tag:www.apwf2.org,2008:/weblog/water//3 2007-10-12T05:47:03Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.238 2007-10-12T05:43:46Z 2007-10-12T05:47:03Z

The secretariat is pleased to present the 2nd Draft for Theme C as of Oct 12. APWF will combine 2nd Draft Recommendations of each Priority Theme and Key Result Area into a draft "Policy Brief 2007" to be reported by...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ Theme C 2nd Draft Recommendation as of Oct 12 ]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.189 2007-08-03T07:34:42Z 2007-08-03T07:50:27Z

IUCN and FAO are pleased to present the initial recommendations for Theme C that are now available to view and comment on. These recommendations are still being formed, however we welcome comments to further refine them for incorporation into the...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ e-network on Strategic Planning for Water Resources. Please click here to view the recommendations.]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.188 2007-08-03T06:47:46Z 2007-08-31T10:11:18Z

The first draft of the major review on Water for Development and Ecosystems led by IUCN and FAO is now available to peruse. An updated version will be available in the near future. Recommendations for Theme C are being developed...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ here. Please click here to read the Major Review - Working Draft. ]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.170 2007-06-20T07:23:49Z 2007-06-25T10:59:13Z

An e-conference on the major review for Theme C is being hosted at the: e-network on Strategic Planning and Management of Water Resources in Asia and the Pacific website. The e-conference is to provide input into the major review paper...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ e-network on Strategic Planning and Management of Water Resources in Asia and the Pacific website. The e-conference is to provide input into the major review paper for water for development and ecosystems. The ToR and timetable for the major review can be accessed here. Please take the opportunity to share your experiences and information for the major review by participating in the e-conference which commences on the 20 June and ends officially on the 9 July 2007. However, the e-conference will remain open, for those wishing to continue after this time, during the period of the review.]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.119 2007-05-09T04:58:46Z 2007-05-11T03:36:31Z

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are the lead organizations for Theme C: Water For Development and Ecosystems of the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit. The main focus under Theme C...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ The main focus under Theme C will be to review key issues related to water for development and ecosystems including the drivers and status of degradation and main issues related to restoration.
The IUCN has identified a specific interest in reviewing the status and use of the environmental flows approach in the Asia-Pacific region including a needs assessment of on-going processes and tools, due to its active efforts in the development and implementation of this approach within wetland and water policy and management across the world. In particular we are interested in the application of e-flows and its inclusion in policy across the Asia-Pacific region.
Environmental flows (or e-flows) generally refers to water provided within a river, wetland or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and their benefits where there are competing water uses. Environmental flows provide critical contributions to river health, economic development and poverty alleviation. They ensure the continued availability of the many benefits that healthy river and groundwater systems bring to society.
To assist in the review of environmental flows a survey on the status and use of environmental flows has been prepared for completion by policy makers and practitioners of water management in the region. The survey attempts to capture information on the current status and use of environmental flows across the Asia-Pacific region from the western highlands of the Himalayan plateau to the low-lying atolls of the central Pacific, and from the northern steppes of Mongolia to the southern coast of Australia and New Zealand.]]> If you work in the area of e-flows, or more broadly water management, within the Asia-Pacific Region and would like to complete a survey please download here: Survey of the status and use of e-flows in the Asia-Pacific Region. We are especially interested in feedback from areas that have not historically used e-flows but may now be in the process of considering the use and adoption of the approach (for example, parts of North-East Asia, Central Asia, Pacific Islands, etc). Additionally, we may not be aware of certain activities happening within the region and are eager to hear your stories and experiences. Please return the completed survey to environmentalflows@iucnlao.org by 28 May 2007 to enable our team to begin analysis of the information for incorporation into the overall review of e-flows.
This will assist greatly in forming policy recommendations for discussion of e-flows at the First Asia-Pacific Water Summit, and ultimately the future direction of the approach within the Asia-Pacific region.
We will continue to update you on the progress of the review and look forward to your continued input into discussions as the review progresses. ]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.123 2007-05-05T04:10:22Z 2007-05-24T11:41:20Z

Best Practice Example from Kolkata, India The cities consume water but disposal of waste water has become a problem. There is growing awareness of recycling of wastewater for aquaculture for fish production and irrigation and utilisation of sludge for vegetable...

Secretariat of the APWF http://www.apwf.org/ Best Practice Example from Kolkata, India The cities consume water but disposal of waste water has become a problem. There is growing awareness of recycling of wastewater for aquaculture for fish production and irrigation and utilisation of sludge for vegetable production. Throughout Asia in many cities sewage fed waste water is used with benefits of employment, improved environment, and food production. It is cost effective process. Kolkata, a megacity in India has the largest recycling district in the world. Kolkata metropolis is built on marshy land and there are many wetlands. There is indigenous technology of waste water treatment.]]> From the city’s nearest drainage outfall and canals and through inlet and outlet connection with periodical exchange of sewagefed waste water in wetlands or ponds, each a lagoon type facilitating natural aeration upto a shallow depth to allow sunlight to reach its bottom to promote growth of algae and photosynthetic oxygen. Using aquatic plant like water hyacinth and duckweed, dirt and some metals are removed and it is also purified by exposure to sunlight and aeration. The high productivity of these fish ponds is mainly due to rich nutrient element and the high alkanity stimulates production in the fish food chain. It geneates abundant quantity of algael photo-synthetic oxygen. Another aspect is the integration of aquaculture with agriculture-vegetable production based on natural compost out of solid waste disposal. Some fishermen’s cooperative societies have been formed and there is participatory development. Several development, some with the support of local municipalities are in Kolkata Metropolitan area. In Southeast Kolkata in Mudially, a nature park has been developed based on ecological development of waste water treatment. This is one of the best practices for sustainable development. Centre for Built Environment, Kolkata made presentations on these aspects, at many International Conferences and World Water Forum. For further details : Centre for Built Environment. e-mail : (sghoshcbe@rediffmail.com).


(Poster: Prof. Santosh Ghosh)]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.102 2007-04-13T05:41:06Z 2007-05-03T10:05:22Z

Water related issues that the asia-pacific region faces has been recognized in the regional document (Asia-Pacific) of the 4th World Water Forum held in Mexico City in March 2006. There might be good practices applicable to these issues. We...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ Water related issues that the asia-pacific region faces has been recognized in the regional document (Asia-Pacific) of the 4th World Water Forum held in Mexico City in March 2006. There might be good practices applicable to these issues. We welcome your submission for the good practices to solve the similar issues. ]]> Water related issues in Asia-Pacific
Central Asia
Lack of consideration of environmental demand in current basin water use and conservation master-plans;
Different national priorities concerning joint use and exchange of water and power;
Absence of procedures for coordination among the riparian countries design and construction of the new water infrastructure exerting trans-boundary impacts;
Lack of conflict resolution mechanisms and procedures to recover economic losses due to the breaching of water sharing agreements;
Insufficient information interchange among riparian countries, specifically hydro-meteorological data and forecasts of water availability; and
Lack of policies and programmes for regional economic integration and insufficient co-operation to improve the productivity of irrigated farming on the basis of the model that enables optimizing the differentiation of labor in the region.
Northeast Asia
Water shortages, frequent flooding, water quality issues and governance; and
Soil erosion and water pollution, increasing damages from floods and landslides during heavy rainfall events, decreasing forest cover, declining water supplies due to climate change and the increasing demands for water for irrigation.
South Asia
The region is plagued with a plethora institutions and legislation with overlapping and conflicting mandates relating to water resources management;
Though the region is rich in water resources, access to safe drinking water and quality of water is poor due to the reason that most rivers in their mid and lower reaches are contaminated by point and non point source pollution and occurrence of nitrates, fluorides, heavy metals, and pathogenic agents.
Huge investments made over the past century especially in irrigation projects are not realizing their full potential. Obsolete infrastructure, inflexible irrigation technology, ineffective institutions and management systems and failure to focus on the poor all conspire to retain large irrigation systems at low levels of water productivity denying the benefits owing to society.
Tendency of the poor is to live in flood plains, mountain slopes and arid areas where disasters strike more often. Disasters result in either too much or too little water quite often for periods longer than acceptable while resulting inadequate sanitation causes health problems and epidemics all of which affects the productivity and livelihoods of the poor.
Water pollution due to unplanned urbanization, uncontrolled toxic effluence and waste disposal, and once through processes in industry
A fall in ground water levels and water quality due to over extraction and contamination has increased beyond tolerable levels.
Southeast Asia
The richest ecosystems, biodiversity and water resources in the world and their potentials are being reduced at an alarming rate.
Rapid development has created gaps in the prevention of pollution and the highly dense population in urban centres has converted rivers into open sewers. River water quality has been degraded by sewage, municipal wastewater, industrial effluent that are not fully treated and sediments from land clearance and solid wastes.
The farming communities add on to the pollution with residuals from fertilizers and pesticides and untreated animal wastes.
Communities suffering from inadequate access to water and sanitation facilities have suffered from poor health leading to loss of incomes and opportunities to work.
The apparent lack of appropriate institutional frameworks to adequately address the development and management of water and related land resources in an integrated manner ( Fragmented water resources management and development, Weak water governance include inadequate information on the status of water resources, inequitable water distribution, lack of enabling environment for sustainable water resources management, inadequate mechanisms and incentives for private sector involvement, inadequate participation of stakeholders and inadequate knowledge, understanding and awareness of the values and benefits of water)
The lack of integrated institutional frameworks for water and land development and management, insufficient capital expenditures to meet estimated investment requirements, and lack of effective cost recovery mechanism for sustainable water resources development
Pacific
Unique fragile water resources due to their small size, lack of natural storage and competing land use, vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic hazards, including drought, cyclones and urban pollution.
The lack of both human and financial resource bases, which restrict the availability of experienced staff and investment, and effectiveness of cost-recovery.
High complexity due to the specific socio-political and cultural structures relating to traditional community, tribal and inter-island practices, rights and interests.]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.116 2007-03-09T02:56:10Z 2007-05-08T02:58:28Z

On the Asia-Pacific Water weblog, lively discussions are going on among stakeholders regarding the proposals for the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, to be held in December this year. To stimulate discussions, we invite you to offer contents to be...

Secretariat of the APWF http://www.apwf.org/ On the Asia-Pacific Water weblog, lively discussions are going on among stakeholders regarding the proposals for the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, to be held in December this year. To stimulate discussions, we invite you to offer contents to be posted on the weblog. We are looking forward to your submissions on the following subjects: 1. Good & Bad Practices Please describe some projects aimed at resolving water problems. If you wish to submit a document, please send it together with photographs(maximum 2) attached to the email: weblog@apwf.org Remember to include the following information: (1) name of the poster (to be listed on the weblog) (2) contact details (unlisted) (3) the project's name, organizer, term and venue. EXAMPLE 2. Local Water Troubles Please introduce some water problems in your neighborhood If you wish to submit a document, please send it together with photographs (maximum 2) attached to the email: weblog@apwf.org Remember to include the following information: (1) name of the poster (to be listed on the weblog) (2) contact details (unlisted) (3) the location of the problem. Instructions for submission - Do not attach photographs to the electronic Word file. Send them as JPEG attachments. - Documents should not exceed half of an A4 page. (300 words) - Regarding acceptance or rejection, the secretariat of the APWF will consider the submitted contents, in accordance with the guidelines of the APWF weblog. - The secretariat of the APWF will categorize the submitted contents into (1) Water Financing, (2) Water-related Disaster Management, and (3) Water for Development and Ecosystems.]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.65 2007-02-19T06:38:22Z 2007-04-17T02:20:28Z

This is the concept note for Theme C: Water for Development and Ecosystems 1. Rationale/Background Healthy aquatic ecosystems provide tangible economic and social benefits. Protecting zones at the land-water interface such as mangroves, paddy fields, wetlands, forests not only increase...

Lead Organization: IUCN http://www.iucn.org/ 1. Rationale/Background Healthy aquatic ecosystems provide tangible economic and social benefits. Protecting zones at the land-water interface such as mangroves, paddy fields, wetlands, forests not only increase ecosystem health, but may also provide extra protection against some disasters and saline intrusion, aide groundwater recharge and improve overall quality of life. Understanding the drivers and status of ecosystem degradation and the need for watershed restoration in order to improve water productivity across the Asia-Pacific region is an important component of this theme. Another key element to this theme is the concept of environmental flows which refer to water provided within a river, wetland or coastal zone to main ecosystems and their benefits where there are competing water uses. In most river basins the natural flows have been modified to some extent, to meet the needs of human settlement, irrigation, and flood control or energy generation. Over the last decade, with intensifying water competition among different users and uses in this region, more and more emphasis has been placed on sustainable water development and utilization. IWRM at the river basin level has been identified as a guiding principle. Various measures have been practiced and adopted by different players, including advocacy and dissemination of environment flow concepts; protection of aquatic ecosystems through wetland protection, paddy field conservation, watershed restoration and reforestation, etc. In economic areas, efforts have been focused on improvement of water use efficiency and productivity; water pollution mitigation and prevention; and establishment of a water-efficient society. As the largest water user, the agricultural sector has been preparing to go through a sector innovation to replace traditional irrigation concepts and technologies with irrigation modernization. There is still much to be done in river basins across the Asia-Pacific Region as water stress continues to spread; and land and water degradation is emerging in many developing areas. Among other reasons, experts believe that there is a lack of integration of action from relevant stakeholders; a lack of practical methods and tools to put the new concepts and approaches into real practice. There is a need to review current adoption and implementation of the key concepts and approaches on water for development and ecosystem; analyze the challenges and opportunities on incorporating them into IWRM at the river basin scale; develop technical methods and tools; and identify policy and institutional options to better realize and improve IWRM. The work under Priority Theme C of APWF will review relevant status and success stories, prepare a synthesis of key messages along with policy recommendations, seek commitments among government leaders and partner organizations to move forward a water agenda for the Asia-Pacific region.]]> 2. Objectives To bring together all relevant players, including governments, national, sub-regional and regional organizations, alliances and networks; to establish a cooperation platform and a hub of excellence on water for development and ecosystem at the regional level; to facilitate information sharing, technical development and dissemination, policy study, strategy formulation and capacity building; and to promote sustainable and high productive water use. 3. Topics to be covered under the theme • Food security and strategic water supply/allocation at river basin level • Quantification and recognition of multiple roles of irrigation systems • Irrigation modernization and its implications on IWRM • Environmental flow approachs and its implication on IWRM • Watershed degradation and river restoration • Integrating development and ecosystem issues into IWRM 4. Concrete Targets • A regional task force on water for development and ecosystem established • A synthesis of status review and needs assessment on the key issues on water for development and ecosystems, including the adoption of the E-flows approach, river basin/watershed degradation and restoration and irrigation modernization, formulated • Policy and technical recommendations on better integrating development and ecosystem issues into IWRM prepared 5. Proposed Activities to achieve the targets • Identify relevant government departments, national, sub-regional and regional organizations, alliances and networks to develop partnerships and establish a task force on water for development and ecosystem • Carryout a review of key issues related to water for development and ecosystems including the drivers and status of degradation and main issues related to restoration. • Carryout a review on adoption of irrigation modernization in the Asia-Pacific regional and its implication on IWRM • Carryout a review of the status and use of the e-flows approach in the Asia-Pacific Region • The above includes needs assessment of ongoing processes and tools • Host an email conference to obtain feedback on issues paper • Provide a preliminary synthesis document • Host a small write workshop to garner feedback and improve the document • Generate key messages and policy recommendations to feed into the first APWF Summit 6. Pilot Project Proposal N/A for first year 7. Input to the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit • Review document of the status of the main issues around the drivers of degradation of rivers and watershed restoration • Review document of the use of E-flows as a tool for water-related decision-making • Review document on adoption of irrigation modernization and its implication on IWRM • Synthesis document of key messages • Policy recommendations 8. List of Partner/Implementing Institutions WWF, Basin organizations, UNESCAP, Field-based NGOs in the Asia-Pacific Region, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IWMI, sub-regional coordinators, etc. 9. Budget Plan IUCN and FAO will contribute staff-time and other expenses to this project. The budget outlined below is needed to effectively carryout this work. Regional Consultant $10,000 Carryout the reviews Travel $2,000 Internet platform $5,000 For e-conferences (design and mgmt) Write-workshop $30,000 25 experts from region Printing/design of final report $6,000 Miscellaneous $7,000 Overhead FAO/IUCN $10,000 $5,000/org TOTAL: $70,000]]> tag:www.apwf2.org,2007:/weblog/water//3.26 2007-01-11T03:19:05Z 2007-04-17T02:11:19Z

"During the regional process leading up to the 4th World Water Forum, it became clear that several water-related issues and challenges were common across the entire Asia-Pacific region....

"During the regional process leading up to the 4th World Water Forum, it became clear that several water-related issues and challenges were common across the entire Asia-Pacific region. ]]> Furthermore, with the increased interactions in the implementation of follow-up activities to the 3rd World Water Forum held in Kyoto in March 2003, stakeholders in the region quickly recognized that the region's diversity was not an obstacle but rather an asset to the identification and adoption of solutions to specific water issues. Based upon this common understanding, we will establish a new network, the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, to work in complete solidarity to identify and adopt solutions to water issues in the region."