theory and policy making in natural resources and the environment. Routledge, 85-111.

Banda B., Farolfi S., Hassan R., 2007. Estimating water demand for domestic use in rural South Africa in absence of price information. Water Policy, 9: 513-528.

Farolfi S., Mabugu R., Ntshingila S., 2007. Domestic water uses and values in Swaziland: contingent valuation analysis. Agrekon, 46: 157-170.

Farolfi S., Rowntree K., 2007. Accompanying local stakeholders in negotiation processes related to water allocation through simulation models and role-playing games: an experience from South Africa. Empowers Insights, 1: 5-7.

Perret S., Farolfi S., Hassan R. 2006. Water governance for sustainable development: Approaches and lessons from developing and transitional countries, Earthscan, 368p.

Hassan R, Farolfi S. 2005. Water value, resource rent recovery and economic welfare cost of environmental protection: A water-sector model for the Steelpoort sub-basin in South Africa , Water SA, 31 (1): 9-16.

...

Stefano Farolfi

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

787

Conclusions and recommendations 4th International River Restoration Conference Venice, San Servolo Island 15-21 June 2008

Introduction

This summary paper on conclusions & recommendations of the 4^th International Conference on River Restoration aims at identifying the key issues for river restoration for the near future, as they were noted during key note presentations and workshops. Individual sections elaborate in statements on the state-of-the-art in river restoration today and the key aspects for the future, and on the interaction between the EU and river restoration. The paper concludes with an elaboration on the envisioned role of the ECRR and its activities in contributing towards preparing river restoration for the future

The authors wish to thank all key note speakers for their insights and experiences made available, and all workshop and session chairs for their stimulating and useful summary contributions which all lay at the basis of this paper.

State-of-the-art in river restoration

From the multitude of abstracts read and presentations heard, past and present features of river restoration practices can be characterized in an number of statements:

- Often the term “river restoration” does not concern with ecological restoration, the terminology of river restoration is misused for other purposes;

- River restoration is more research oriented instead of focusing on the practical implementation;

- Predominantly river restoration is tackled on a small-scale, focusing on the river, more rarely on (part of) the floodplain, while hardly ever on the river basin. It is often unsure whether local restoration efforts tackle the impact of relevant larger-scale regional factors on the right location;

- Only occasionally clear descriptions of reference situation are used to elaborate or define envisioned future ecological “wish” conditions to be aimed for after completion of river restoration activities;

- Rarely objectives to produce targetable and measurable outcomes for river restoration are defined in advance;

- Often the broad possibilities featured by river restoration meet with entrenched practices and mind-setting: commonly implementation of river restoration is dominated by engineering towards modifying hydro-morphological processes;

- Increasingly river restoration faces a policy delivery gap: growing organizational complexity, tighter procedures and control enforced by government authorities and funding agencies oppose the need for divergent risk strategies;

- During the latest decades new policy drivers linking to river restoration surface, e.g. risk management, flood safety;

- In implementing river restoration, predominantly an explanation is given of selected species development instead of an interpretation whether or not movement in the “right”, predefined, integrated ecological objectives. In this, descriptions of local changes prevail, commonly supported by statistical analysis “before” and “after” intervention;

River restoration ready for the future

The presentations and discussions of the conference participants however also demonstrated that as a result of the expansion of river restoration projects being implemented during the last 10-15 years, an increased learning from practice can be observed. There is a progressively growing awareness and knowledge among stakeholders of the need to use new approaches. More and more national policies become available and/or are under implementation, while there is more attention for the regional differences within Europe. Last but not least, the is an increased awareness and understanding of opportunities and benefits related with river restoration among the various stakeholder levels. More specifically, a number of more specific observations on the future to river restoration are formulated:

- River restoration should target at restoring complete ecosystems and ecosystem processes, in which, as in undisturbed nature, dynamism is a key feature, expressed as the self-sustaining capacity of river and stream ecosystems and their capacity to respond to imposed external environmental changes. In this, hydro-morphological processes remain a key factor in steering ecosystem processes and ecosystem quality;

- Uncertainty is inherent in ecosystem processes, guided by changing environmental conditions and human activities. On the one hand the capability to predict the effects of interventions needs to be improved, but on the other hand the understanding and level of acceptance of uncertainty in restored ecosystem processes as well;

- A pre-intervention, preferably quantified, definition of ecological success criteria is necessary to assess the success level of river restoration;

- In defining ecological success criteria, historic standards may be largely inappropriate due to the need to take external changes into account (climate change, human population growth, land use changes, economic developments, etc.). Therefore, design rivers for the future with respect for the past, with the understanding that only selected services can be realistically restored;

- River restoration should aim at tackling or contributing to solving regional impact factors, from the river to the basin via the floodplain. Key targets in these are restoring of lateral and longitudinal connectivity, both aquatic and terrestrial;

- River restoration remains to be based on scientific processes and predictions to anticipate outcomes and guide design. Meanwhile, research should shift more towards supporting practical on-the-ground implementation;

- With increasing scale, river restoration should be based on multidisciplinary, adaptive management approaches and the acceptance of non-stationarity. With increased scale, public involvement in planning, monitoring & appraisal, social processes and interactions between stakeholders are increasingly important. Engaging the range of stakeholders in decision-making processes and most specifically the ‘public’ in all its diversity is the major challenge. A better analysis of the possible conflicts and synergies between ecological and social functions of river restoration projects allows a better understanding of the needs of nature and the use of people;

- In planning and assessment, river restoration should use approaches including multi-criteria analysis, cost benefit analysis, economic evaluation. This requires also the elaboration of pre-interference restoration appraisal plans, as well as adequate (long-term) multi-level monitoring, including the monitoring of restored processes and distinguishing effects from natural variability from intervention impact. Monitoring could vary from in-depth scientific monitoring at a few selected sites, to expert opinion and small scale local stakeholder monitoring.

River restoration and the EU

The embedding of river restoration into an appropriate policy context is crucial to decision-making processes and implementation practices towards reaching defined results. In western Europe, policy such as the WFD has been an effective driver although slow to makes its effect felt. In other regions (e.g. Eastern Europe, Latin America) policy exists but government is weak or failing; here the roles of academic institutions and civil society to act as an ‘honest broker’ to support policy implementation are critical. In most cases there is a gap between policy development and practice, in which learning processes linking the two are lacking.

Commonly agreement exists, both within EU authorities and ECRR delegates, that on the one hand river restoration practices are being supportive to the implementation of various EU Directives, while on the other hand the implementation obligations under the EU Directives often are a driving force for the implementation of river restoration projects. The sustainable maintenance of biodiversity is especially the objective of the combined implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Bird & Habitat Directives (BHD), especially in Natura-2000 sites. Implementation of the WFD deals strongly with the reduction of nutrients and micro pollutants, while river restoration is based on an integrated ecosystem development approach. This difference creates obvious good opportunities, but also some threats with respect to an effective joined implementation of both river restoration measures and the EU directives.

Although there is a common understanding that river restoration is more than an instrument to implement EU Directives’ obligations, river restoration practices can contribute to creating habitats (Habitat, Bird Directives, Natura 2000), reduction of flooding (Flood Risk …), pollution abatement. The EU and related national implementation programmes can therefore be targeted to finance river restoration, especially when river restoration targets are formulated in line with programmes on flood defence, water quality improvement, the Common Agricultural Programme, ecological networks, etc. The ECRR in this could assist EU member states in implementing EU Directives using river restoration where it is the most cost-effective instrument to obtain good ecological quality.

However, questions remain, mainly dealing with river restoration in relation to river basin management, variability in ecological and physio-chemical targets, the protection of wetlands in relation to water quality and quantity status, the position of saturated and unsaturated groundwater zones, and the contribution of restored sites to the environmental cost recovery. Also unclear is how river restoration can best formally be included into the programs of measures under EU directives. While EU directives have a strong legislative basis, there is quite some flexibility possible in the implementation of river restoration measures.

The ECRR

The European Centre for River Restoration is an excellent platform providing both scientists, project managers and decision-takers with the opportunity for a regular refocusing of actual practices and outlook into future human developments and their impact on river restoration.

The network function of the ECRR translates into several proposed strategic fields of activities for the ECRR:

- Policy support: The ECRR should be the supportive link between the EU and the professionals who have to apply the WFD and related directives. The ECRR should collect questions and problems from the different member states of the EU and should reflect on these in reports to the EU, proving the achievements of the EU Directives’ goals in the light of socio-economic benefits they can provide to the society (economic evaluation as a pillar to prove the goodness of river restoration). More wider the ECRR should also disseminate information on good experiences with river restoration (projects) as a possible solution to these problems, including the communication of common policy vision at international and national platforms like the EU, the 5^th World Water Forum etc.

- Cooperation: the ECRR has a key role in providing support to strengthening the national and international networks. One way to do so is by expanding the number of official cooperation agreements with trans-national and national organizations. The ECRR should aim for more and stronger cooperation with NGOs, to assure better project implementation through commitment of local communities and stakeholders towards river, wetland and floodplain restoration.

- Information: Conference participants generally agreed on the need for a best practices database and toolkit on river restoration & river management techniques, based on commonly accepted guidelines as to what can be considered as best practice and expert assessment of selected projects. The database & toolkit should be structured in accordance with the different fields of application, with both scientific and non-scientific evidence included and accessible in various ways. Improved communication at several levels of difficulty aims at targeting researchers, policy makers, practitioners and the public alike. Instruments available include an improved newsletter a distant e-learning course on techniques & best practices on river restoration, regional seminars, international conferences, publication of proceedings, etc. The ECRR intends to target EU funding to further elaborate this strategic field of activities.

- Communication: Strategic objective for the ECRR is to promote the translation from research oriented local river restoration activities to the elaboration and implementation of integrated larger-scale practical activities. As such, ECRR activities aim at increasing the knowledge base and common understanding of expectations among scientists, practitioners and decision-takers at the European level by means of publications, website conferences, all tailor-made based on the recognition of the various stakeholder groups – technical disciplines, policy makers, decision makers, practitioners, funders, etc. The ECRR should emphasis the link between the strategic and operational levels, by improving the knowledge base of decision takers (awareness raising) and improving the understanding of scientists and practitioners on relevance and complexity at the policy level. It also provides scientists and practitioners with opportunities to exchange experiences and best practices. In name of its members, the ECRR serves as a representative to international and national platforms like the national governments and the EU, at international conferences, river basin commissions, the World Water Forum, etc., where the common view on river restoration can be expressed.

Authors: Bart Fokkens, Harald Leummens

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Bart Fokkens

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

790

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently projected that by 2050 more than one billion people in Asia alone will experience negative impacts due to insufficient water resources. Left unchecked, water scarcity could potentially lead to a range of security challenges with profound global consequences. In response to this enormous challenge, the Asia Society launched an initiative with the goal of mobilizing Pan-Asian support, both publicly and politically, for solutions to address environmental change and the looming water crisis in the region.

As part of this effort, the Asia Society formed a High-Level Task Force on Water Security to examine decreased access to a safe, stable supply of water as a driver of political and social instability and conflict in Asia. In addition to identifying potential destabilizing forces and likely hot spots in the region, the task force members put forward a comprehensive set of policy recommendations in support of cooperative approaches to prevent, manage and respond to water scarcity and its impacts. The members of the task force include current and former senior government officials, leaders from business and civil society, scientists and experts—who together represent the best thinking on these issues. The first report of the task force provided a forward looking action plan outlining how governments, businesses, NGOs, and regional and international organizations can work together to address the challenges associated with water security and how good water governance, efficiency, transparency and equity advances conflict management/prevention.

The following questions will be addressed at this session:

What is the current state of water scarcity issues in Asia and what are the security linkages/implications?
How will tomorrow’s water disputes look different from today’s disputes? What are the potential areas of conflicts and/or destabilization related to water in Asia?
What are the relationships between water scarcity, on the one hand, and conflict and cooperation, on the other? How can good water management advance conflict management/prevention?

What can be done to strengthen global responses to water-related issues? Is there a region-wide approach/strategy to good water governance that can be adapted to local conditions?

...

Asia-Pacific

Hikaru Shoji (Japan Water Forum)

792

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

1. I worked for over 30 years as a Government of Bangladesh negotiator on issues pertaining to sharing and management of water resources of International Transboundary rivers like the Ganges, the Brahmmaputra, Teesta etc in the South Asian region. My experience and knowledge of the South Asian arena establish that basinwide cooperation among the co-basin countries of Transboundary rivers like the Ganges and the Brahmmaputra can radically improve the fate of millions of people living in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. There is no better alternative to basinwide cooperation in the South Asia to overcome the perennial problems of floods and dry season water scarcities which frustrate the development in different countries.

I have lot of publications on Transboundary river issues and on the 1997 UN Convention of the Law on Non-Navigational Uses of International water Courses. I am a member of the Indo Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission fro about last 10 years. I had been the Lead Bangladesh Negotiator on Transboundary Water with Nepal, Bhutan and India. I also Worked as the Director General of Water Resources Planning Organisation (WARPO) of Bangladesh and was responsible fro formulating the National Water Policy for Bangladesh and outlining the National Water Management Plan for the country. I had played a pioneering role in participatory water management and propagated the idea of ‘Making Water Everybody’s business’ throughout the country. Have the experience of delivering the lecture on water issues in more than 30 capitals in the world. My latest publication is the book entitled ‘ Transboundary Water Issues in South Asia’ which was launched by Bangladesh Water Partnership very recently. From my experience in the topic, I also express to become a panelist in the session.

...

Asia-Pacific

Taeko Yokota (Japan Water Forum)

793

Learning From a 100 years of Transboundry Lake Management

Introduction:

Lake and reservoirs hold about 90% of Earth’s fresh water and are of great economic, ecological and cultural importance. They are also a source of protein for lake communities, source of drinking water, and also a source for irrigation, commerce, transportation, tourism, recreation. But most of the world’s lakes are in crisis due to accelerated eutrophication; contamination by toxic inputs from industry, agriculture, sewage; overfishing; and invasions by exotic species (or foreign species) of animals and plants. Some of the problems such as eutrophication, invasion by exotic species and impact of climate change are global and need common and innovative approaches which have to go beyond scientific fixes to include institutional strengthening, and better management and governance approaches.

Coordinated jointly by GEF and UNU-INWEH, this special session on lake management at WWF 5 will explore the lessons learned from over a 100 years of managing shared transboundary lakes (e.g., by the IJC). It will offer a platform to promote communication and network between key players including policymakers, decision makers and scientists. It will also showcase results of Lake Twinning exercise between Laurentian Great Lakes and Rift Valley Great Lakes.

Objectives:

A platform to share lessons learnt:

Institutional designs and public processes for transboundary lake management
Bridging science and policy

Capacity Building
Common and emerging research-policy threads:

Climate change
Eutrophication
Pollution

Potential Outcomes:

Dissemination of Lake Twinning exercise results
Expansion of Lake Twinning to include more Lake systems
Policy guidelines for shared transboundary lake management/a framework for collaboration on great lakes

Themes of Discussion:

Strategy, concept and management practices for lake environmental protection and pollution control (including threats facing the sustainable use of lakes)

Case Studies

Lake Erie
Experimental lakes, Manitoba

Data management and exchange
Benefit sharing

Institutions for transboundary lake management

Environmental, legal, political and institutions for efficient lake management
Public Particiaption
Integrative framework
Sustainable financing for transboundary lake management

Impact of climate change

Suggested Speakers:

Al Duda (role of the international community)
Herb Gray (a centenary of experiences of IJC)
2 representatives from African Great Lake Commissions (supported by GEF)
Zafar Adeel (impacting policy formulation processes)
Gail Krantzburg (review of legal challenges)
Tony Turton (benefit sharing in transboundary lake systems)
Someone from the Petersburg process

....

Andrew Hudson (United Nations Development Program)

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

796

Meeting human and environmental water needs by linking upstream catchment managers with downstream water users

What are the practical strategies and policies needed to bridge upstream management of water resources in rain-fed agriculture and downstream needs of people and ecosystems? Can this bridge be pro-poor?

Green Water Credits is a mechanism to pay farmers for specified water management services that determine the supply of fresh water at source. These services are presently unrecognized and unrewarded. This is a special case of payments for environmental services. Water available to plants can be much increased and the downstream water delivery better regulated by two fundamental improvements in rain-fed farming: increasing the infiltration of rainwater, thereby cutting runoff, and reducing unproductive evaporation. But poverty is a severe constraint; farmers are aware of their private benefits from soil and water conservation but they need immediate returns on the necessary labour and material inputs. Green Water Credits bridge the incentive gap.

In Kenya, all water users have growing un-met demands. As a market-based mechanism, Green Water Credits supports current water reforms. Proof-of-concept in the Tana Basin demonstrates: 1) the link between upstream management and downstream water supply and siltation of reservoirs; and 2) practical ways to assess the resource, optimize allocation, and calculate the costs and benefits. Green water management in the catchment makes a big difference to water supplies and food security and diversifies of rural livelihoods. The costs may easily be covered by the extra water revenues: for a 20 per cent adoption scenario, water benefits are $US 6-48 millions and costs 0.5-4.3 millions. Hydro-power generation comprises more than half the benefits and its value today is double the 1996/97 value.

Design and capacity building for pilot operations are now under way.

What is being bridged?

Needs for water - and capacities of rural land users to provide it; poor people’s needs for food and water security and sustainable livelihoods - and financial and technical capacities of downstream water users; OECD and developing country experience of IWRM, especially in payments for environmental services

Organizations to be involved in session development

International funding agencies such as IFAD, WB and GEF, Africa-wide initiatives such as advocated by AGRA, GEF, UNDP and UNEP, international development and research agencies, national land and water resources agencies.

Sjef Kauffman (International Soil Reference and Information Centre - World Soil Information)

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

798

The Peace Canal Plan – Peace plan/water import project from Turkey to the Middle East

The 'Peace Canal Plan' was introduced (in collaboration with Freedom House, NYC*) during the First Israeli-Palestinian Water conference in Zurich (1992). Modifications were made since to include constructive feedback from the parties, especially from the Turkish government.

The revised 'Plan' is relevant now as ever. Its aim is multifold:

1. Help Syria & Israel reach a peace agreement by allowing a safe Israeli withdrawal and the demilitarization of the Golan Heights.

2. Stabilize water inventories in northern Jordan, western Syria, Israel and Palestine,

3. Produce hydro-electric power on the slopes of the Heights

4. Restore the Jordan River and the Dead Sea's past qualities.

Turkish presidents officially offered number of times in the past to sell up to 4 Billion cubic meter of water a year to Middle Eastern countries from rivers flowing to the Mediterranean in south central Turkey.

The Peace Canal Plan:

The 'Peace Canal Plan' is based on the purchase from Turkey of about 2 billion c/m/yr, (or more as needed) from the Ceyhan and Seyhan rivers (14 b/c/m/yr combine discharge) for distribution of about 250-500 million cm/yr. each between Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel via closed canal and pipelines.

· In Syria, the water could be used in western cities (that lack adeqate water of good quality) and on the Golan Heights where Syria plans to resettle thousands of people once its back in her hands.

· The Jordanian share could be used in the Jordan Valley and pumped from the Golan Geights to cities on the elevated Jordanian plateau.

· Israel and Palestine could use their shares to recharge the Coastal, mountain and Gaza aquifers and support an equitable water sharing agreement.

Additional water could be purchased by the Israeli and Jordanian governments/industries from Turkey and conveyed through the Peace Canal Plan to:

A) Rivitalize the Jordan River and slow the rapid decline of the Dead Sea level

B) Allow for more Palestinian and Jordanian agricultural production in the Jordan Valley.

The project is designed to produce hydro-electricity on the western and southern slopes of the Golan Heights to offset the conveyance costs (700 KM to the central Golan Heights from Turkey) for the reciving parties.

An option exists to construct a 40km section of the project, on most of the current Syrian-Israeli border on the Heights, as a wide and deep open water canal and combine it with a tank barrier.

The open canal can be utilized as:

1) A tank barrier to deter and delay surprised armored attacks of either side,

2) A shared storage reservoir for the Syrians and Jordanians on the Golan Heights,

3) For pumped storage reservoir vis-à-vis the Sea of Galilee (for electricity production during peak and off peak hours).

In unity, these elements add water, energy and physical security for the parties without infringing upon the territorial integrity or the water inventory of either side.

The Peace Canal Plan could:

1) Facilitate a peace agreement between Israel and Syria through a safe Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the resolution of the territorial and water dispute.

2) Support an equitable water sharing agreement between Israel and Palestine.

3) Enhance and stabilize recipients' water inventories.

4) Save the Jordan River and the Dead Sea from drying up.

The project could be constructed with standard technologies in 3-4 years with private or international institutional capital. It requires US and International (UN) guarantees to provide the necessary level of security for the parties. Price per cm for final users is estimated at under $0.50 US dollar.

______________________________________

(*) Freedom House is the first Human Rights and Democracy Advocacy organization in the world, established by Eleanor Roosevelt)

Key Benefits Peace Canal Plan

1. Environmentally sustainable and economically viable due to combination with hydroelectric production on the slopes of the Golan Heights.

2. Hydro logically and politically balanced solution due to an even distribution of benefits between recipients.

3. Could be used as a basis for a peace and water accord between Israel and Syria.

4. Helps Israel and Palestine reach water sharing accords due to the increase of inventory of both sides.

5. The only environmentally acceptable solution to revitalize the Jordan River and reduce the rapid evaporation of the Dead Sea.

6. Helps Turkey earn hard currency for the sale of water and supports its geo-political importance to the west.

7. Access to additional water could help increase the standard of living of the agrarian sectors in Arab countries; reduce poverty and the religious radicalization of the poor.

8. International guarantees for the project and the even distribution of benefits helps assure the secured flow of water for years to come.

9. The added water is in addition to existing water inventories and does require giving up a single drop of water from each of the participants.

...

Boaz Wachtel

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

799

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

Cover story in Issue 5, June 23, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report.

A grandiose plan that would put an end to the acute water shortage plaguing Israel and its neighbors has been tossed onto the table as part of the tangle of fact and fiction, hype and spin, reality and fantasy, surrounding the dramatic late May announcement of the official renewal of Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations under Turkish mediation. All three sides are reportedly intrigued by the possibilities of the blueprint, based on an ambitious Turkish scheme first raised in the 1980s, dropped when Turkish-Syrian relations soured in the 1990s, and now resurrected and refined by an Israeli water engineer.
The plan provides for the pumping of two to three billion cubic meters of water a year - more than the current total combined consumption of Israel and the Palestinian Authority - from two rivers, the Ceyhan and the Seyhan, in southeastern Turkey, for use in Syria, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The water would be channeled from Turkey, which enjoys a huge water surplus, in underground pipes and overland canals through western Syria to the southern slopes of Mount Hermon, where it would flow into a canal along the length of the northern stretch of the current Israeli-Syrian border, providing hydro-electric power and serving as a major obstacle against a tank blitz from the Golan Heights, which would be returned to Syria as part of the projected peace package. Some of the water en route from the canal would be channeled to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
"Everybody wins," says the plan's author, water engineer Boaz Wachtel, an Israeli fellow at the Washington-based Freedom House, which promotes democracy, peace and human rights. "The Arabs and Israelis get water and stability, the Turks hard currency and enhanced international status."
In late April, while former Foreign Ministry director general Alon Liel huddled over the blueprints of the plan with Turkish officials involved in the mediation effort, Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, was also looking them over. In Liel's view, the plan could be a major incentive for the sides to move ahead in the official negotiations, expected to start within the next few weeks.
Syria's persistent attempt to divert water from the Jordan River was one of the main causes of the 1967 Six-Day War, in which it lost the Golan Heights to Israel. But Liel, who chairs the Israel-Syria Peace Society, says he recently received a message from "a very senior source" in Syria that water need no longer be a problem. After returning the Golan Heights, the source pledged, Israel would be able to make full use of Golan water, on condition that Syria gets a commensurate increase in its water allocation from Turkey, which at present comes only from the Euphrates. The Wachtel scheme more than makes up for any Syrian shortfall. "This is wonderful compared to the way we used to see the battle over water as a major strategic issue. Now it has been reduced to a matter of dollars and cents," Liel tells The Report.
But the dream of peace with Syria with all its attendant benefits - Syria in the pro-Western Arab camp, freed from Iranian tutelage and no longer supporting Palestinian and Lebanese militants - is not universally shared. Israeli hawks, who oppose any withdrawal from the Golan, accuse Wachtel and Liel of living in a fantasy world - and the government of Ehud Olmert of playing dangerous games in its efforts to survive the corruption scandals engulfing the prime minister. There is, they say, no chance of Syria breaking away from the radical Iranian-led axis and handing over the Golan would simply be turning it into an Iranian forward base for attacking Israel. "All this talk about making peace and sharing water is pie in the sky," scoffs the Likud's Yisrael Katz, chairman of the Knesset's Golan caucus.

On a sweltering Jerusalem afternoon in late May, just days after the announced resumption of peace talks, Katz convenes the caucus to make sure he has the votes to block any peace deal that entails a Golan withdrawal. About 30 Knesset members, including at least a dozen from the governing coalition, cram into a stuffy Knesset meeting room to express their support. Golan settler leaders have also come down for what they see as a decisive meeting. At the entrance, Golan Regional Council Chairman Eli Malka is overcome with emotion and has difficulty breathing. The Knesset doctor is summoned and rushes Malka to hospital, where he makes a quick recovery. In the crowded room, Katz counts heads. He notes that all seven Pensioners' Party Knesset members, including party leader Rafi Eitan - who has a daughter and three grandchildren living on the Golan - are paying rapt attention. He spots Zeev Elkin and Othniel Schneller of Olmert's Kadima whispering to Yoram Marciano of Labor. By Katz's arithmetic, he has the guaranteed support of the 50 Knesset members from the right-wing and religious parties. Add to that the seven Pensioners, at least another seven Kadima hawks and two or three Labor mavericks, and Katz reckons he has the power to block any peace treaty that calls for the handover of territory on the Golan. The lobby members file jubilantly out of the room, convinced that in the battle for the Golan they have the upper hand.

"As a seasoned political campaigner, I can now say for sure that there is no majority in the Knesset for withdrawal from the Golan," Katz later declares in an interview with The Report.
There are two relevant laws regarding the future of the Golan Heights, Katz notes: one annexing the Golan to Israel and another stipulating that Israeli territory can only be ceded with the support of 61 MKs (out of the total of 120). And if the Golan lobby can count on around 70 supporters, there is no way the government can muster even close to the 61 it would need.
Knesset hawks are pursuing two other bits of legislation to make withdrawal from the Golan even harder. One is to raise the number of votes needed to cede territory from 61 to 80; the other is to lay down rules for a referendum. Katz, however, says that both initiatives are no longer necessary since he already has all he needs to prevent a pullback.
Those who believe peace with Syria is possible and are ready to consider ceding the Golan hope that when the new regional order it entails becomes clear, many of the skeptics will be won over. If the choice becomes one of keeping the Golan versus moving Syria into the pro-Western orbit, isolating Iran, weakening Hizballah and Hamas, stabilizing Lebanon and solving regional water problems, they believe, the vast majority of Israelis will come down on the side of the new order.
The big question is: Will the Syrians really break with the Iranian axis? On the face of it, they would have much to gain by doing so. With oil reserves dwindling and prices of basic commodities rising, the Syrian economy is in poor shape. At the beginning of the decade, oil revenues accounted for 70 percent of the Syrian budget; the figure today is just 20 percent. An influx of Western investment could turn things round.
Already, simply renewing talks with Israel is paying handsome diplomatic dividends. For years Syria had been shunned by most of the international community and the Arab world. Now President Bashar Asad is about to embark on a tour of moderate Gulf states and Arab League Chairman Amr Moussa is talking about the need to improve ties with Damascus. More importantly, signaling an impending thaw in European attitudes, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who just a few months ago ordered a freeze on all contacts with Syria, phoned Asad in late May to welcome the renewal of peace talks and to invite the Syrian leader to a summit of Mediterranean countries in Paris in July.
The manner in which negotiations were renewed also suggests a degree of seriousness on the part of Syria. Indeed, it was the Syrians who initiated the resumption. In January 2004, Asad, on a first-ever state visit of a Syrian president to Turkey, urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help him renew contacts with Israel, broken off in anger by Asad's late father Hafiz four years earlier. Former Turkish ambassador to Israel Feridun Siniroglu - one of the key figures in the current mediation process - approached Liel, who had served as Israel's chargé d'affaires in Ankara, to test the waters.
But then-prime minister Ariel Sharon was not interested. Focused on his planned disengagement from Gaza, Sharon did not want to do anything that might anger U.S. President George W. Bush, who was livid at Asad for allowing al-Qaeda and other terrorists to infiltrate neighboring Iraq and harass American forces there. Moreover, Sharon was convinced that Asad only wanted talks to relieve Western pressure on Syria and was not really interested in a peace settlement. The upshot was an unofficial back channel, with Liel and the hawkish former deputy Mossad chief Uzi Arad on the Israeli side, and Abe Suleiman, a close confidant of Asad's, resident in the United States, speaking for Syria. The effort lasted for over two years, first with Turkish and then Swiss mediation, but failed to produce a breakthrough.
The turnaround came in February last year, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Ankara. Erdogan, at Syria's behest, again offered Turkey's good offices, this time for an official channel. Olmert agreed. Liel says the fact that the Syrians refused to let go for four and half years despite official Israeli indifference shows just how determined they are. "The fact that there has been a four-and-a-half-year ripening process indicates that something very fundamental is going on here," he declares.
For much of that time, though, there were vastly differing assessments of Syrian intentions within the Israeli intelligence community. The Mossad concurred with Sharon that the Syrians only wanted negotiations to alleviate international pressure; in contrast, Military Intelligence estimated that Damascus might genuinely be thinking in terms of peace with Israel. Now both agencies agree that the Syrian track is worth exploring.
For the past 15 months, Olmert aides Yoram Turbowitz and Shalom Turgeman have been doing just that through an intensive series of proximity talks - Israeli and Syrian negotiators in the same building, but not in the same room, and Turkish mediators moving between them - in Turkey. According to the Syrians, significant progress has already been made. Most importantly, they say, Israel has reaffirmed the so-called "Rabin pocket," former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's hypothetical 1993 commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights to the pre-1967 Six-Day War borders if Israel's demands on security and peace are met.
Israeli officials prefer to be less explicit. They say the best summary of the state of the talks so far is in Olmert's public statement in early May that "the Syrians know what we want and we know what they want." The implication is if the parties have entered negotiations on this basis, each side must be reasonably confident that the other is prepared to meet its minimal conditions - reorientation of Syria's regional policy and Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 lines.
Indeed, when the last serious Israeli-Syrian peace effort broke down in 2000, the two sides seemed close to a deal. Former military intelligence chief Uri Sagie, who led the Israeli team on the territorial issue, says the concept of withdrawal to the June 4 lines was agreed upon in principle. The problem was establishing where those lines were. In talks leading up to the crucial meeting at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in January 2000, Sagie suggested a line reflecting actual Syrian troop positions on June 4, the day before the war broke out. At Shepherdstown, the two sides went one step further, agreeing to set up a joint "border demarcation committee" to reconstruct the June 4 situation on the ground.
Israel had begun the negotiations insisting on the 1923 international border between French mandatory Syria and British mandatory Palestine. But at some points, that line is no more that 10 meters from Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), Israel's most important water resource. Therefore, the Israelis were later happy to go along with the Syrian demand for the June 4 border, confident that this would put the line several hundred meters east of the Kinneret.
For then-prime minister Ehud Barak, the key was a border that would leave no room for doubt about exclusive Israeli sovereignty over the entire lake. In a meeting with U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross, Barak drew a bold line on the 1923 map, pushing the border back about 400 meters (see map, page 11). The plan at Shepherdstown was to enshrine the principle of June 4, as the Syrians wanted, and then have the demarcation team draw the line far enough from the water to satisfy the Israelis.
According to American accounts, the talks failed mainly because Barak got cold feet, after receiving the results of a public opinion poll indicating considerable opposition to a deal entailing withdrawal from the Golan. He decided to slow things down to give the impression that he was not giving away major Israeli assets easily. Next, an American bridging proposal, which gave the false impression that the Syrians had been more accommodating than Israel, was leaked to the Israeli press. The Syrians felt they had been taken for a ride and the talks broke down.
Two and a half months later, an attempt by president Bill Clinton to revive the process at a summit with Hafiz Asad in Geneva also failed. The Americans arrived with maps showing three alternative border lines, hoping to close a deal. But by now the ailing Syrian leader no longer trusted Barak and had lost interest in the process. As soon as Clinton mentioned that the Israeli prime minister wanted a line a few hundred meters from the shore, Asad fired back an outlandish deal-breaking claim the Syrians had never made before: that the Kinneret was at least half Syrian.
Still, the talks seemed to have foundered more over leadership quirks than over substance. Indeed, before the breakdown of trust, negotiators on both sides were confident a deal could be reached. There was a smart formula for resolving the border differences and the parties were also reasonably close on all the other core issues. On security arrangements, the Syrians agreed to demilitarization on both sides of the border at a ratio of two to one in Israel's favor, and to an early warning station on Mount Hermon without an Israeli presence; Israel wanted a demilitarization ratio of four to one, and a small Israeli presence in the early warning station. On peace, Israel wanted an exchange of ambassadors after a first partial pullback on the Golan; Syria only after full Israeli withdrawal. Israel wanted a three-year timetable for implementation; Syria 18 months.
Indeed, if all the parties had to do was to pick up from where they left off at Shepherdstown, the prospects for a deal would be bright. The border issue could actually be easier to resolve, as the waters of the Kinneret have receded significantly westward in the interim. The big stumbling block is that the regional dimensions of the Israel-Syria equation have changed dramatically since 2000. The Syrian alliance with Iran is much deeper than it was and U.S. readiness to underwrite an Israel-Syria peace deal is much diminished. Neither factor bodes well: If the United States does not make it worth Syria's while, it will not detach itself from the Iranian axis; and if Syria does not break with Iran, Israel is unlikely to sign a peace deal that entails returning the Golan.
When it comes to the big regional picture, Israeli experts are divided. Dan Schueftan, a senior fellow at Haifa University's National Security Studies Center, argues that Syria is intrinsically radical and will never leave the Iranian axis, irrespective of what the Americans might offer. He notes that over the past several decades, Syria has invariably chosen the radical path. It did not join the Sadat peace initiative in the late 1970s; it backed Iran in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s; it did not move closer to the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s; and over the past decade it has gravitated towards Iran. "Radicalism is not one of the options for Syria. It is the essence of what the Syrian regime is all about," Schueftan asserts. And that, in his view, is not about to change. "If Syria was prepared to remain weak, poor and defenseless for decades to preserve its radical policies, it won't suddenly diverge from them just for the Golan," he declares.
According to Schueftan, all the evidence points to the fact that the Syrians have no intention of breaking with Iran. They wouldn't be arming Hizballah, helping Iran make connections with Hamas or have undertaken a costly nuclear weapons' project if they were considering alignment with the West, he argues. Moreover, he asks, why would Syria desert the radical camp just when it seems to be gaining in stature and influence? "The Syrian regime has waited 30 years for things to move in this direction, and to assume that now that everything is going its way, it's going to change course is ludicrous," he declares.
Schueftan further argues that it was a big mistake even to begin negotiations with the Syrians because it will give them free rein in Lebanon. "Under cover of talks with Israel, they will be able to step up their brutal policies in Lebanon, and no one will say a word," he contends.
Other analysts are less certain. Hebrew University Syria expert Moshe Maoz maintains that ideally Asad would like the best of both worlds, able to move freely between the West and Iran, with a foot in both camps. But if he has to choose between the moderate pro-Western Sunni and the radical pro-Iranian Shi'ite coalitions, Maoz believes Asad will choose the Sunnis, partly because of the promise of economic aid from the U.S., Europe and the wealthy Gulf states, and partly because, with a population that is 75 percent Sunni, Syria sees itself as a leading player in the Sunni-Arab rather than the Shi'ite-Farsi world. "The Asad administration is already concerned about the depth of Shi'ite economic, religious and cultural influence in Syria. Their worst nightmare is to find themselves sandwiched between Shi'ite-dominated regimes in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, which could have a subversive effect on secular Syria," he avers.
But Maoz is convinced that the Syrians will not move away from Iran, unless they are guaranteed American support. "If the Syrian move leads to tension with Iran, they will want American backing. That is at the heart of their strategic thinking. They don't want a situation in which they are left high and dry by both sides," he says.
Liel, who has been in constant touch with Syrian and Turkish players over the past four and a half years, is more upbeat. He argues that if leaving the radical axis were not an option for the Syrians, they wouldn't have started the process in the first place. "Why would they risk (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad's wrath if there was no readiness on their part to consider change on a wider scale?" he challenges. Moreover, Liel notes, the joint statement announcing the resumption of talks refers to a "comprehensive peace," implying a fundamental change in regional alignments at the end of the process.
In Liel's view, the Syrian track offers the only chance for a significant peace breakthrough and could help break what he sees as the deadlock on the Palestinian front, by forcing Hamas to soften its hardline attitudes. "Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal can't sit in Damascus taking advantage of Syrian hospitality and ignore the fact that his hosts are changing the tenor of their relations with Israel. The Iranians will also have to take this into account. All of which means that the very renewal of talks is a factor that will influence other parts of the regional system," he maintains.
Liel also suggests that progress on the Syrian track could have a major impact on one of the toughest issues in the Palestinian process - refugees. "There are almost 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria. If we reach a peace deal with Syria, maybe it will grant them citizenship. And that could force Lebanon, where there are 300,000 refugees, to follow suit," he conjectures.
But like Maoz, Liel is convinced that major regional change will not occur without the Americans. "We could wrap up the bilateral issues between us and Syria in the next few weeks or months. Much has already been agreed. But we won't be able to close on the Western alternative to Iran without the Americans," he observes. But here, too, Liel is optimistic, pointing to signs of change in Washington. "There are forces in the State Department, Pentagon, Congress, and certainly in the Democratic Party, pushing for America to join the process. I think Bush is quite isolated on this," he contends.
Israeli hawks counter that not only is regional change unlikely but that Syria has nothing to offer. "There is no demographic problem on the Golan, the Syrians are not in a position to make war on Israel, nor can they eradicate the Hizballah threat in Lebanon the way they could have done in 2000," says Katz. "I asked all the senior people in the defense establishment whether there is a scenario in which we sign with the Syrians and they put an end to terrorist activity from Lebanon. The answer was no. In other words, we would be giving back the Golan and leaving Hizballah with enough shells and rockets for the next 30 years."
The outcome of negotiations with Syria as well as the fate of Wachtel's ambitious water scheme could depend on the results of the next Israeli election. With Olmert wobbling over corruption allegations, pundits are talking about a November ballot, with the Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes territorial compromise with Syria, the front-runner according to public opinion polls.

In late May, Netanyahu pays a solidarity visit to the Golan, vowing never to give it back. Although documents from secret negotiations he held with the Syrians when he was prime minister in the late 1990s suggest that he agreed to the June 4 borders, Netanyahu insists that he never did. More importantly, he now says he won't. On the windswept heights near Katzrin, surrounded by settlers chanting slogans calling him "the next prime minister of Israel," Netanyahu makes it clear that he intends to use his opposition to the Syrian track as a vote-winner. "I think the best way to protect the Golan and the Jordan Valley is to go for new elections. If someone says to us that for peace we must leave the Golan, we say we are not going to leave the Golan. The Golan will not be abandoned," he declares. •

Cover story in Issue 5, June 23, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report.

...

Boaz Wachtel

808

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

Dear Ms. Salamé,

following your call for submissions to the 5th World Water Forum on topic 3.1 "Basin Management and Trans-boundary Water", I would like to make the following submission (see below) to Session 3 "Organizing and enabling stakeholder participation". This paper is based on our research in the context of the Newater project. I would be glad if it would be accepted as a contribution to the session.

Also, in replying to your call on the session topics, I would like to propose the issue of donor coordination to be included as an additional item for discussion at the Forum. It might be included in some of the existing sessions though.

I would be very interested in staying in touch with you on the future developments around the 'transboundary waters'-topic at the WWF.

With kind regards,

Nicole Kranz

Senior Fellow

Ecologic, Berlin

Public participation in transboundary water management: bridging troubled waters?

In international river basins the mismatch of ecosystem and political-administrative spatial units has in some cases led to considerable difficulties in ensuring integrated water resources management for the entire basin; in some cases conflicts on the use of water resources have emerged. It has thus been observed that in the context of transboundary water management the long-established governance systems, bound to the principle of sovereignty, often fall into crisis. This has motivated the promotion of an increased inclusion of non-governmental stakeholders into unconventional institutional arrangements to address these shortcomings.

This paper aims to critically assess the potential benefit of increased stakeholder participation in transboundary water management. It will thus investigate the processes leading to the establishment of transnational involvement processes, with specific emphasis on the main obstacles and strategies employed to overcome these. In addition, the work also takes a closer look at the outcomes of such participatory processes. Do they actually contribute to widely accepted international negotiations on water issues, do decisions benefit from civil society involvement? Are water resources managed in a more equitable way?

The study will draw on empirical work conducted in European, South East Asian and African river basin and thus also allow for a cross-continental comparison of involvement mechanisms.

The paper aims to identify best practice examples as a reference for practitioners in water management. Issues to be addressed in this context comprise the co-ordination of information management across borders, as a pre-condition for public participation, overcoming cultural and social barriers between water managers and stakeholders well as accounting for differing legislation, administrative systems and priorities for water use in the riparian countries.

...

NICOLE KRANZ (n/a)

810

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

In the face of significant pressure on the coastal zone, generated by about 50% of human population living within 200 km of the coast line, some of the world’s most precious and productive aquatic ecosystems like estuaries, lagoons, mangroves, and coral reefs are in danger. The water management decisions in the upstream river basins may contribute severely to the pressure on the coastal environment. Integrated Coastal Area and River Basin Management (ICARM) developed as a response to the lack of coordinated freshwater and coastal management will be described using case stories to link implementation of IWRM and ICZM to achieve truly coordinated planning and management of river basins and their coastal zones.

...

İsmail TUNÇOK (DHI Water & Environment)

811

Transboundary Cooperation over the Jordan River Basin:The ‘Positive Sum Outcome’

1. One of the most common and challenging elements of negotiations on trans-boundary waters involves the so-called ‘Zero-Sum Dilemma’. This arises where the volume of fresh water that is available in a basin – or to riparians more broadly – is limited (capped), but where inequities present in the current allocation of the waters means that a reallocation is required. In the Zero-Sum Dilemma, no more water is available, so the gains of one party are balanced by the losses of another. In many trans-boundary basins, hegemonic States have often ‘cornered the resource’ and are unwilling to give volumes up to other (weaker) parties. Because the hegemons are more powerful, it is often impossible even to get them to the negotiating table, let alone encourage them to ‘give up’ any of the water they enjoy. Consequently, inequities in water allocation persist and foster ongoing tensions and conflict.

2. The Zero-Sum Dilemma is relevant currently to the Jordan River basin, especially in relation to Palestine and Israel. Israel has a population of about 7 million, or somewhat under twice that of Palestine (about 3.85 million, at present). However, Israel utilizes almost 90% of the shared fresh water resources, with Palestinians denied access to these (by various means). The allocations of fresh water per person are thus almost five times as much in Israel as in Palestine, on average. Agreements made by Israel with other co-riparians (e.g. the 1994 Peace Treaty with Jordan; the Oslo II agreement of 1995 with Palestine) include only minor concessions on fresh water allocations. Moreover, Israel now claims that ‘all water is in use’ and that new water supplies must be established through desalination and other means.

4. The only way to negotiate out of this situation and to generate something approaching an equitable and reasonable solution (as is required under customary international water law) is to ‘enlarge the pie’. This is the premise of the Positive-Sum Outcome and the genesis behind the proposal. The Positive-Sum Outcome increases the total volume of water that is available to the parties.

5. The Positive-Sum Outcome relies on the introduction over time of ‘new water’ derived from desalination; increased levels of wastewater re-use; incorporation of ‘best-use’ practices (leading to reduced consumption through demand management and other means), and the later bulk importation of water from elsewhere (probably Turkey). This occurs over the ‘transition period’, which may last from five to fifteen years.

6. During the transition period, all riparians can be provided with increasing supplies of fresh water over time, hence eliminating the Zero-Sum Dilemma. While this occurs, equitable and reasonable allocations of the water resources can be approached or attained. The key significance of the transition period is that the Positive-Sum Outcome will result in improvements over time for the Israeli side, and the hegemon thus has an incentive to negotiate. The flows re-allocated from the Israeli side will be phased in accordance with the regional development of new water sources, and the Palestinian development of water infrastructure.

7. The Positive-Sum Outcome is a ‘win-win solution’ for both sides, with the improvements being largely matched for both Palestine and Israel:

Ø an end to the water-related conflict;

Ø improved access to fresh water resources;

Ø improved water management, including the joint management of shared resources;

Ø reduced pollution levels (better wastewater management and re-use);

Ø the provision of a basic resource for a viable State [in both cases];

Ø a partial solution to the humanitarian crisis in Palestine (and in Gaza in particular); and

Ø water security for both parties.

The Positive-Sum Outcome also extends a number of these benefits to the other basin riparians, and aligns with the accepted principles of customary international water law.

8. Furthermore, there is potential for ‘spill-over’ between such a solution for the fresh water resources, and other elements of the Permanent Status negotiations between Palestine and Israel (and indeed, the broader geopolitical arena). The water-related negotiations are the only elements of the Permanent Status scenario as a whole that offers a Positive-Sum Outcome. The water-related element of the negotiations might therefore be used to anchor productive discussions on other outstanding issues.

9. The capital investment and running costs of the infrastructure required to manufacture new water (in both Israel and Palestine) and to build infrastructure to accommodate increased flows (in Palestine) has been shown to be acceptable. Planned Israeli desalination plants (with a target of about 750 million cubic metres/year by 2015 – about 25% of the present fresh water resource shared by Palestine and Israel) are funded through separate financing sources. The PWA document entitled Strategic Projects for the Viability of the Palestinian Water Sector estimates the capital investment cost for each project in Palestine, totalling approximately one billion US dollars.

10. The Positive Sum Outcome has been met with considerable interest when proposed to Israeli and Palestinian practitioners and academics, and to officials at USAID. It has also been widely peer-reviewed by high-level practitioners, and has been shown to be attainable at acceptable cost.

...

Micheal Talhami (Negotiation Support Unit)

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

812

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

1. As written in the letter bellow I would like to respond to the call for proposal now until is not too late( before 30 Sept.) proposing contributions to the Topic 3.1 preparatory process based on the joint work which is done in some fields of activities by ICPDR and by the GWPCEE :

Experience and common work of the 14 countries part of Danube River Basin district in the steps implied by implementation of Water Frame Directive
Identification and designation of water significant management issues key step for optimal elaboration of Joint Programe of measure
Transnational monitoring restructuring in accordance with WFD requirements
The role of non-governmental organizations in support of WFD implementation within the Danube River Basin District
The ways of investigating the presence of unknown substances in the Danube water system and special assessment in a more comparable and reliable way of the Danube and its main tributaries water state by means of Joint Danube Survey - the scientific expedition

2. In all these activities I was involved personally in my capacity as Chairperson of one of the most important Expert Groups( EG) of International Commission for the Protection of Danube River named the Monitoring and Assessment EG since its formation in 1993.

3 A large number of other GWP CEE members as well from Country Water Partnerships were involved during their life and activities in different institutions within the Danubian countries, in the ICPDR activities from the highest level to the lower levels in EGs, TG,s etc. and this gave to GWP the right to be the observer within the ICPDR structure, and they will be also involved in the multiple forms of WWF preparatory steps, sessions, et

...

LIVIU POPESCU (n/a)

814

Water Quality in Managing Transboundary River Basins

Water quality is often a vital, yet overlooked, component of cooperation among riparians in transboundary water issues. While broad conventions often offer guidelines for establishing transbondary agreements, they are often very broadly worded and difficult to adapt to specific basins. Some frameworks exist which riparian governments could adopt or modify for comprehensive water quality planning and management of shared water resources (UNECE, 1992; ASCE, 2001). Often this cooperation is based on the concept of shared sovereignty, in which sovereign governments are prepared to manage their portion of shared water resource together with their neighbors and when the Parties show an interest in improving the quality of the water resource. Typical agreements on water quality are extensive and consider many aspects of planning and management of water resources. Parties agree to restrict practices to the reasonable use of water and provide sufficient data to the other Parties to verify beneficial use. Agreements often suggest that information acquisition costs be apportioned so that data collection, environmental assessment, and inventories of basin water user efforts should be systemic in nature and integrated across the basin.

UNECE, Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Helsinki 1992

ASCE, Comprehensive Transboundary International Water Quality Management Agreement, EWRI/ASCE 33-01. (ASCE Standard No. 33-01), American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, 2001

...

Daene McKinney (University of Texas at Austin)

Topic 3.1 - Basin Management and Transboundary Cooperation

815