This year’s Week will focus on water and food security and, we now call for your contribution to uncovering the untapped synergies of food and water and explore how these fundamental resources can be managed in a new, green economy. Interested individuals or organsations have until the 15 of February 2012 to submit event proposals or abstracts. Not only established professionals are welcome - I would also like to see more young professionals getting involved.

Over the last decade we have seen multiple organisations developing initiatives that have been helping young (water) professionals to develop their career, gain visibility within their working community and, at the same time, build valuable networks that will accompany them throughout their career. Whilst I believe that all this efforts are both very much needed and admirable, I also believe that young professionals should not be shy and they should claim their space. There are multiple ways in which this can be done and, certainly, presenting one's work in a prestigious conference such as the World Water Week in Stockholm is one of them.

So do not be shy, get your brains and pens to work. We are looking forward to receiving all your contributions, from young and established professionals alike!

For more information on the submission procedure, visit http://www.worldwaterweek.org

While this may sound like lots of money, it is important to keep everything in perspective. Spending on sanitation is generally a fraction of 1% of national budgets and barely registers on many donor budgets. Yet, lack of sanitation is one of the most wide spread health problems of our time (in addition to causing environmental degradation). Every year, 1.8 million people die from diarrheal diseases related to poor sanitation. In terms of illness, fecal-borne diseases result in the loss of 82 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per year. In sub-Saharan Africa, half the hospital beds on average are occupied by people with fecal-borne disease, which consumes 12% of national health budgets. The WaterAid report "Fatal Neglect - How Health Systems are Failing to Comprehensively Address Child Mortality" (2009) potently showed how both HIV/AIDS and malaria receive significantly more funding even though they cause fewer deaths (see figure below).

Yet, at the same time we know that sanitation is important and economically viable. A recent poll conducted by the British Medical Journal voted sanitation the greatestmedical advance of the past 166 years. A number of studies have shown that investments in sustainable sanitation bring an average return of US$ 8.1 for every US$1 invested. So, why this neglect of sanitation by municipal, national and international decision-makers?

Research by the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program that came out this year (The Political Economy of Sanitation) suggest that the current limited focus on sanitation is driven largely by political motivation in the context of competing demands for resources, and to a lesser extent by technical or economic considerations.In some ways this is good news. Political motivation is something that can be influenced. We as global citizens can stop considering sanitation as a taboo subject and raise the issue as a serious debate. We as tax-payers, donors, social activists and individuals can put sanitation on the table by lifting the issue in our daily conversations, our votes, and our donations. Increasing awareness increases the chances that priorities will shift and the needed investments will be made.

There are many organisations that offer extensively described and analysed cases of water management from around the world. For example, the Global Water Partnership has its Toolbox on water management, the World Water Assessment Program provides a huge number of case studies on www.unesco.org/water/wwap, private sector Veolia Water contributes on www.veoliawater.com/solutions/case-studies, and Twin2Go offers its “best guidelines” on www.twin2go.eu. An objective of the latter is to “draw context-sensitive but transferable approaches for improving adaptive water resources management”. 

I have in recent months been involved in two cases where far away river basins and their water management have been studied and attempts have been made to transfer their lessons learned to basins in the Middle East and North Africa. First, as part of an assignment for the Nile Basin Initiative, a review was undertaken of international river basin organizations and their agriculture agendas, either as desk reviews or by actually visiting the areas. But to collect information that was both transferable and made sense to the Nile basin context was not easy… What we collected was sometimes not adequately focused and so context-specific that the lessons learned were difficult to share. It helped to visit the basins, to get a better in-depth understanding of the issues, but that required much time, efforts and money.

The second case is the Sida supported and Ramboll-SIWI implemented training programmes on international water management (www.rambollnatura.se / www.siwi.org). Some of these programmes have focused on the Middle East and we have made extensive use of case studies - e.g. on the Nile, Mekong, Baltic Sea, Danube and Orange - with the purpose of transferring lessons learned to the Middle East and rivers like the Euphrates, Tigris and Jordan. But again, what is being transferred? It is always interesting for a group of water professionals to listen to well-presented cases from faraway places. But are the things they learn applicable back home? As quoted above, is it possible to transfer “context-sensitive” approaches?

I believe it is difficult but not impossible to do so. But it requires a carefully planned process, with high levels of engagement and well-defined issues. It is a four-folded process: to make a thorough analysis of the original basin context; to review the relevant water management issues existing; to define the unique relationship that exists between context and issues; and to transfer and carefully adapt the issues of value into the new context. The adaptation is only (?) possible when the original relationship between context and issues is well understood. This is the approach that we have followed in the Sida supported training programmes. We have used a specifically appointed facilitator - knowing both transboundary water management and the region into which the lessons learned are applied - to guide the participants through the presented case studies.

Another reportedly successful exercise of transferring knowledge can be exemplified by the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority in Cambodia, which at the onset of its now well-renowned restructuring went on a study tour of other water utilities in Asia. The team from Phnom Penh worked hard and meticulously analysed what they saw and what they could bring home, and - most importantly - how to adapt it to their local situation. Inspired by this, the knowledge management plan implemented by the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI for MDG-F supported initiatives uses basically three questions in picking up lessons from case studies and transferring between programmes: what can we learn from this?, what do we bring home?, and how do we adapt this to our home situation?

As a conclusion, as long as we are aware of and respect the difficulties involved in learning from cases located far away, and base the transfer of knowledge on an appropriate and carefully designed process, we should certainly cross boundaries to learn from others. 
 

At the SBSTA/SBI workshop parties highlighted both the importance of focusing on "sectoral approaches" where water, health and food security were specifically mentioned, and also the need for guidance "to consider trade-offs between sectors in the light of scarce resources" where allocation of water was specifically mentioned. The SBSTA, responding to the proposals and contributions made by parties, including written contributions¹, requested the secretariat to organize in cooperation with other relevant organizations, a technical workshop, before the thirty-seventh session of SBSTA on water and climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.

Among the most important Side events from a water and climate perspective was of course the Water, Climate and Development Day on December 3rd. The African Ministers Council on Water, AMCOW, in conjunction with the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank, AfDB, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, the Department of Water Affairs,  DWA South Africa, the Global Water Partnership, GWP, and the Water and Climate Coalition (WCC) organised the Water, Climate and Development Day as well as the High Level session that presented the key findings of the day to ministers and dignitaries to take into the Conference of the Parties’ High-Level segment.

The Water, Climate and Development Day that dealt with issues such as "Global Policy Solutions for Adaptation and Mitigation", "Infrastructure, Technical and Ecosystem Solutions", "Climate Change Information for Water Resources", and "Financial and Institutional Solutions", delivered during the day and at the High Level segment several key messages. Among these are the following action oriented messages of particular importance to the continuous intergovernmental UNFCCC-process:
 

• "Water knowledge expertise needs to inform the Adaptation Committee to ensure linkages between Nairobi Work Programme and the Cancun Agreement, emphasising importance of water as a key medium for adaptation. Qualified water resource management knowledge should be represented amongst the members of the Adaptation Committee. In addition links should be established between the Adaptation Committee and water institutions and organisation.
• We welcome the SBSTA draft decision to organise a technical workshop on water. This can be further strengthened by establishing a thematic focus under the Nairobi Work Programme, ensuring that climate interventions involving water resources are properly addressed.
• Establish water as a priority under the Green Climate Fund with a sub thematic funding window for water resources management.
• The Africa Green fund should include a dedicated thematic funding window for water resources and to be utilised for projects related to water management and climate change adaptation and mitigation."

Reference:
1. Such as the "Opinion of Republic of Uzbekistan on the research and systematic observations" in which they mention "assessment of performance of measures of the rational water use in irrigated farming and correction of irrigated norms" as one of the priority-driven tasks for implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures.

1. that scale of disasers is not mesured in levels of morbidity but quality of living
2. Early Warning messages is better made use of
3. climate change adaptation is a continued part of the agricultural dialogue to secure livelihoods and
4. the approach to rural and agricultural development is aligned with sustainability and endurance of livelihood systems as a means to protect and save lives.

The latter in light of the last decades where attention has shifted away from agriculture among various large actors. For instance, The World Bank lent 26 and 10 percent respectively during the 1980's and 2000 to agriculture from its total budget (Millstone and Lang, 2003).

On December 3rd and December 6th WCC, African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW), African Union Commission (AUC), African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Department of Water Affairs, (DWA) South Africa and Global Water Partnership (GWP) arranged Water, Climate and Development Day events. December 3rd was an all-day event and December 6th was a high level panel where key messages from the 3rd were highlighted and discussed. Both meetings took place in the Africa Pavilion at COP 17 in Durban.

Africa Pavilion, December 3rd

Both events were well attended, with over 100-140 persons in the audience, and we received numerous positive and spontaneous comments regarding the content and the value of the topic and discussions.

Water, and its interconnectedness with Climate Change and how this is addressed and managed on the development and funding agendas, is a theme which clearly is on the rise. The concluding statements of the dignitaries sent us off knowing that we had addressed the key questions that make waters case in the climate context AND that the collaboration between WCC and numerous African and international institutions had successfully ensured and, established, the issue of water on the climate agenda.

The conference will bring together professionals, scientists and members of governmental institutions dealing with water resources management. Representatives of natural, social and engineering sciences will meet together to exchange experience and present the current views on the adaptation and mitigation of adverse effects of global change on water resources systems.

The Swedish Water House is part of the board of the Swedish International Hydrological Programme (IHP) Committee.

Increased urban flooding, however, is not only due to there being more people, activities and infrastructure in the way of excess water. Land use changes in catchment areas, where for example fewer trees make rainfall hit the ground and the clearing of ground vegetation hamper infiltration, may cause erosion and concentrate run-off from rains into flash floods. On top of this, climate change may already be inducing increased concentration of rainfall itself into heavier downpours in many areas.

Moreover, land use changes forming part of the urbanisation process itself often exacerbate the risk for flooding. Through paving and construction, increased permeability of the ground disrupts natural drainable systems, as do encroachment into water detention areas such as ponds or wetlands within or around the urban areas. Many cities are also outgrowing their originally constructed drainage systems, which may also suffer from poor maintenance as well as clogging by household and construction wastes.

The impacts of urban floods, however, are not shared equally. Low-income citizens living in informal settlements tend to be the hardest hit. The commonly poor standard of houses is directly linked to the insufficient incomes of its owners or occupants. The lack of infrastructure, such as drainage, roads or water & sanitation infrastructure is produced by combinations of issues like the lack of political influence by dwellers, unclear legal status of settlements, as well as by the sheer fact that the area is prone to flooding.

That flood-prone areas have poorly developed infrastructure is usually justified by that the area is not suitable for residential use. And since they are flood-prone, such settlements cannot be legalised, which is yet another inconvenience for services such as water or solid waste collection. The alternative – relocation – has unfortunately a very poor track record. As commented by Alfredo Stein (Lecturer in Urban Planning at University of Manchester – Global Urban Research Centre) in relation to possible relocation of people away from the capital in Haiti: “You are only going to be constructing ghettos that are far away from where people will need to restore their economic lives” (3).

As an alternative to relocation plans, there are development plans. Whereas there may be cases where there is a lack of awareness about flooding risks, settling on flood-prone areas is generally driven by other priorities that take precedence over flood risks. (Proximity to labour markets is often a top priority, particularly where public transport is insufficiently developed.) Partly, in the aftermath of an event, there needs to be a coordinated partnership between humanitarian and development actors in order to reconcile demands of quickly restoring basic infrastructure and services, and the more time consuming aspiration of ‘building back better’ (4).

Looking forward, extending services and infrastructure investments also to flood-prone urban areas should be seen as a ‘no-regret policy.’ Higher-quality infrastructure is more likely to withstand flood events. This is sorely needed in precisely the generally affected areas. Further, housing structures may be planned to be more resilient. There are many community-level construction strategies including elevated housing (e.g. on stilts) or the more costly concrete bottom floor, potentially augmented with a second floor of less sturdy materials. Even very simple measures such as shelves can help reduce inconveniences and loss of property during flooding events. All such investments are helped by affording legality or at least the sense of permanence, also greatly helped by the provision of services and infrastructure.

In last year’s World Disasters Report 2010, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) proposed “Ten essentials for making cities resilient:” a) organisation and coordination to understand and reduce disaster risk, in collaboration with citizen groups; b) assign a budget and provide incentives to invest in disaster risk reduction; c) prepare risk assessments, which are to be readily available and discussed with the public; d) invest in critical infrastructure; e) assess safety of schools and health facilities; f) apply and enforce realistic building regulations; g) ensure education and training; h) protect ecosystems and natural buffers; i) install early warning systems and emergency management capacities, and last but not least; and j) ensure that the needs of survivors are placed at the centre of reconstruction.

I want to emphasise the last two; the focus on the people that are actually affected, and the issue of information. After all, floods are often cyclical or seasonal and generally predictable. Knowing what to do – in preparation as well as in emergency situations – can greatly reduce the problem presented by urban flooding. Fortunately, the basics seem to move in the right direction, as even though the number of flooding events and their economic impacts are steadily increasing; the immediate loss of life in relation to these events is not. This is attributed to more successful warning, evacuation and other emergency action, as well as investments in flood defences (5).

References:
(1) Associated Programame on Flood Management (2008) Urban Flood Risk Management. A Tool for Integrated Flood Management. Flood Management Tools Series. World Meteorological Organization and Global Water Partnership.
(2) Jha, A., Lamond, J., Bloch, R., Bhattacharya, N., Lopez, A., Papachristodoulou, N., Bird, A., Proverbs, D., Davies, J. and Barker, R. (2011)Five foot high and rising. Cities and Flooding in the 21st Century. The World Bank.
(3) Cited in International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2010) World Disasters Report: Focus on Urban Risk, Geneva, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Page 54.
(4) United Nations Human Settlements Programme (2007) Enhancing Urban Safety and Security. Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. Earthscan, London.
(5) Jha, A. et al (2011), page 14

Daniel Yeo, senior policy analyst at WaterAid UK and Liese Dallbauman, Director for Water Stewardship at PepsiCo

That may be true, but as long as millions of people keep buying tons and tons of soda and chips, there will be companies there to make them. And when they do, isn’t it better that they do their best to cut down on water use and to provide the local communities with clean water? We invited Liese Dallbauman, Director for Water Stewardship at PepsiCo to hear more about why PepsiCo was one of the first companies of its size to formally and publicly acknowledge water as a human right. We wanted to know what this means in reality. So we also invited Daniel Yeo, senior policy analyst at WaterAid UK to ask Liese a few questions. PepsiCo is surely a powerful actor in the countries where it operates. If they work for a human right to water, can they do even better than the government in extending access to water for people? If they do, is that a problem? We found that they can indeed do a lot. Through water.org, a non-profit organization co-founded by movie star Matt Damon, they will provide micro-loans to families throughout India to get access to clean water by supporting funding for anything from water taps in their home to a working toilet. Also, in collaboration with Nature Conservancy, PepsiCo aims to examine the water balance in each watershed where they operate to avoid or minimize water risks in those watersheds.

Is there a risk that these actions, although meaning well, somehow interferes with the responsibility of the state - since in fact it is governments and not corporations that are meant to fulfil the right to water for its people? Liese Dallbauman explained how PepsiCo always works with local stakeholders in order to ensure solutions are fitted to the local context. Also, the company is clearly saying that they respect and protect the right to water where they operate, but that the responsibility to fulfil the right is not their job but the governments'. When it comes to pricing of water for example, PepsiCo is not in a position to decide water tariffs, all they can do is to advocate that water should be affordable. But "the two S:s" - sufficient water and safe water - are easier to act on for a company by cutting down its water use and making sure not to discharge dirty water from their factories. In conclusion, companies can do a lot but the state has the main responsibility for these rights and they seem to recognize their respective spaces for action.

Last year, two milestone UN resolutions affirmed the human right to water and sanitation. A great victory for the many who fought to clarify these rights in international law. The more skeptic-minded, perhaps especially those working in water sectors in developed countries, still sighed and said: What is the point of having a human right if it cannot be implemented? I heard the comment no later than yesterday by a colleague in the water sector, experienced in water management and certainly not lacking in solidarity with unserved people in developing countries. I also will never forget the frustration expressed to me by a renowned Professor, deeply committed to address the water situation for the poor, on the whole human rights discussion: it is just words!

Is talk about human rights just words? Are words the opposite of action? Michel Foucault, social theorist who made a significant contribution to social sciences with his theories on discourse, would surely think differently. He found that all periods of history have possessed certain underlying conditions of truth that constituted what was acceptable as, for example, scientific discourse. Looking at history, one can see that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, from one period's view on knowledge to another. What was seen as right and wrong in the 1700s is not the same today. Discourse, words, set the limits for what we see as true, and what we believe is possible for humans to do.  Following this view of the world, the UN deliberations on the right to water and sanitation that seem such a drawn out repetition of words and inaction, would actually be a change of our time’s underlying conditions of truth.  

In September of this year, the UN Human Rights Council also took a next step to help countries go from words to action.  Focusing on national plans of action, a new resolution was passed in the UN Human Rights Council, setting out a range of operational measures that should be taken by governments in order to implement the right to water and sanitation on the ground. This resolution firmly responds to the how- question so frequently asked for by practitioners and sceptics of words. The resolution calls upon States to:

1. Ensure that national minimum standards, based on human rights criteria, are in place when water and sanitation services are decentralized, in order to ensure coherence and countrywide compliance with human rights;
2. Set access targets to be reached in short-time periods for universal service provision, giving priority to realizing a basic level of service for everyone before improving service levels for those already served;
3. Set indicators, including disaggregated data, based on human rights criteria, to monitor progress and to identify shortcomings to be rectified and challenges to be met;
4. Assess whether the existing legislative and policy framework is in line with the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, and to repeal, amend or adapt it in order to meet human rights standards and principles;
5. Provide for a regulatory framework aimed at ensuring that all water and sanitation service providers respect and protect human rights and do not cause human rights violations or abuses,
6. Provide for a framework of accountability that provides for adequate monitoring mechanisms and legal remedies, including measures to overcome obstacles in access to justice and other accountability mechanisms and lack of awareness of the law, human rights and opportunities to claim these rights
7. Ensure full transparency of the monitoring and assessment of the implementation of plans of action, projects and programmes in the sectors of water and sanitation and to ensure, including in the planning process, the free, effective, meaningful and non-discriminatory participation of all people and communities concerned, particularly people living in disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable situations;
8. Ensure financing to the maximum of available resources in order to implement all the necessary measures to ensure that water and sanitation systems are sustainable and that services are affordable for everyone, while ensuring that allocated resources are not limited to infrastructure, but also include resources for regulatory activities, operation and maintenance, the institutional and managerial structure and structural measures, including increasing capacity.

It is time to act now!

The seminar was co-convened by Swedish Water House and Sweden Sustainable Investment Forum (SWESIF). This was successful since together, our two organizations managed to attract an audience representing the community of financial institutions as well other organizations, including universities, non-governmental organizations, public authorities and consultants.

Once the panel discussion started, the moderator, Johan Kuylenstierna, SEI, had a busy time keeping track of all the questions from the audience. The topic was clearly as engaging for the audience as for the speakers.

One issue raised was the challenges of valuing and pricing of water. When industries can release untreated effluent water without charge and a household water bill in Arizona can cost US$ 10/month, it is clear that water is undervalued. On the other hand, water has different types of values, not only monetary, and discounting of the future value of water is tricky.

When wrapping up, Henrik Malmsten, chairman of SWESIF, pointed to the urgency of engaging investors and companies in water issues by quoting a Chinese saying: "The right time to plant a tree was one hundred years ago, the second best time is to do it today."

(A seminar report and the presentations from the seminar will soon be available here.)

by Johanna Sjödin, Programme Officer, Swedish Water House

Even in Sweden the glaciers are melting at an unforeseen pace and measurements of the highest peak, the southern peak of Kebnekaise, covered by a small glacier, in September showed that the top now only reaches 2099.7 m a.s.l., which is the very lowest that has ever been measures and is calculated as the lowest level during the last 1000 years! And the melting speed has increased steadily, not only in Sweden and the Himalayas but also at other high mountain regions. Even the glaciers and large ice masses at Greenland, Arctic and Antarctic are currently increasing their melting pace.

This increasing melting is beyond what scientists have calculated and what is shown in different scenarios as we so far have "only" increased the mean temperature by about 1oC. The impact by the glacier melting in the Himalayas, in particularly as Glacier Lake Outburst Floods, GLOFs, was emphasized in an early version of the NAPA-document of the government of Nepal, and is also described as what can cause catastrophes in valleys also in the NAPA of 2010. This of course may cause detrimental effects to the living conditions for the people living in the valleys. The melting of the Himalaya glaciers may result in an early flood situation and, above all, access to water will be very undeterminable.

Scientists also warn for that the rapid melting of the larger ice masses may result in a more rapidly sea level rise which then would threaten a important amount of world’s population living in low-lying areas, close to the sea.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, is arranging a Mountain Day on December 4th, 2011, at the UNFCCC COP-17 in Durban, South Africa. This day will assemble a high-level panel to advocate the value and the critical role of mountains and thereby promote policy actions to ensure the contribution of mountain ecosystem goods and services in particularly the vital access to water.

There are a number of recent initiatives moving the focus of urban sanitation to the spotlight. For example, the City Sanitation Strategies in Indonesia that have developed over the last 5 years focusing on city-wide operational which transformed the sector. Increasingly investors such as the World Bank, Gates Foundation, African Water Facilities and European Union are financing urban solutions. The urban environment is challenging, but also leading to innovations in service delivery and financing, like the private entrepreneurs supported through Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WUSP).

In our attempts to come to grips with the scale of the urban challenges there is increasing recognition that the term "urban" hides a complex mix of heterogeneous contexts. There is amazing diversity in the level of service provision within cities, from high income-high water consumption areas connected to sewerage systems, to proper toilets without proper waste management, to nothing at all. Although statistics usually show urban areas as having greater access to sanitation services, this can be misleading. In the case of urban slum dwellers, proximity doesn’t mean access to improved services. At the World Water Week, sector professionals were increasing recognizing that this spatial diversity needs to be taken into account when planning, designing and monitoring for urban sanitation.

In many ways meeting the urban challenge requires a paradigm shift in how we view the urban context and how we design urban sanitation services. The heterogeneous nature of the problem means that the solutions will also have to be heterogeneous. Instead of rolling out a single standard of city-wide services, meeting the needs of ALL city dwellers will mean adapting technology, management and financing structures that are matched to the urban context in which they are living. Matching services to specific contexts and social demographics will mean looking at a multitude of solutions and integrating them along the entire chain of environmental service delivery (including solid waste and drainage). Future city-wide planning may need to allow different standards and options at different levels of the city. One way of doing this is to start looking at the functions that services provide instead of focusing on specific technologies. This will open the door for innovation and critical linkages to complementary services. We need to start thinking out of the box, adapting solutions to specific urban contexts (http://susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbktypeitem&type=2&id=1019), and taking action at a variety of levels within the urban context. The urban challenge is also an exciting opportunity for a paradigm shift within the sanitation sector - as long as we remember that this transition requires advocacy and our active engagement at both local and global levels (see my news stream entry from 16th July).

Use this opportunity to share your knowledge on how water, energy and food security are interconnected and what the challenges are! This will help decision makers undertake a multisectoral approach that guarantees long-term supply and equitable access to all three resources. Respondents will be sent a synthesis report once all submissions have been received.
The online survey is found here:
http://www.water-energy-food.org/en/stakeholders/get_involved/online_consultation/survey.html
 
En español:
http://www.water-energy-food.org/en/stakeholders/get_involved/online_consultation/survey_es.html

Resources
More about the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference:
Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for a Green Economy

More about the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD)
http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/

Ann-Mari Karlsson, Programme Officer, Swedish Water House

So, not dealing with risk is a social and financial risk. Also ecosystems are negatively affected by disasters. But not dealing with risks properly can also be a political risk, which politicians are painfully aware of, as seen by the recent resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The resilient cities campaign is therefore driven by Mayors who want to make their cities safer and:  1) Know More 2) Invest Wisely 3) Build More Safely. There are about 800 cities already signed up as of August 2011 and the number is increasing like wildfire.

Photo from the discussion on August 26th with Margareta Wahlström and the SWH cluster group for Water and DRR

The Swedish House cluster group on Water and Disaster Risk Reduction met on the 26th August during the World Water Week with Margareta Wahlström, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction to discuss areas where the cluster group could contribute to the work of UNISDR and in particular the Resilient Cities campaign. There was a very interesting discussion and with many ideas for future work. The group will in the next steps aim to involve the private sector and the financial / insurance sectors to discuss risk considerations in city growth. 

Reference:
1. International Federation for the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies
2. Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2011

First out was the synthesis report ‘An Ecosystems Approach to Water and Food Security’ from UNEP and IWMI focuses on the linkages between ecosystems, water, and food production and that understanding of these linkages are essential to the health of all three. The report calls for a shift in the management of water from water for food to water for multifunctional agro-ecosystems, considering the whole ecosystem in order to achieve not only more crops per drop of water but rather more ecosystem services and products per drop. Then FAO which gave a sneak preview of their first global report (to be published later this year) on ‘The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources’ (SOLAW) which outlines the state of land and water resources for food production and threats to food security resulting from the scarcity and degradation of water resources. Lastly a seminar by UN-Water hosted a panel discussion as part of the preparation for the World Water Day in 2012 which is intended to draw the international attention on the relationships between water and food security.

While all these reports and talk might seem far from reality, for people living in Kenya like myself this is all too real. The importance of water for agricultural production is once again showing itself in eastern Africa. Horrific pictures and stories on TV and radio tell the tales of the suffering of some 12 million people on the eastern Horn of Africa, who in some areas are experiencing the worst drought in 60 years. Crops have failed, livestock are dying, and food prices are soaring. And yet this has not come as a surprise to anyone who is following the agricultural sector in Africa. The Horn of Africa probably has one of the most effective early warning systems to predict catastrophic events like this. But once again little attention was given to the escalating situation until starving children are broadcasted around the world. Prevention is always better than cure and much could have been done to avoid this situation. Even more disturbing is the fact that this part of the world is supposedly facing economic rather than physical water scarcity, caused by a lack of investment in water or a lack of human capacity to satisfy the demand for water.

What about the new glossy reports and the debates at World Water Weeks? Would these change the situation on the ground, would they save people from hunger? While providing excellent status and trends analysis and synthesize existing knowledge from various fields they constitute great background documents but hardly provide a new message. The need for integrated approaches and cross-sectoral collaboration is old knowledge. And the talk of the need for all sectors to appreciate all the services and products provided by the agro-ecosystem, not only food, and acknowledge that this  system is intrinsically connected to other ecosystems in the larger landscape is merely a rephrasing of the ecosystems approach. It is true though that by implementing the policy level recommendations is necessary this would not help the people of the Horn of Africa today. In other and perhaps more developed parts of the world such interventions are probably the most pertinent things to focus on but with countries like Somalia with a non- or at best dysfunctional government, a newly independent South Sudan, or a Kenya with not less than forty ministries more interested in petty turf wars than implementing the country’s development agenda, policy interventions, however necessary, is not a magical bullet providing an instant solution. What the small-scale subsistent farmers need are the many low-cost and simple technologies that have been around for along time. These such as rainwater harvesting, small-scale drip irrigation, and agroforestry to name a few must be rolled out on a grand scale in order to achieve significant impact on both food and water security for the majority of the world’s population.

Klustergruppen för vatten och energi hade representation på plats när The International Hydropower Association (IHA) höll sin återkommande kongress med temat att arbeta för hållbar vattenkraft, denna gång i Iguassu, Brasilien. Femhundra deltagare från 71 olika länder närvarade. Representanter från vattenkraftbranschen, energibolag, systemoperatörer, företrädare för arbetsmarknads-institutioner, miljöinriktade icke-statliga organisationer (NGOs), representanter för ursprungs-befolkningar, finansiella institut och forskningscentra/institut deltog alla på mötet. På mötet diskuterade man den senaste bedömningen från IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) om förnybar energi som påpekar att hållbarhet inte har en direkt relation med dammars storlek, möjligheter som det ökade intresset för ”grön tillväxt” (med tillhörande strategier) inom det internationella samfundet för med sig samt möjligheterna relaterade till tillväxten av ”carbon market finance”.

Itaipu dammen från Brasilien

Besöket i Brasilien lämnade många bestående minnen; framförallt den framåtanda och tillförsikt som uppvisades av de närvarande aktörerna vad gäller att skapa hållbar vattenkraft för att främja utvecklingen i Brasilien och resten av världen samt de spännande metoder och koncept som diskuterades för att uppnå detta. En tragisk påminnelse om vattenkraftens historia gavs dock via ett gripande tal av Michael Lawrenchuk, huvudförhandlare och f.d. ledare för Fox Lake Cree Nation i Kanada. Han redogjorde för de näst intill ofattbara konsekvenser han och hans folk fått genomlida som resultat av dammutbyggnad under 60- talet. Det gav en påminnelse om hur långt man kommit idag beträffande genomförandet av dammprojekt på bara några årtionden men också att man aldrig kan sluta arbeta för att optimera och utveckla systemen för att säkerställa att minimala konsekvenser drabbar vissa grupper. Det som kanske är historia i Kanada idag är med stor sannolikhet realitet i någon annan del av världen.

 With such a grim picture for South Asia one would expect these large, transboundary river systems to attract much attention. It is today well known what should be done in order to deliver more welfare per drop of water used - but is it done? There are many answers to that question; some would say "yes" and other "no".

The Indus is a major river, covering 71% of the Pakistan territory and providing water for 77% of its population. The Indus Water Treaty was signed many years ago to handle the allocation of water between India and Pakistan. The treaty has reasonably well survived five decades and two wars between the basin neighbours and is today ranked as one of the most successful international treaties of water cooperation. However, as the treaty was designed in 1960 it does not provide for changes in water availability, increasing demands, environmental factors, data collection and sharing, or technological advancements. These are major shortcomings that need to be addressed - but they are not. Are the two countries so badly focusing on differences and conflicts and a danger of so-called “water wars”, that cooperation and development is of no importance? The fact that water wars do not exist has apparently no significance.

Further east in the Himalayan range we have neighbouring India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. In "Cooperation or Conflict in Transboundary Water Management: Case Study of South Asia" (http://www.thirdworldcentre.org/hsjsouthasia.pdf), Asit K. Biswas compares two cases and discuss the opportunities for regional, basin-based cooperation. 

The first case is cooperation between India and Bhutan. The Chukha hydroelectric scheme was commissioned in 1986 and has since generated large amounts of energy for both countries. Peace, stability and growth have all thrived and Bhutan's GDP per person has increased greatly in recent years. That is fine. But the second case is one of many years of missed opportunities due to mistrust and the "big brother-small brother" syndrome. India, Nepal and Bangladesh are neighbours and have great opportunities for large-scale benefit sharing along their shared rivers; Nepal can develop and produce huge amounts of hydropower that India and Bangladesh are more than willing to buy, thus enhancing growth and development in all three countries. But a lack of trust and an absence of visionary thinking again block a much needed process. Costly as well, not to those blocking the development, but to those millions of poor people longing for electric light, children at school and decent living conditions. 

The Strategic Foresight Group (www.strategicforesight.com), a water think-tank based in Mumbai, India, is very concerned about the region's water development. In three recent reports, "The Himalayan Challenge: Water Security in Emerging Asia", "Himalayan Solutions: Co-operation and Security in River Basins" and "The Indus Equation", it argues forcefully that an emerging water crisis is on the way in South Asia. It also argues - and this is both constructive and positive - that this can potentially foster cooperation and security among the basin states. The group presents a number of specific areas where enhanced cooperation can flourish, like new technology, inter-disciplinary research, hydropower and regional conventions. 

Finally, in a recent SIWI report, "Addressing Power Asymmetry: How Transboundary Water Management May Serve to Reduce Poverty" (http://www.siwi.org/publications) the authors trace the linkages between power in transboundary water management and poverty. To understand better how a basin hegemon acts, and thus develop appropriate strategies to counter the potentially negative effects on cooperation, benefit sharing and growth is important.

To review Himalayan cooperation on shared water resources is a rather discouraging exercise. The opportunities for collaboration and benefit sharing are there. Still, almost nothing is happening. it is not because we do not know what to do - early warning systems, data collection and sharing, and setting up river basin commissions - is all well-established knowledge. Should we compare transboundary water management with food security and the wisdom of Nobel Price Laureate Professor Amarty Sen?  "Famines do not exist in democracies". When openness and debate become the rule of the day, the immense costs of inaction and inefficiency will not be tolerated.

Klustergruppen för vatten och energi höll sitt tredje formella möte under World Water Week på Stockholmsmässan i augusti. Fortsatta strategier diskuterades och nya perspektiv delades mellan de närvarande medlemmarna. Dagen på WWW gav också möjligheten att vidare fördjupa sig i olika vatten- och energirelaterade frågeställningar. Morgonen startade med ett seminarie som utforskade vatten, energi och säkerhetsaspekter. Seminariet organiserades av Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) och Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) som sedan tidigare bedriver ett samarbete för att utforska nämnda frågeställningar med ett fokus på södra Afrika. Ytterst intressanta inlägg kom även från organisationerna som var inbjudna att presentera; Sandia National Laboratories, DOW och International Hydropower Association (IHA). Klicka här för presentationerna.

Through its advocacy on the climate negotiations, the Water and Climate Coalition have pushed for water to be treated as a unique agenda item on the SBSTA agenda (The Subsidiary body for scientific and Technical Advice). Although this did not happen a fair compromise was reached and instead of addressing water as a separate agenda item it was to be addressed under the Nairobi Work Programme on Adaptation. This should be seen as a major achievement; however, the coalition will continue to push for water being treated as a single agenda item. Among the panelists there was a concern that treating water as a separate agenda item can make other groups push for their issues to be treated the same way. Climate negotiations have too many issues to deal with. They already have troubles going through all agenda items with the very limited time- how is it possible to include even more? Angela Kallhauge, working as a senior advisor at the Swedish Energy Agency’s International Climate Policy Unit meant that the coalition should focus on educating climate negotiators at home so when they are at the negotiations they have “water with them in thought“ all the time. Are there too many issues? Hannah Stoddart from Stakeholder Forum responded and said that we cannot compare water with many of the other issues that want to be placed on the agenda. Water differs since “it is the essence of everything”. If we want to make climate adaptation and mitigation successful pushing for a space for water on the SBSTA agenda is the way to start!
 

Swedish Water house convened the Annual Meeting of the Water and Climate Coalition together with Stakeholder Forum. Despite the late hour (from 19:00 -21:00!) we had a afull house of 17 members, partners and obervers, like SEI, Green Cross, Conservation International, WWF, GWP and others,  keenly supporting and following the work we have done under UNFCCC. As our oldest colleague from Stakeholder Forum is moving on to new and exciting assignments there was a heightened sense of shared goals and common efforts as we take on the new work plan.

It soon became clear for the participants that the real challenge was to get all these systems working together. The different systems are largely dependent on the same resources and if not coordinated can easily result in competition for financing, water etc. The young water professionals had many ideas on how these different systems could be integrated. The sanitation group suggested that wastewater could be used both for biogas production, and as fertilizers for agriculture. The water supply group had thought about creating a system that did not use up too much energy. The food production and livelihoods group suggested household gardening as a solution for Aceh and had thought about how to make use of wastewater and rainwater for these gardens. Although there was a realization in all groups that some trade-offs had to be made, the focus was on solutions. Using a case to work with was very much appreciated by the young water professionals. It was a great way of getting the young water professionals engaged -the room was buzzing of ideas! Hopefully, we’ll try something similar next year.

See more pictures from this seminar at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldwaterweek/sets/72157627367549817/

Karin Glaumann, SWH 

Philosophical meanderings aside, with this seminar we are hoping to provide a platform for young water professionals, however they chose to define themselves, to meet their peers as well as more senior experts, to discuss future challenges in the water sector. This year we have created a scenario for the participants with the task to rebuild the Indonesian city Banda Aceh, shattered by the tsunami in 2004, into a resilient city. The central question that will be guiding the work is: Building a city in this area, how can we create sustainable solutions for energy and water supply, sanitation, industry and agriculture without overexploiting or polluting water sources? Have a closer look at the programme and the case study here. Please note that to join this seminar you need to be registered for the Water Week. However, for Sweden-based young water professionals there are still a couple of free seats left… send me an e-mail no later than tomorrow Friday the 5th if you want to sign up! ann-mari.karlsson@siwi.org

The service relationships are often pictured as a triangle, with the state on the top, where politicians/policy makers institute utility regulation or develop contracts or compacts with service providers. This relationship has received long and persistent attention in the privatisation debate and the ensuing call for improved regulation of public as well as private service providers. On the other side, the state has a relationship with the citizens, expressing their voice through elections or other ways of contacting or influencing the various levels of government and state authorities. This relationship has received heightened attention in the definition of water (services) as a human right.

At the bottom of the triangle, then, is the more or less direct relationship between water users and the providers that physically make water available for human consumption. The 2004 World Development Report focussing on ‘Making Services Available for Poor People’ labelled this relationship, or exchange of services and ‘client power’ as ‘the short route of accountability.’ In contrast, ‘the long route of accountability’ went via the state machinery. The point made here was the influence the customers could have over the supplier through their commercial relationship.

Still, this potential commercial power of the client has been more conducive to generate informal and most often inadequate service provision, and has not been sufficient to bring sustainable services to urban dwellers, and certainly not to the poorer slum dwellers. The missing link for sustainable and equitable services is the lack of arrangements that are sufficiently awarding for providers, yet affordable and accessible for the communities.

In Albania, the Water Regulatory Authority and the MDG-F-sponsored programme for Economic Governance, Regulatory Reform, Public Participation and Pro-Poor Development have taken note of the wide disparity and the often poor conditions offered to households by the water system operators. This situation impelled them to develop a ‘model contract’ in consultation with all stakeholders, including consumer rights organisations and associations of water system operators. Opting for a long and detailed contract, it serves also as an educational tool for water services users and providers to learn about their rights as well as obligations towards one another. This ‘model contract’ is being implemented progressively by water operators throughout Albania.

In the Philippines, the National Water Resources Board and the MDG-F-sponsored programme for Enhancing Access to and Provision of Water Services with the Active Participation of the Poor found that many of the smaller water supply schemes were unsustainable as those in charge of operations and maintenance were often lacking the necessary capacity. It was found that when the customers were involved in determining the appropriate level of service as well as the appropriate tariff. Developing realistic levels of services and tariffs, water service providers were able to operate successfully. This mutual agreement and understanding of each others rights and obligations to one another were formalised and signed by representatives of the customers and the service providers, and witnessed by local leaders and other customers.

This work on the mutual understanding of rights and obligations of both water consumers and water service providers is being presented at a Side Event at the World Water Week (Interests of Water Users and Service Providers: Mutual Understanding of Rights and Obligations - Sunday, 2011-08-21 at 17:45 to 18:45 in Room K24). It is proposed as a practical way of working towards the realisation of the human right to water, and it addresses the too poorly developed – too often even missing – link in the urban water supply chain.

A recent report from the Sanitation Global Practice Team of the Water and Sanitation Program and the World Bank looked to political-economy as one way to why sanitation is not given adequate priority and why interventions often do not reach the poorest populations . The study looked into the social, political and economic processes determining the extent and nature of sanitation investment and service provision. What it found was that cultural and historical contexts are significant determiners of sanitation investment. In other words, social taboos and fractured or hierarchical politics lower political motivation to prioritize resources for sanitation. And when there are resources for sanitation, there is a strong preference for highly visible, big infrastructure investments. This can be explained in part by the technical bias of engineers, who have all been trained in sewerage systems; desires to gain power and prestige from big infrastructure, and perhaps ignorance that other options exist.
 

Looking closely at these causes for inertia can give us some tips on how to overcome them. Diversifying the education of sanitary engineers is needed, but will hardly give short-term results. Perhaps there is a way to design sustainable sanitation investment that is even more visible and nice-looking as the conventional sewerage so as to tempt politicians and voters. Here generating public demand and communication can lead to higher visibility and political incentives for sanitation investment. Linking fractured water and sanitation sectors and creating cross-sectorial bridges in political hierarchies is also crucial. In this way, sanitation can find an institutional home with a mandate, capacity and resources to create change.
 

At the same time we need to consider how to build pressure for leapfrogging the sector into more sustainable regimes. There are several ways to do this, either through international cooperation or through internal change. Swedish actors are well-positioned to create this change either abroad or at home. Partner driven cooperation or direct investment for sustainable approaches with foreign partners is one approach. Swedes are good at working across sectors and can provide needed institutional and technical support. Expanding the education of sanitary engineers through courses taught in Sweden or abroad is another. On the home front, a global movement can be started right here by aligning our own thinking and sanitation systems for sustainability. These ideas can eventually be exported to the rest of the world. Finally, we need to remember that in spite of challenges, individual champions can and do make a difference.

The Side Event on “Water, Climate and Development” was co-arranged by the Water and Climate Coalition, WCC [1], www.waterclimatecoalition.org , Global Water Partnership and African Ministers Council on Water, AMCOW. It was the main activity focusing on how water related issues in relation to climate change could be better addressed in the UNFCCC-process. The Cancun meeting resulted in water being on the SBSTA-agenda as the Agenda Item 13 of the SBSTA on ‘Impacts of climate change on water resources and water management’. The WCC now is strongly advocating for the UNFCCC to “define a space for reporting and evaluation on how water is integrated and highlighted in different programmes and mechanisms under the UNFCCC”. The main goal is according to WCC for the UNFCCC process to establish a work programme on water under the Convention. The Executive Secretary of the AMCOW at the Side Event rightly pointed out that the water representation at the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biodiversity tend to run in separate tracks. The CBD has a programme on Inland Water Biodiversity, but the processes and the issues are not compatible although both conventions were opened for signatures at the Rio Conference 1992.

The discussions during the SBSTA 34 including the informal consultations undertaken by the chair of the SBSTA resulted in that the Parties agreed to discuss the issue of water under the Agenda Item 3, the Nairobi Work Programme. This was the formal agreement reached, but the discussion leading up to that included a request to prepare a technical paper on water and climate change impacts and adaptation strategies, as well as the need for a review of NAPAs and NAMAs with a view to strengthen and creating coherence in water dependent actions, which was put forward by a number of Parties to the Convention.

However, there might be something to use in the process to strengthen water in the UNFCCC process that may be learnt from what happened at the 10th COP to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Deriving from reviews of published assessments including the IPCC report on water, a set of Policy Agreements and Guidance on Water and Climate Change were proposed by the CBD Second Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change to the CBD. These policy statements and guidance were adopted by the COP of CBD in October 2010. 

References
[1] The SWH is a key member of the WCC

Nätverkande, aktiviteter, en massa olika åsikter till höger och vänster – vad ger Almedalen konkret? Vad är resultaten av allt detta och våra seminarier mitt i allting – leder det verkligen till förändring? Det finns ju vitt skilda åsikter om allting. I politiken finns också trender, tongångar, man kanske kan kalla det moden. För några år sedan handlade allt om klimat. Från vårt perspektiv är vatten en lika viktig fråga, som det dessutom går att göra något åt – om det prioriteras. Målet är att delta i samtal med politiskt och samhälleligt intresserade människor, medborgare och politiker. Målet är att i dessa samtal är att få beslutsfattare och andra att förstå hur viktigt vatten är. Insikter hos beslutsfattare leder till ökade resurser för satsningar. Ta behovet för upprustning av det svenska VA nätet som exempel. Stora delar av ledningsnätet sattes på plats under 60 och 70-talen och börjar nå en kritisk ålder. Runt omkring i Sverige står kommunerna inför en stor utmaning. Det behövs investeringar i storleksordningen 2,5-3 miljarder kronor om året för att möta renoveringsbehoven. Om pengar görs tillgängliga, då har vi lyckats påverka genom vårt nätverkande och aktiviteter i Almedalen. 

I förra veckan fick vi veta att andelen svenskar som tror att klimatförändringarna kommer att påverka oss i Sverige är den lägsta på tio år, något som uppmärksammats av Johan Rockström och Anders Sundström i en artikel i Göteborgsposten den 19 maj.  Enligt författarna avspeglar denna inställning det faktum att klimatfrågan på senare tid fått allt mindre uppmärksamhet i media och krupit längre och längre ner på politikens och näringslivets prioriteringslistor. Även om klimatfrågan hamnat i skymundan träffas världens ledare varje år och förhandlar om vår jords framtid. Inför COP 17 i Durban i november måste klimatförhandlingarna landa i konkreta åtaganden. Huvudfokus är att genomföra de beslut som togs i Cancun förra året och samtidigt driva på och höja ambitionsnivån.

Vattenfrågorna har inte upptagit någon särskilt framträdande roll i klimatförhandlingarna trots att klimatförändringar till stor del medför förändringar i den hydrologiska cykeln (oregelbunden nederbörd, glaciäravsmältning, försämrad färskvattenkvalité mm). Insatser för att mildra klimatförändringen är också beroende av tillgång till vatten (utbyggnad av vattenkraft, biobränsleproduktion för att nämna några exempel).

Men allt fler klimatförhandlare börjar lyfta fram vattnets viktiga roll i klimatarbetet. Under förhandlingarna i Cancun behandlades vatten för första gången som en särskild fråga vid ett formellt tillfälle. Sex länder med Sudan och Ecuador i spetsen föreslog att vatten ska ha en särskild dagordningspunkt på agendan för klimatkonventionens tekniska kommittee (SBSTA) under dess möte den 6-17 juni, och vatten finns nu med på SBSTAs preliminära dagordning. Trots detta positiva utfall finns fortfarande mycket kvar att göra. Vattenresursfrågorna måste bli mycket mer tydliga i klimatkonventionens existerande program och mekanismer. Av stor vikt är även att rätt vattenkompetens finns tillgänglig då klimatåtgärder planeras, inte minst då beslut om finansiering av olika projekt ska tas. Utan vattenkompetens riskerar olika projekt och åtgärdsprogram leda till att vattenresurser överutnyttjas vilket kan försämra samhällens och ekosystems förmåga till anpassning och återhämtning.

Det är på tiden att klimatförhandlingarna resulterar i konkreta åtaganden och att vattnets centrala roll i klimatarbetet lyfts fram. För att klimatförhandlingarna ska avancera krävs att allmänheten sätter press på våra politiker. Därför bör förhandlingarna vara både transparenta och begripliga. Vårt framtida klimat är inget som ska beslutas om bakom stängda dörrar utan frågan måste synliggöras och debatteras på alla samhällets arenor om vi ska uppnå ett globalt, hållbart samhälle.

Swedish Water House var genom Water and Climate Coalition aktiva vid klimatförhandlingarna i Bonn, 6-17 June. Läs mer på Water and Climate Coalitions hemsida.

But there is another perspective on the right to water among the indigenous communities around the world. According to a range of international documents and treaties, such as the Article 169 of the International Labour Organization, indigenous peoples not only have the right as individuals to a certain amount of drinking water per day, but they have a special right to access and govern the entire water resource as it flows through the landscape (the right to participate in the use, management and conservation of the natural resources pertaining to their lands, article 15.1 of ILO 169).

In a statement at the recent session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (16-24 May), Catarina de Albuquerque, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation stated that "As Special Rapporteur, I regularly receive information about threats to indigenous rights, including especially concerns about pollution of water sources. For example, I have received numerous reports about the impact of mining operations - from uranium mining in the US to bauxite mining in India - indigenous peoples are seeing severe impacts on their access to clean water, as well as on their way of life and culture." Mining has serious environmental effects and often causes water pollution which, if not treated, naturally stands in the way for access to healthy drinking water. But the Special Rapporteur also refers to the mining impacts as having unwelcome effects on the way of life and culture of indigenous peoples - something quite larger than a discussion on the adequate amount of drinking water that a state must ensure its citizens. While much of the arguments for a human right to water in fact covers the performance of water services and how they can be used to fulfil individuals’ right to water, the claims made by indigenous communities are to more extensive water rights. These claims are made on the basis of a collective right of a traditional community to a natural resource.

The NGO Friends of the Earth International in 2004 stated that the concept of collective rights emerged because individual human rights do not guarantee adequate protection for indigenous peoples and other minorities exhibiting collective characteristics. Since then, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has clearly formulated in its 25th  article that "Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard." At the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Special Rapporteur de Albuquerque continued to refer to large scale infrastructure projects: "Projects to generate new sources of energy, such as dams and geothermal exploration, have also been reported to me as having a serious impact on access to clean water for indigenous peoples." Concerns about pollution of water sources are rampant in indigenous communities because not only do they threaten access to safe drinking water, but to cultural practices central for upholding a collective identity. A picture is thus emerging in which access to water, cultural heritage and sound environmental management cannot be separated.

UN General Comment No. 15 states that: "States should take steps to ensure that (…) indigenous peoples' access to water resources on their ancestral lands is protected from encroachment and unlawful pollution. States should provide resources for indigenous peoples to design, deliver and control their access to water."  In order to make that happen, indigenous populations need to be more involved in water management. Valmaine Toki of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for 2011 - 2013, in an interview with Media Global on June 2nd points out that policies implemented by governments do not include an indigenous perspective to water. He emphasises that "(…) mismanagement, over-allocation to intensive agricultural practices, and extractive industries such as mining, results in pollution of waterways, ecosystem, and livelihoods (…)" Toki noted that among the forum’s most promising recommendations is the appointment of a Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Water and Water Catchment Areas, mandated to protect indigenous regions that are affected by industrial negligence (see the article here)

The degree of lack of water is often based on a pattern of discrimination in society. Those who are discriminated against in terms of political influence, housing rights, land rights etc and based on their religious, cultural or cast identity or economic status, are those who mostly lack safe water and improved sanitation. Indigenous peoples in many societies constitute a segment of the population that is widely discriminated against and therefore their lack of water and sanitation is often widespread. Their lack of access is not a coincidence but a result of politics which exclude them from shaping their own lives.

But addressing the lack of water of indigenous peoples entails a set of broader issues. Ensuring specific, targeted and deliberate policies and measures to make sure that the overall progress of a society also reaches the excluded segments of the population is just one the cornerstones. At an absolute minimum, affected people should be included in relevant decision-making processes of development projects on their ancestral lands. Amending formal water rights to align more with customary water rights is another measure that indigenous communities call for. Indigenous communities must also be included more at all water policy and implementation levels.

References

• 24 May 2011, Statement to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Catarina de Albuquerque, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
• Media Global article
• 2002, General Comment No.15
• 2007, Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
• 2004:"Our environment, our rights. Standing up for people and the planet" Friends of the Earth International
• Article 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Photo: Manfred Matz.

by Karin Glaumann, Cluster Group Coordinator, SWH

Svenska Juniorvattenpriset är en av många (drygt 30) nationella tävlingar som pågår världen över. Vinnarna i dessa tävlingar får representera sina respektive länder i den internationella finalen Stockholm Junior Water Prize som genomförs under världsvattenveckan i Stockholm i augusti.

Mer att läsa om 2011 års finalister i Svenska Juniorvattenpriset finns i olika lokalpress. Klicka här för länkar.

av Cajsa Larsson, Svenska Juniorvattenpriset, SIWI

Under seminariet ”The role of private companies in water resources manangement” som hölls den 9 maj presenterades exempel från just textil- och biobränslesektorerna på hur företag frivilligt kan engagera sig för bättre vattenresursförvaltning. Det lockade cirka 50 personer till Konserthuset i Stockholm och var ett samarrangemang mellan Swedish Water House, Näringslivets Miljöchefer och Stockholm Environment Institute.

Abetnego Tarigan, chef för Sawit Watch (en indonesisk enskild organisation) berättade hur Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) fungerar som mötesplats för företag, miljöorganisationer, investerare och andra som vill verka för mer hållbara produktion av palmolja. Sedan organisationen startade har han sett hur företag har blivit mer bekväma med att diskutera dessa frågor.
Ett av de svenska företag som är med i RSPO, Fortum, har tagit ställningen att de inte kan använda rå palmolja för att tillverka biobränslen, men dock restprodukter av palmolja. En utmaning för dem blir därför att ställa upphandlingskrav på att restprodukterna ska vara RSPO-certifierade.

Från textilbranschens håll efterlyste Renée Anderson, Indiska, ett nytt synsätt på relationen mellan företag, enskilda organisationer och myndigheter gällande vattenfrågor - det bör inte vara en katt-och-råtta-lek utan ett mer jämställt samarbete. En modell för sådant samarbete är Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) som presenterades under seminariet.

Anna Forslund från WWF uttryckte att hennes organisation gärna samarbetar med företag när det gäller vattenfrågor, särskilt om det gäller engagemang för ett helt avrinningsområde. Det är dock viktigt att företag som ingår partnerskap med WWF är klara över att de gör det för att bidra till ett mer hållbart användande av vattenresurser.

Innan seminariepubliken gick hem fick de också med sig tankar om en ny affärsmodell där företag fördelar sin vinst inte bara till aktieägarna utan också till miljöprojekt; en idé från Håkan Tropp, chef för UNDPs Water Governance Facility.

av Johanna Sjödin, Swedish Water House

photo by Åse Johannessen

Studies of organizations show that past learning inhibits new learning: Before organizations will try on new ideas, they must unlearn old ones by discovering their inadequacies and then discarding them. The new ideas are often also not coming from the top-down. Instead strategic innovation often emerge from the lower levels of an organization, which are in immediate contact with the customers, users, or target groups and able to pick up signals or ‘intelligence’ from changes in the environment.  What is crucial here, for these insights to be taken forward is that leaders, managers, decision- and policy makers are responsive to the recommendations coming from the grass roots, or practitioners in the field.

Between 8 and 13 May 2011, the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a bi-annual event, managed by UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction where actors come together to share the latest experiences. I’m hoping that the leading agents of this world carry their responsibility beyond just rubbing shoulders and staying in power, and explore new ways to capture the innovative resourcefulness of the grass root level. Perhaps some of those Moomin strategies can be useful, at least for inspiration.

A practical application in WASH to mitigate disasters
The picture shows small-scale drainage system, adapted to peri-urban areas, in Urbanização suburb in Maputo, Mozambique. The system drains the massive amounts of water during the annual rain period, preventing people from wading in water for long periods of time. The local community also is cleaning the drains from solid waste so that the water can flow away freely. It came about through an effort from Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) responding to the almost annual cholera epidemics, realizing the need for more long term disaster risk reduction instead of responding to each disaster. A local community organization is now managing the activities with the support of WaterAid, which also includes provision of safe water, improved sanitation, waste collection and hygiene education  by a drama group.

by Åse Johannessen, Cluster group leader, Water and Disaster Risk Reduction

But the fact that behaviour change is necessary is not an argument against improving laws and regulations. Both things need to be done. Law shapes politics and reflects the vision of a society. Safeguarding the rights of people is a crucial role of the law. The lack of access to water and sanitation is an obstacle to human development so vast that it should be beyond dispute that constitutions, laws and legal systems need to reflect the problem and define the obligations of government institutions. In the two years since the last SACOSAN conference in 2008, a staggering 750,000 South Asian children under the age of five have died from diarrhoea, caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water. Whose fault is it – the local communities’ or the governments’? Developed countries who did not devote enough assistance to water and sanitation projects? It is probably fair to say that it is a combination of these things, which is why efforts on all fronts are crucial. Strengthened provisions in international law mean stronger tools for national lawmakers, civil societies and donor countries alike to focus their respective resources in order to realise access to water and sanitation access for the many individuals who lack it.

References to the resolution:
The English version of the resolution is available here
Proceedings in the webcast
Unofficial summary of the proceedings on the adoption of this resolution

This relative decline of piped water services in many urban areas reflects that the continued urban growth is largely taking place in informal settlements, where urban consolidation takes place on uncertain legal foundations or in contravention of planning and building regulations, and where infrastructure is generally inadequate. The World Water Day Official Site state that “38% of the [urban] growth is represented by expanding slums.”[2]  The heart of the ‘Urban Challenge’ lies in the fact that most new and many old city dwellers reside in areas where there is no infrastructure to safely convey water to their homes, nor to drain the areas of waste- or stormwater.

The urban water crisis relate more to the lack (or inadequacy) of piping than to the lack of water. In fact, urban water scarcity can often be alleviated by improving the quality of infrastructure, given the significant quantities of water being lost to leakage in many places.

The largest share of the infrastructure cost of an urban water system lies in the distribution system. Unfortunately, investments in this multitude of small-bore pipes renders less prestige and apparently attracts less funding than do larger waterworks such as dams and treatment plants. As a consequence, most low-income cities have distribution systems that only serve a proportion of the population. Those left without access to water infrastructure invariably belong to the poorest urban dwellers.

This skewed reality, with a piped system serving the privileged few and a multitude of informal, independent or self-help initiatives bringing much-needed but often expensive and low-quality water services to the poor, explains why ‘The Poor Pay More’ also in the water sector. When designing urban water pricing policies, the reasons behind this well-known irony seems to be forgotten; and water tariffs are designed as if the poorest were connected along with the wealthiest.

 ‘Social water tariffs,’ with targeted subsidies to low-income households or ‘life-line’ quantities provided at a lower cost or even for free, will help those in need only when they are connected to central water services. This is often the case in high- or middle income cities. In low-income cities, however, social tariffs cannot be expected to reach the poor who get water through their own arrangements or from vendors (who rarely qualify for social tariffs or any discount or subsidy at all).

Those who benefit from low water prices tend to be the privileged minority. In the case of Phnom Penh, whose Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) has transformed from a war-torn loss-maker into a world class example of efficiency and self-sufficiency, the water price used to cover only half of the cost of operation. When raising the water tariff, resistance was met – not from the poor who stood the chance of eventually getting access to piped water – but from mass media representing the privileged few. The quest of turning the PPWSA to operate with profit included the persistent negotiation with existing customers that water must be paid for, along with the finding of creative and economical means for extending the network and connecting the lower-income communities.[3]

In such a way, ‘social connections’ can be a way to enhance connection rates and a step towards fulfilling the human right to equal access to public services.[4] As long as the ‘first-time-connection’ funds are accompanied by sufficient physical investment in the distribution system as well as transparent and inclusive policies for actually connecting, a truly pro-poor urban water policy will see the light of day!

References
[1] WHO & UNICEF (2010) 'Progress on sanitation and drinking-water, 2010 update'. New York and Geneva: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. Page 55.
[2]  www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/
[3] The Connection - ADB Water Voices Documentary Series
[4] Article 21, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Man vill gärna tro Lomborg. Tuffa internationella klimatförhandlingar och individuella uppoffringar är inte nödvändiga. Anpassningsåtgärder är lösningen och dessa är dessutom betydligt billigare än kostsamma utsläppsminskningar. Men är det verkligen så enkelt? Svaret är nej, och det av flera anledningar.

För det första tar han inte hänsyn till den stora osäkerhet som finns kring uppvärmningens omfattning och dess förväntade effekter. Framtida prognoser är fortfarande osäkra och klimatmodeller kan inte väga in alla de faktorer vi vet påverkar vårt klimat. Trots detta utgår Lomborg från att temperaturhöjningen år 2100 kommer att hamna på 2,3 grader, vilket endast motsvarar ett av IPCC:s framtidsscenarion. I själva verket kan temperaturen komma att höjas mellan 1.1 - 2.9 grader, och mellan 2.4 - 6.4  grader beroende på vilket framtidsscenario vi utgår från. Vidare bygger Lomborgs resonemang även på en uppfattning att kostnaderna för att hantera klimatförändringen blir lägre i framtiden. Men naturen är svår att beräkna och plötsliga förändringar i ekosystem (s.k. tröskeleffekter) kan i framtiden innebära att stora samhällsinvesteringar måste göras på kort tid för att undslippa katastrofala effekter. Vi har aldrig tidigare sett en så stor uppvärmning som vi har idag, och bara det borde tala för försiktighet.

För det andra sätter han stort hopp till att ny teknik ska lösa våra problem. Ny teknik har revolutionerat samhällen i historien och kan även förväntas spela en viktig roll i framtiden. Men även om tekniken så många gånger hjälpt till att lösa problem, har den också genererat nya. När kärnkraften kom skulle vi bli fria från föroreningar kopplade till kolkraft och oljeförbränning men idag står vi inför förvaringsproblem av radioaktivt avfall och en debatt kring kärnkraftens säkerhet.  Många av teknikens positiva effekter har även marginaliserats av en ökad konsumtion, högre levnadsstandard och befolkningsökning.

Slutligen hävdar han att den ekonomiska tillväxten i världen är en förutsättning för att lösa klimatproblemen. Men en viktig aspekt han glömmer bort är att ekonomisk tillväxt och samhällsutveckling är beroende av naturresurser och ekosystemtjänster.  Snabb ekonomisk tillväxt kommer att sätta ytterligare press på redan överexploaterade resurser.

Lomborg har rätt i två saker; anpassning är viktigt, liksom investeringar i ny teknik. Men han rider på en populistisk våg. Han säger det vi vill höra. Tyvärr är det långt ifrån hela sanningen.

av Karin Glaumann, Praktikant på Swedish Water House

Källa: Lomborg, B., 2007, ”Cool it – den skeptiska miljövännens guide till den globala uppvärmningen”, SNS-förlag, Stockholm

Uppdraget är inte betalt med ger mycket bra möjligheter till nätverkande! SWH står för din avgift, luncher och sociala event. Vi vänder oss i första hand till personer baserade i Sverige. Vi behöver din ansökan senast den 1 maj. Se mer information om hur du ansöker här.
Du kan också arbeta som assistent. Senaste ansökningsdag för assistenter: 18 april. Se mer information om hur du ansöker här.

av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Swedish Water House

The Swedish Water House hosted a cluster group for 3 years including development and environmental organisations who came forward with a joint policy brief last year. Since 2008, it has been unclear at least to the civil society including Amnesty International where the Swedish government stands on the issue, so it is a relief that they are now back on track. But what does the government's co-sponsorship really mean? It shows support for the mandate of the special rapporteur, and recognises the human right to water and sanitation. It is a very encouraging step in the right direction! I do believe that the support of developed countries for this human right, which is part of the already existing right to an adequate standard of living, will contribute to the realisation of the right on the ground. It does so by creating a legal framework and a tool for those without adequate water and sanitation to claim access to them from their government.

by Ann-Mari Karlsson,
Swedish Water House

The popularity of CLTS is derived from the realization within the sanitation community that simply building better sanitation facilities may not be enough to get people to use them. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for improving the sanitation and corresponding health situation around the world is that it means changing the hygiene and defecation practices of individuals. Humans are creatures of habit and motivating change can be an extremely difficult task (ask anyone who has tried to break a bad habit), perhaps especially when it has to do with a taboo subject such as sanitation. The tactics of CLTS have meet with some success in Asia and Africa, yet in other areas they have been criticized as manipulative and inappropriate for the local culture. But at least one thing is sure – stronger drivers than a shiny toilet are needed to get people to change.

While many people understand the need for behavior change when it comes to open defecation, it is actually an issue for sustainable sanitation across the globe. There is growing agreement that achieving sustainable sanitation will require new innovations, even in places like Sweden where wastewater infrastructure is nearly universal (Lüthi et al., 2010). For example, future sanitation systems will need to drastically reduce water use and close the loop on nutrients. The toilets of the future may very well look and work differently than the standard flush-toilet with which we are familiar. New innovations will mean changes in the current system and will require users to adapt accordingly. The changes to the actual user interface may be large or small, but if the new systems are to achieve the ambitious health and environmental goals it will demands that people change.

school education on how to use a urine-diverting toilet (from SuSanA site, photo by Robert Gensch)

That an individual’s behavior can make a difference for all is true for more than just sanitation. In order to meet ambitious climate change policy and reduce the carbon footprint for the entire city, the City of Stockholm has started a public awareness campaign aimed at changing the inhabitants’ lifestyles and consumer behaviors. Being climate smart is rather trendy these days, yet the City is spending significant time and resources to really motivate change. However, imagine how much more effort would to needed to convince consumers, the housing market and politicians to back a change that would gradually replace all flush-toilets in Stockholm with, say dry composting toilets. There just isn’t enough incentive to change right now; just as many open-defecators in Niger see no reason to change their morning routine of visiting the nearest bush. Yet achieving sustainable sanitation for all will require that we overcome this societal inertia and find a way to motivate change in hygiene and sanitation behavior at all levels.  We need to start critically assessing our current behavioral and organizational practices in order to identify how technologies, knowledge, and policy can act as catalysts for change.  The message has to be right.

References
IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis, 23 February 2011
Lüthi, C., Panasar, A., Schütze, T., Norström, A., McConville, J., Parkinson, J., Saywell, D., & Ingle, R. (2010). Sustainable Sanitation in Cities: A Framework for Action. Papiroz Publishing House: Rijswiik, The Netherlands.

Anneli Nordling
Föreningsavdelningen
Naturskyddsföreningen

A Task Force on Water and Climate facilitates the programme but is not a decision-making body. This task force is a Body of the Water Convention and is jointly led by Germany and the Netherlands. Both of these countries are active supporters of the pilot projects in particularly of course of the activities regarding water and climate change adaptation in the Rhine basin. The government of Finland is contributing to the pilot project on the Neman river basin. Several governments from Eastern Europe and Central Asia are actively supporting project implementation in "their" pilot river basins and are also participating at the workshop meetings. This demonstrates a clear interest from governmental level for a strong integration between adaptation to climate change and transboundary river basins e.g. freshwater. The UNFCCC, who was represented at last year’s workshop, showed an interest in carrying results from this process further. And as there will be a presentation of progress of the pilot projects at the Seventh Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe", to be held in Astana,Kazakhstan, 21-23 September, there will be a possibility to emphasize the clear interdependence between climate change and river basin planning at ministerial level prior to the South African COP later this year - although the ministers will ‘only’ come from the UNECE region. But as countries outside the UNECE have demonstrated an interest in ratifying the convention this interdependence may be recognized and agreed.
 

Waters that cross borders and link us together was the topic of the World Water Day in 2009. It is a topic that continues to draw the attention of governments, academia and the donor community around the world. This is no surprise as 40% of the world’s population lives in basins that share rivers and lakes with other countries. The management challenge in the different basins vary: In rich, industrialized countries the main issue is often that of poor water quality, like in the Baltic Sea, while in many developing countries the main concern is often water scarcity, and thus the issue of how to share a limited resource between many demands - across political borders. That is not an easy task.  

The Swedish daily newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, had an interesting article on people's attitudes to climate change. It fascinated me as I see strong similarities to the way people regard water:
- We have a tendency to neglect what is not visible or of immediate interest. We live NOW.
We chose what gives small personal benefits or reduces small risks. We go for what is attractive. We worry about what is close to us. The future is abstract - and so are emerging big risks.

The terrible impacts of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are incomprehensible in their immensity: the force of the moving water; the weaknesses in manmade constructions even if they are of high quality; in the aftermath the lack of water, food, protection; the human tragedies...

Japan is a special country with special capacities to handle difficulties. Japan will rebuild.

But we, the water people in most countries, can do more to help prevent many problems where we work. We should not only supply water quietly and rather anonymously. We must use our joint expertise and creativity to catch the interest of urban planners, industrialists, politicians and other stakeholders.

Interested in water? 

Communities without safe access to water and sanitation are not sustainable. Water is a whole concept of precious resources from the tap to biogas and nutrients.

We, the water people, can do much more to change the way people think! Can't we?

by Brita Forssberg, Secretary, Nationalkommittén för Vatten (NKV), International Water Association in Sweden
Chair Organizing Committee, "Cities of the Future - Sustainable Urban Planning and Water Management"
 

World-wide an ever growing force of urbanization is taking place as people leave their rural homes for a perceived urban life full of luxury, comfort, opportunities, and access to basic social amenities. In Kenya, as in most developing countries, the majority end up living in informal settlements (slums). In Nairobi alone there are about 150 slums with over 1.5 million inhabitants. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, possibly the largest in Africa, with anywhere between 300,000 and one million people living in wood and tin shacks squeezing in an area just about half the size of Central Park in New York.

Kibera Slum in Nairobi, photo by Schreibkraft

Life in Kibera is accompanied by high levels of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity. As in so many other slums across Africa and the world a common way to deal with these challenges is to engage in urban farming. Many people in Kibera are now growing food on every piece of available land, in backyards, along stream, roads and railway, and under power lines. Often on land they don't own. Most of the farmers in Kibera are women and their efforts yield significant benefits in terms of nutrition, food security, and income for their households. In order to water their crops they use any available water source, often from local streams, roadside drains, and untreated wastewater and sewage. All likely to be heavily contaminated due to the slum's poor sanitation arrangements and unregulated municipal and industrial effluents. And even though wastewater can carry a number of risks, such as pathogens and contamination from all sorts of industrial waste, it provides a free source of fertilizer to farmers who don't have money to buy expensive fertilizers. Urban farming is believed to account for some 20% of the global food supply, with half of this food being grown using wastewater, according to a 2009 survey of 53 cities conducted by the International Water Management Institute. But in sub-Saharan Africa, urban farmers depending on wastewater for their crops are producing 70–90% of the perishable vegetables consumed in African cities. This poses severe threats to the health of both producers and consumers. Among wastewater-related infections, diarrhoea is the top cause of death among children under the age of five in the developing world.

In today's cities more and more people compete over a limited quantity of water for domestic and productive uses. The current trend of rapid urbanization and growth of urban slums outpacing urban growth by a wide margin will result in higher proportions of the urban population living in poverty. If more and more poor people turns into urban agriculture to eke out a living this can put already stretched urban water supply and wastewater systems in developing countries under increasing pressure. Urban farming can provide slum dwellers with food and income but there is a need to provide cheap ways to increase water use efficiency in production and safe ways of using wastewater if this potential solution is not to turn into a threat. The upcoming 1st Africa Agriculture and Water Dialogue in South Africa and the World Water Week with one of its workshops focusing on future challenges for urban water services and infrastructure could provide good platforms for the interesting and necessary discussions around the nexus of urban farming and water. 

I år kommer inte mindre än tre nya klustergrupper att starta, på följande teman: vatten och energi, vatten och förebyggande av katastrofer samt gränsöverskridande vatten.

I samband med de pågående klimatförhandlingarna och klimatförändringarna har framtidens energiförsörjning varit ett hett debattämne. Fokus har dock starkt legat på olika energislags utsläpp av växthusgaser. Det faktum att så gott som all energiproduktion också kräver vatten har hittills uppmärksammats i liten skala. Ett lands vattenresurser påverkar dess kapacitet att producera energi och energiproduktionen påverkar situationen för övriga vattenanvändare i avrinningsområdet. I klustergruppen om vatten och energi kan aktörer som jobbar med olika typer av energiproduktion, energiforskare och miljöorganisationer mötas för att tillsammans lyfta vattenfrågorna i den globala energidebatten.

Jordskred, översvämningar, torka och tsunamis är alla exempel på naturkatastrofer som orsakas av för mycket eller för lite vatten. Bristande tillgång till vatten och sanitet kan dessutom förvärra följderna av alla typer av katastrofer och dödar ibland fler än vad själva katastrofen gjorde. Det finns många exempel på hur katastrofer kan förebyggas och liv räddas, men trots detta satsas betydligt mer biståndspengar på humanitära insatser efter katastrofer än på förebyggande åtgärder. I Sverige finns det många aktörer som arbetar i katastrofdrabbade länder, men de har hittills inte haft något samarbete som fokuserar på vatten. Som deltagare i den här klustergruppen får de dock möjlighet att slå ihop sina krafter för att visa på vikten av vattenfrågorna i katastrofförebyggande arbete.

Klustergruppen om gränsöverskridande vatten kommer att byggas runt ett nytt forskarnätverk i Sverige. Nätverket binder samman forskare som på något sätt arbetar med frågor om gränsöverskridande vatten, dvs. vattenresurser som delas mellan två eller flera länder. Swedish Water House vill stödja detta nätverk och samtidigt underlätta deras kontakter med aktörer inom näringslivet och den ideella sektorn i Sverige.

Du är mycket välkommen att ta kontakt med oss ifall du jobbar med något av våra nya klustergruppsteman och är intresserad av att träffa andra engagerade aktörer! Maila till johanna.sjodin@swedishwaterhouse.se

av Johanna Sjödin, Swedish Water House

With the plurality of actors, and sometimes even multiple physical systems within the same urban area, the need for governance and appropriate regulation of urban water activities have come to the fore. Water utility regulation, of both private and public service providers, is generally seen as a government prerogative. How well regulators in different parts of the world will be able to enhance the urban water service efficiency and equity, by monitoring and providing incentives for correction and improvement, remains to be seen.

In a review of utility performance in the United States and elsewhere, it was found that the debate over privatization had overshadowed influential drivers of success, such as "effective staffing, consistent community support for adequate funding, detailed asset management, performance measurements and rewards aligned to organizational objectives, and processes that are transparent and open to the public."

Some of these drivers have been well addressed by the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), which under the leadership of Mr. Ek Sonn Chan has been recognized for its remarkable trajectory from a corrupt and inefficient utility to one of world class performance, and bestowed with Stockholm Industry Water Award in 2010. In 1993 Mr. Ek Sonn Chan was appointed as General Director of PPWSA. Together with his team, he managed to refurbish the whole supply system, introduce cost-effective billing and creative payment collection methods, as well as to provide clean water to almost all of the city’s residents.

While remaining in public hands, PPWSA has put tremendous effort into 'effective staffing' and 'performance measurements and rewards aligned to organizational objectives'. Also, in the quest to raise tariffs to cover costs of operations, maintenance and future expansions, PPWSA managed to secure community support by turning to those having been excluded from services in the previous inequitable system. Moreover, by subsidizing connections, and transparently explaining the cost and procedure for getting one; service coverage has gone up, and petty corruption down.

The issue of utility management - where the PPWSA is an outstanding success story - along with the appropriate policy and regulatory environment remains as challenges at the global level. Also, the long term financing of urban infrastructure still requires much more attention - and priority! That is, money!

Still, with more money, the need for well-focused and balanced investment increases. An increasing proportion of available funding needs to target enhanced service coverage and quality by investing in water distribution and sanitation systems that serve also low-income groups. (Too large a proportion of investments go to high-visibility objects like treatment plants. These are needed but cannot be optimally utilized if the rest of the infrastructure is lacking or is out of reach for the people it should serve.)

The upcoming World Water Week in August 2011 addresses the overarching challenge of Responding to Global Changes: Water in an Urbanizing World. One of the workshops looks into the pertinent topic of 'Financing of Urban Infrastructure'. It will examine examples of instruments and incentives that are deemed to be successful cases of financial arrangements. While the announcement points to the urgent challenge of matching realities of affordability and population growth with the need for cost-efficient, equitable and sustainable services, it claims there are bold ways to scale up and maintain infrastructure and also address challenges of resource management. This promises to be an interesting event!

The other workshops announced for the World Water Week raise the perspective and address some of the future challenges for urban water services and infrastructure. Where are we heading in terms of the long-term water management and catchment-related changes and risks in urban areas? What are the consequences for ecosystems and adjacent rural areas? What kind of responses is needed to adapt cities to climate variability and change? And what new approaches, technologies and infrastructures are required to sustainably manage the resource fluxes in our increasingly urban world? 

Some workshops keep present-day inequities in focus and explore issues like: How do we promote the efficient service delivery to the disfavored urban populations that currently stand without? What are the opportunities for forging closer links between the formal and informal service providers? And what regulatory frameworks are there to foster socially just service provision?

With basic water and sanitation services being recognized as human rights (by most states), urban water managers have additional impetus for actually focusing on those not previously privileged beneficiaries of subsidized services. With additional legal weight behind their claims, low-income urban populations hopefully stand a better chance ahead of duly benefitting from existing and future urban infrastructure systems. Can water sector regulators also find incentives and ways to monitor the equity as well as efficiency in the urban water service delivery - then we can hope for truly pro-poor water governance seeing the light of day!

by Marianne Kjellén,
Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm University and WGF (UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI)

Vi fick lära oss allt från klimatberedskap i europeiska städer till hur man implementerar en Water Safety Plan från a till ö. En avslutande paneldiskussion gav intressanta inblickar i hur politiker, regeringstjänstemän och forskningsråd ser på dricksvattenfrågor. Det verkar som om det behövs en bättre samordning av allt som rör dricksvatten, även om vi redan tagit det första steget med en nationell dricksvattenkoordinator. Den tydliga slutsatsen jag tar med mig från konferensen är att vi svenskar är så vana vid vårt goda tillgängliga dricksvatten, att det är svårt att ställa om samhället till att bli mer riskmedvetet. Klimatförändringar kommer öka risker för smittat vatten även här och det måste vi ju förbereda oss för.

Sedan hastade jag vidare till Danish Water Forums årliga Forskningsplattform Vatten. Om jag hade svårt att hänga med i naturvetarsvängarna i Stockholm var det inget jämfört med detta. Här har vi marinerats i molekyler och metaboler, för att inte tala om det intrikata samspelet mellan arsenik och fosfat i relation till kalk, eller kloroformets olika former i jordlagret. I Danmark tar man nästan allt dricksvatten från grundvattnet, vilket kan förklara det intensiva inresset för dess kemi. Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presenterade också en studie i mer samhällsvetenskaplig stil som visade att relationen mellan tillgång på vatten och konflikt inte är enkel och rak. Det är inte mängden vatten utan oförutsägbara variationer i tillgången på vatten som skapar spänningar mellan människor. Och där det finns institutioner som hanterar fördelnignen av vatten, oavsett om den är rättvis eller inte, så hindras konflikter från att växa.  Mycket nytt och intressant både här och i Stockholm! Kanske en gemensam konferens nästa år?

av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Swedish Water House

Huvudfrågorna för diskussionen var vilka utmaningar och möjligheter som svensk dricksvattenförsörjning står inför. Panelen verkade relativt enig i att den låga medvetenheten och engagemanget hos allmänheten kring dricksvattenfrågor var både en stor utmaning och en möjlighet. Bristande medvetenhet hos allmänheten leder till mindre förståelse för de i vissa fall ganska kostamma åtgärder som bör tas för att säkerställa en trygg dricksvattenförsörjning i framtiden. Dessa åtgärder rör både ett stärkt skydd av dricksvattentäkter, renovering av åldrade ledningssystem och en förbättrad koordination av de myndigheter som hanterar vattenfrågor. Ett annat dillemma med ett lågt intresse från allmänheten är att frågan därmed riskerar att bli mindre intressant politiskt vilket kan leda till en ond cirkel.

Deltagarna vid konferensen var närmast helt eniga i sin uppfattning att svensk dricksvattenförsörjning kommer vara minst lika bra i framtiden som idag. Kanske kom denna positiva syn delvis av det faktum att vatten har en har en oerhörd förmåga att göra sig påmint ifall vi skulle riskera att glömma bort det.

Paneldebatt: Sveriges framtida dricksvatten - utmaningar och möjligheter

Moderator: Johan Kuylenstierna, Stockholm Environment Institute
•  Jens Berggren, Stockholm International Water Institute
•  Matilda Ernkrans, Miljö- och Jordbruksutskottet
•  Magnus Kindbom, Jordbruksdepartementet
•  Anna Ledin, Formas
•  Lars-Erik Liljelund, Mistra

 
Lars-Erik Liljelund, Mistra, Matilda Ernkrans, Miljö- och Jordbruksutskottet, Jens Berggren, Stockholm International Water Institute, diskuterar forskningens roll för dricksvattnet.
 

Matilda Ernkrans, Miljö- och Jordbruksutskottet: Politikerna behöver lära sig mer om vattenkvalitéfrågor.
 

Another interesting development was the "Swedish Textile Water Initiative" that the Swedish Water House assisted in initiatinglast year. The project involves more than 25 textile and leather retail companies aiming to produce guidelines for sustainable water management in the producing of textile and leather, from thread and leather to product. It is also a learning process for stakeholders involved in the supply chains of textile and leather retailers. This project is now up and running. 

Now, we are looking forward towards a just as exciting 2011. In a short while, Swedish Water House will initiate three new cluster groups. Look out for news about this!

Looking into the challenges ahead it is obvious that water related issues are gaining more interest in the Swedish society. Still, it seems to be a long way to go before there is a general understanding of the integral role of water. Very often in the discussion, also within the water community, water is being narrowed down to a "sector". There are of course different expertises, skills and management areas related to water. However, to lump all those different roles and mandates into one sector is wrong since these different activities are in fact representing very different areas of work. This is especially important since good water management needs to be further integrated and prioritised within areas such as health, food production and energy. Water is, to quote Professor Malin Falkenmark, the blood stream of our planet. It is a natural resource to nurture but also a vehicle for hazards to manage. Water management must always be seen as part of a holistic strategy, not as a separate box. So, let our joint promise for 2011 be that wherever we come across the notion of water as a sector, make sure to change it into a more accurate concept.

by Karin Lexén, Director, Swedish Water House

On 30 September last year, the UN Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time that the human right to water and sanitation is legally binding. This was a welcome move for all those who have worked hard to clarify the responsibilities for the provision of water and sanitation, and strengthen international support for these rights. The Council now made the clarification that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to adequate standard of living, included in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Council resolution was preceded, in July 2010, by resolution in the UN General Assembly. The resolution, an initiative of Bolivia, "recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights".

What do these statements mean for the one billion people suffering from lack of access to an improved water source, and the 2.6 billion without access to improved sanitation?

Indeed the resolutions provide useful tools for those who work to extend access. By recognising access as a human right, access is not only seen as a need to be fulfilled but as an entitlement for everyone, also those who face physical, institutional, cultural, language or other barriers in society. Human rights prohibit discrimination and they focus on situations of systematic exclusion. What more is, participation in decision-making processes is a key component of any human right. These are some of the sides to the right to water and sanitation that have the potential to change billions of lives. But first, States themselves have to come up with strategies on how they will work to implement the right.

At the next session of the Human Rights Council, the Independent Expert Catarina de Albuquerque, who has been working since 2008 with sorting out all the question marks in the debate on the right to water and sanitation, will present her final report to the Council with recommendations. This will take place in Geneva in late February –early March. The council will then decide whether her mandate will be prolonged and governments who are still hesitant about these human rights will have an opportunity to follow her recommendations and unanimously support the right to water and sanitation.

Some governments, including the Swedish, persist in saying that making access to water and sanitation human rights is not the best way to help people in the South. The best way to solve their problem is through development cooperation. In their scenario, because the lack of water is common, and society’s institutions are not well equipped and developed, Courts will be overloaded as masses of unserved people will claim their right. However, in countries that have recognised the right, this has not been the case.

I cannot help but wonder why developing rule of law and good governance cannot be done in parallel with strengthening legal obligations. Supporting institutions and judiciary systems, while working with those who lack water and sanitation to know their rights and who is responsible goes hand in hand in other issues. Just because many husbands beat their wives, and many wives therefore could take their husbands to court, we still would not dream of giving up freedom from violence as a human right. Human rights set a standard, so that we know what to work for.

by Ann-Marie Karlsson, Project Officer, Swedish Water House

Climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather events and the resulting natural disasters. The floods in Pakistan that directly affected 20 million people this summer are a striking example. Yet, while the storms and floods make the headlines it is the after-effects that may take the greatest toil. In Pakistan, a widespread waterborne disease outbreak following the floods has so far been avoided, but the current situation in Haiti proves that sustained action must be taken in post-disaster areas to prevent the spread of disease. In October, ten months after the earthquake, cholera was detected in Haiti. As of December 4, the Haitian Ministry of Public Health & Population reported a total of 93,222 hospital visits and 2,120 deaths due to cholera. Waterborne diseases such as cholera will be one of the most significant risk factors resulting from climate-change disasters. Currently, 5000 children die a day from diarrhoeal diseases that are closely linked to lack of hygiene, clean water and proper management of human waste. In a changing world where extreme weather events destroy or compromise the functionality of our sanitation systems, these numbers are likely to be even higher.

Adapting to climate change means major changes in how vital systems, such as sanitation, in our society are managed.  If major waterborne disease outbreaks as a result of climate change are to be avoided, many nations, especially in developing countries, will need support in adapting sanitation systems to manage the source of disease, wastewater. However, to date donor spending on sanitation and water is very low. Today, Sweden spends less than 2.5% of the state’s aid budget on sanitation and water, down from 5% several years ago. If we are to overcome the challenges of climate adaptation this figure will need to be higher. Similarly, technology innovation in the sector is low and today’s sanitation systems are generally inflexible, fixed infrastructures with little variation across the globe. In the future, we will need flexible technical solutions that can be implemented quickly in post-disaster areas or adapt to prolonged droughts.

There are opportunities for Swedish actors to support this change, both by lobbying for better sanitation policy and funding, and through the development of innovative and adaptive sanitation solutions. The initiative of Peepoople (collaboration SLU and KTH) is one example of Swedish researchers testing the limits of traditional sanitation services and offering possibilities to sterilize human waste in a fast and infrastructure-free manner.  More work is needed to make sanitation systems more flexible to varying water flows resulting from climate change. Other adaption possibilities include coupling sanitation systems to the energy grid (biogas) or decoupling the centralized system to smaller treatment centres during crisis periods. Climate change may be the opportunity we have been waiting for to finally take our pioneering ideas for new sanitation systems off the shelf and put them into reality. The world is waiting.
 

by Jennifer McConville, Chalmers

FN flaggan och den Mexikanska flaggar utan för konferenscentret Moon Palace i Cancún

Det förhandlas inte enbart om Kyotoprotokollets vara eller icke-vara. Parallella förhandlingar förs inom en massa andra områden här i Cancún. Skogsfrågor förhandlas om, finansieringsfrågor förhandlas om, rapporteringssystem och institutioner och jordbruk förhandlas om. Men det förhandlas inte om vatten. Trots att klimatförändringar i mångt och mycket är förändringar av den hydrologiska cykeln; mer regn, mindre regn, glaciäravsmältning och ökenspridning, försämringar av färskvatten kvalité och påverkan av jordbruksproduktion. Tänk om man verkligen skulle ta och uppmärksammade detta, uppmärksammade vart problemen ligger. Då blir det ju enklare att vida rätt åtgärder. 

Flera länder håller med. De märker redan nu hur deras länder drabbas av klimatförändringar och att vidta åtgärder inom vattenområdet har blivit en självklar och prioriterad fråga för dem. Att tydliggöra vattnets roll inom de internationella klimatförhandlingarna skulle vara ett viktig steg i att vidta åtgärder där problemet ligger.

Jag hoppas att budskapet bokstavligt talat börjat sipprar in till förhandlarna i Moon Palace…

by Hanna Wolf, Swedish Water House i Cancún, Mexico

Much of the knowledge we have, as well as existing agreements/regimes over transboundary water are increasingly volatile because of increased water use. Also, they are becoming  unworkable due to the perception that climate change is altering the basic parameters for water governance. Whether correct or not, perceptions of climate change are undermining existing agreements.

According to the Oregon State Database on transboundary water agreements over the period of the last 200 years, riparian countries have signed nearly 400 water-sharing agreements. While that is a positive sign one  key question is, however, dual: to what extent are these agreements actually contributing to meaningful cooperation, and how can they be kept functioning particularly in the face of climate change induced uncertainty? Many of these agreements are essentially rigid instruments that are modifiable only under certain limited conditions. Thus, it is not only that we need functional agreements on transboundary waters; we also need the agreements to be sustainable, lasting and progressive Unfortunately, more than 40% of present agreements do not even mention ‘uncertainty’ in their texts.

Transboundary waters need to be dealt with. However, this is not an easy process. The increasing competition and the difficulties emanating from the altering parameters caused (or so claimed) by climate change are creating further uncertainties. Agreements on transboundary waters are in general not adapted to deal with uncertainties and a changing world, but are often characterised by rigid volumetric allocations of the resource, based on averages of a historical pattern. The keyword that is lacking is flexibility. States are not prone to  sign agreements with uncertain consequences for them in the future. So even though we may know now that agreements should be more focused on sharing waters in percentage terms rather than in cubic metres, it  does not mean it will be easy to get there. 

To address these issues the Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development, Stockholm International Water Institute (www.siwi.org) and Peace and Development Research at School of Global Studies at Gothenburg University have joined forces to research this important area. The basic thrust of the research (funded by Sida-SAREC) will focus on the question: how are Transboundary Waters to be governed given the increasing demands on global water resources and the increasing perceptions of a Global Climate Change?

The research, which starts in 2011, will draw upon cases from Africa (Nile and Niger), Middle East (Jordan Basin and Asia (Mekong and Ganges-Brahmaputra).
While some countries recently have called for the water issues to be more prominent in the Cancun meeting it is receiving less attention than it should. Knock on effects of climate change (or the mere perception of it) such as the one described above merits more attention in the future. It is important also to address future scenarios and adaptation options  at river basin level . Sweden is currently financing a UNEP led project to address such questions in the Nile Basin. Such regional analysis coupled with political and governance research will equip us better for the challenges that are coming.

by Dr Anders Jägerskog, Associate Professor of Peace and Development, School of Global Studies, Göteborg University and;
Senior Programme Manager, Water Resources
Regional Team for Economic and Environmental Development (REED), Sida
Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya

A week ahead of the Cop16 climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, the world still remembers some of the shortcomings of earlier summits. Those shortcomings have taken a while to settle in, and looking back to Cop 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, experts today said the expectations were too high and the negotiation processes too complex.

The complexity of the negotiation process is not merely a temporary issue during summits; reaching concrete and satisfactory agreements requires long lasting, active communication between the different actors at all levels, all year round.

Panel debaters at today’s Swedish Water House seminar on “Environmental flows as a tool for climate change adaptation” were in consensus on the importance of cross-sector, global communication on what is “good” climate change mitigation and adaptation.

They noted that some adaptation measures can be harmful if they seek to reverse, delay, or change the direction of the effects of climate change. Therefore it is very important to provide global guidelines, best practice recommendations and leave the room open for sovereign implementation within an international agreement.

There was also consensus on the importance of using the same terminology, as different communities (e.g. engineers, policy makers, climate negotiators, water professionals, etc) use different terms to describe the same things. This results in putting obstacles to coming to terms on agreeable conditions.

Earlier during the seminar, several scientists provided their take on what are “environmental flows” and how looking at them can provide us with a tool to analyse and act on climate change.

Dr. Mats Eriksson at SIWI (ICIMOD earlier) gave his view on “climate change and the risk for extreme weather conditions,” warning that too much or too little water can be catastrophic in many vulnerable areas, with severe effects on ecosystems but also women, children and the elderly.

Drawing examples from Nepal and Pakistan, he pointed that local knowledge and predictions can be sometimes the key to the survival of local populations ahead of a destructive storm, but even those that survive, are becoming the world’s climate refugees who undergo many socio-economic strains in the aftermath of the storm.

Carin Nilsson, from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), said Sweden is predicted to witness gradual increases in temperature, ranging from 2 C to 6 C between the south and the north of the country, over the next 100 years or so. This will be coupled with increases in the intensity of rain storms, and rain in general.

Birgitta Malm Renöfält at Umeå University, Sweden, provided an introduction to “environmental flows” and the different methods used in studying them, based on the Brisbane declaration of 2007. “Environmental Flows (eFlows) refer to water provided within a river, wetland or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and the benefits they provide to people.”

“Environmental flows - the flow regimes left in rivers, or restored to developed rivers - are a central tool helping resource managers to protect the biodiversity, resilience and ecological goods and services provided by healthy riverine ecosystems,” she said.

Dr. James Dalton from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), presented adaptation hands-on experiences from the Pangaini basin Tanzania and Kenya. He concluded that the world must move forward beyond the current knowledge base and networking to capacity development and policy influencing (i.e. from planning to implementation). In order to achieve that, fast-track funding will be needed to cover guidance and implementation.

This was supported by the last lecturer for the day, John Mathews of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). He argued that field implementation and international law formation must be achieved in parallel, and that significant efforts are made in this regards. He said it was important that change takes place “where the money is,” to be able to finance successful implementation of adaptation plans.

After this thorough presentation of the concept of environmental flows and its possible scope of implementation the speakers agreed that e-flows is a possible and interesting adaptation tool. E-Flows give rivers and beneficiary communities resilience in a changing climate. It is a practical tool to learn and understand the characteristics of Riverine ecosystems, to read the “hydrological finger prints” of the river and to respond to changes efficiently, while reducing risks and ensuring responsible use of the resources that balances economy, ecology, and hydrology.

by Rami Abdelrahman, SIWI

Förhandlingarna förs i två spår. Samtidigt som man arbetar med att formulera en fortsättning på Kyotoprotokollet jobbar man även med ett vidare avtal, AWG-LCA, kring långsiktiga åtaganden inom olika områden. Det stora antalet underområden gör förhandlingsprocessen både svår och långsam. Under veckan har perspektivet förändrats. Man pratar nu inte längre om ett möjligt bindande avtal i Cancun, utan blickar istället framåt mot COP17 i Sydafrika nästa år. Ambitionen blir snarare att i Cancun ta fram en arbetsplan för hur den processen ska se ut.

Mycket uppmärksamhet har under veckan riktats mot USA och Kina, som med sin kompromisslöshet utgör en stor bromskloss i förhandlingarna. ”Vi arbetar alla hårt för att få fram ett avtal”, sade Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary UNFCCC, vid en briefing igår. ”Det tar tid, och tyvärr tar det längre tid för en del. Vi väntar nu alla på att USA och Kina ska avsluta sina egna förhandlingar”.

För vår del har det här varit en vecka full av intressanta möten och diskussioner. Vi är här för att representera Water and Climate Coalition, och under veckan har vi tillbringat hela dagarna med att ha möten med förhandlingsdelegater för att identifiera olika sätt att integrera vattenfrågan i ett framtida klimatavtal. Det är glädjande att se att alla vi pratat med håller med om att vattenförvaltning bör ges större utrymme i förhandlingarna. Däremot skiljer sig åsikterna åt i fråga om vilken strategi som är bäst. Mest engagemang i frågan visar de länder som väntas drabbas hårdast av klimatförändringarna, tex Bangladesh, Indonesien, latinamerikanska och afrikanska länder samt mindre ö-stater.

Imorgon avslutas förhandlingarna här i Tianjin. Då får vi se vad veckans förhandlingar resulterat i. Helt still verkar det trots allt inte stå. Som Jorge Gastelumendi från TNC rapporterade imorse:
”Nu rör det på sig. Bakåt.”

av Lovisa Selander, SIWI
 

A question that has not been adequately analysed so far is the effect that these investments will have on the water situation in a country as well as on shared waters. The potential conflicts around land as a backdrop in combination with increased water scarcity in the countries where investments are being made will mean that transboundary issues will come to the fore. The investors (whether governments or private sector) will want reliable access to water for irrigation, that also requires energy some of which needs to come from hydropower, of its crops on the bought or leased land. This directs attention to the internal water resources of the countries as well as its shared transboundary waters. In Southern Africa the Zambezi river will come under scrutiny. In West Africa Niger river is an option. How this dynamic will play out is too early to say but clearly merits attention. Many questions still to be analysed – who will pick up the task?

by Dr Anders Jägerskog, Associate Professor
Senior Programme Manager, Water Resources
Regional Team for Economic and Environmental Development (REED), Sida
Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya

Vi ska i ett första steg ta fram enkla, effektiva och lättanvända guidelines för leverantörer och producenter av textilier och läderprodukter. Guidelines som stödjer och hjälper både oss som inköpare och våra partners att förstå de stora negativa påverkansfaktorerna och att finna moderna effektiva lösningar att åtgärda dem.

Årets tema för världsvattenveckan är vattenkvalitet och vi ser att textilföretagen med ett proaktivt förhållningssätt kan göra stor positiv skillnad och underlätta för svenska kunder att vara en del av lösningen när man köper sina kläder istället för att många gånger ovetandes bidra till stora problem i redan vattenstressade länder.

Vattenutmaningarna är för vår bransch precis som många andra branscher, stora och den svenska textilbranschen är sedan länge engagerade i ett flertal projekt kring vattenpåverkan i hela livscykeln för våra produkter.

Inom ramen för STWI har vi valt att börja vår fokus på tillverkningsprocesser ”från tråd och läderråvara till färdig produkt”. Något som inte innebär att övriga områden får mindre engagemang men som innebär att vi inom detta område kommer att lära oss och våra leverantörer en stor mängd praktiska åtgärder som snabbt kan göra stor skillnad och bidra till en långsiktigt hållbar vattenanvändning.

STWI välkomnar nu ytterligare grundare bland svenska företag som verkar i textil och läderbranschen.

Arbetet i STWI kommer inom kort att kunna följas på en webbsida.

Vill du veta mer om STWI så kontakta mig! janpeter.bergkvist@sleewpell.nu eller +46 766 336868
 

Catarina de Albuquerque, the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Gunilla Björklund, independent consultant and expert and Åsa Elfström international water expert Svenska Kyrkan and Ann-Mari Karlsson, SWH/SIWI.
 
 

Some people gets access to clean drinking water, in a plastic bag / photo by Erik Forhammar 

Working at the Swedish Water House I've gotten some insight in crucial issues such as the conception of everyone's right to safe water and sanitation which vast numbers of people lack access to. The later part of the first week was very exciting since Sweden abstained from voting in favour of the UN Draft Resolution on Human Right to water and sanitation adopted by the General Assembly. This resulted in putting SIWI and SWH in the media centre and kept the phones busy the day after. Questions such as "Why doesn't the Swedish government support everyone's right to water and sanitation?" were raised. But the answer is more complicated then what appears … Sweden does support everyone's right to water and sanitation but agrees with the UN independent expert that it is implicit in Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

During my internship I'll be working with the preparations of the World Water Week and find material to seminars that will be arranged later on the year. I will also link to my own experiences from Ghana where I spent my first part of the summer. Apart from having four interesting weeks in Ghana- partly working at a local NGO (Light for Children) based in Kumasi and partly gathering material for my thesis - I was trying to get used with the primitive living standard. Bringing buckets every day from the common water pump- which only runs at a certain time in the day- in the yard in to the house, made me realize how much I actually appreciate the clean running water we have from the tap in Sweden and all the efforts that is being saved through this system.

Water pump site in a rural village, Ghana / photo by Erik Forhammar

Ghana has a sanitation coverage of only 10%, a water supply coverage of 80% and like the most countries the lack is even more critical among the rural population. They are combating common diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and guinea worm caused by contaminated water. I wonder how the recently heavy floods will hit the people and affect their right to "adequate standard of living". Myself,  I had no problem of getting access of potable water from plastic bags which could be bought in every street corner, and in my case, for a very reasonable price. Likewise I had the pump of clean water just outside the house not several hours away which is the case for many people living in rural areas.

So far this summer has been full of new impressions and I'm looking forward to the rest of my time at the SWH and also to follow the continuing process of providing safe and accessible water and sanitation for everyone.

by Erik Forhammar, Intern at SWH

Johan Gerklev (Miljöchef, Skanska), Carin Jämtin (socialdemokraterna), Svante Axelsson (Generalsekreterare, Naturskyddsföreningen), Sten Bergström (Professor, SMHI)
 
Sten Bergström, professor på SMHI håller med om att det är jobbigt. Det är inte så kul att på släktmiddagen vara partydödare och prata om att vi måste sluta åka till Thailand på semester. Klimatproblematiken är nödvändig kunskap.  ”Det som driver mig är att medvetenheten om problemen ökar”. Det spelar ingen roll om det är roligt eller inte, vi bara måste klara dessa utmaningar. Om man är ute och promenerar och blir trött kan man ta en taxi hem, det kan vi inte göra här.
 
Helena Markenstedt från Fair Trade jämför med löpning, om man är fler som springer orkar man längre. Här ser jag att vi inte är ensamma och det gör att jag orkar mer.
 
”Att fira segrar, som när vi fick svanenmärkning på vårt första hus” är en anledning på varför Johan Gerklev från Skanska orkar jobba vidare med dessa frågor.
 
”Jag orkar för det är kul när vi ser förändring och jag drivs av att det är nödvändigt” fortsätter Svante Axelsson från Naturskyddsföreningens. Han fortsätter men en vädjan till politiker att ta mer modiga beslut och våga ge sig in i ett djupare samtal. Vad är det egentligen som ger oss lyckliga liv? Konsumtion av varor eller …?

Anders Modig (Hållbarhetsexpert, ÅF), Helena Markstedt (Generalsekreterare, Fairtrade), Sofia Arkelsten (moderaterna)

Carin Jämtin (S) och Sofia Arkensten (M) har flera gemensamma mål i till exempel klimatfrågan. ”Att rädda världen, var min motivation till att ge mig in i politiken, frågan som delar oss är hur” säger Sofia som får energi från de små delsegrarna. Carin berättar om sin mormor som alltid tvättade sina plastpåsar och med små medel klarade mycket. ”Jag tänker på henne när jag blir trött och då orkar jag lite till”.
 

av Anneli Nordling, klustergruppsledaren, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

EUs Östersjöstrategi - från ord till handling

Efter gårdagens seminarium är det mellandag idag och vi laddar om inför morgondagens seminarium om vatten och företagsansvar. Det mesta är sig likt, men jag ser fler ministrar och ledande politiker än någonsin. Samtidigt konstaterar vi att antalet miljörelaterade seminarier är färre och klimatfrågan svalare. Vi hittar dock ett intressant vattenseminarium som arrangeras av andra än oss och flera seminarier om miljö, etik och företagsansvar. Helt klar har intresset ökat för just frågor om vatten och företagsansvar, liksom frågor om konsumentmaktsfrågor, så SWHs satsningar ligger väl till. Ser fram mot en spännande dag i morgon.

av Karin Lexén, chef
 

Prof. Maciej Nowicki, Statssekreterare Joakim Stymne och Prof. Marek Gromiec

I den senare hälften av seminariet tittade vi närmre på Östersjöstrategin. Tf EU-minister Amelie von Zweigbergk höll en presentation där hon belyste den stora roll Sveriges har spelat i att få strategin på plats och hur vi nu utgör en drivande kraft i genomförandefasen. Samarbete är nyckelordet; med en gemensam färdriktning kan Östersjöländerna tillsammans få bättre ekonomi, bättre rörlighet och en bättre vattenmiljö. Miljöaspekten - ett av de fyra ben som östersjöstrategin står på - är regeringens prioritet.

Som avslutning hölls en kort debatt mellan Anders Ygeman (socialdemokraterna), Amelie von Zweigbergk modererad av SIWIs Jakob Granit. För att komma tillrätta med övergödningsproblematiken räcker det inte med Östersjöstrategin i sig, menade Amelie von Zweigbergk. Det allmänna arbetet inom EU är minst lika viktigt. Hon tog jordbruket som exempel: Beroende på hur jordbruksstödet ser ut får man olika effekt på vattenkvalitén i Östersjön. Anders Ygeman ställde sig dock kritisk till EUs jordbrukspolitik där svenska bönder inte får möta andra europeiska bönder i öppen konkurrens.

av Lovisa Selander, SIWI

On Thursday 3 June during our side event at the negotiations here in Bonn the Coalition was officially launched. It now takes it first trembling steps in the corridors at the negotiations and of course in the lobby.  But as you probably know from earlier reports from Swedish Water House, the work with advocating water and climate linkages is not new, but it is now entering into a new and exciting phase. 
 
Counting SIWI and Stakeholder Forum, the Coalition has got 9 members so far. During the launch at the Side Event the Coalition managed to attract more potential members and people in the audience expressed their interest both in receiving more information about the Coalition and giving input to its work. All in all a successful event.

The day before, on 2 June, the 2nd Water Day took place here in Bonn. Although we had some difficulties in gathering a big audience, probably due to both hectic programmes for delegates as well as the location of the venue, the Water Day turned into a day of fruitful discussions that we can build on in our further work of raising the profile of water at the climate negotiations.

From the negotiations, there is not much concrete outcome to report back on yet.  The most substantial progress so far is that the architecture of the financial structures and the promised fast start funding from e.g. EU has become slightly clearer. Though, at the European Union's side event on fast-start-funding, we noticed that EU didn’t highlight any water related projects, which can be interpreted as water not being recognised as a prioritised area for either adaptation or mitigation action.  Let’s just hope that some of the fast start funding will actually go to water management related projects in the South – because those projects are desperately needed.

That is exactly what was demonstrated during Water Day, which brought together experts from the water and climate community sharing their views on why it is important to bridge the two agendas and highlighting the need for projects being carried out on the ground. “The need to adapt to climate change is urgent and water plays a pivotal role in it and it actually offers development opportunities”, Avinash Tyagi underlined in his speech when presenting a pre-release of a new report from UN-Water. Avinash continued by saying that that link is not recognised by politicians and in policies.

Basically that is the reason why the water and climate coalition is present here in Bonn. The speakers during Water Day offered key messages for the negotiations and stressed the need for water to be included in an international framework so that governments can get incitements to consider water resources management as a climate adaptation measure.

by Hanna Wolf, Swedish Water House

Working in the East African context the questions Lasswell contemplated are extremely relevant today. Reflecting back on my year living in Kenya the region has moved from one extreme to another. Last autumn it experienced severe drought (see: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/637224/-/ulmj6i/-/index.html) and this spring the region has experienced extreme flooding (see: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/03/05/kenya-massive-flooding-in-samburu-as-ewaso-nyiro-river-bursts-its-banks/). Not that it is unusual with large fluctuations in this part of the African continent. Still, the feeling among people are that the extremes and effects of them have increased. In the autumn the herders were wandering inside Nairobi to find places for their cattle to eat and right now many people see their houses and livelihoods destroyed by floods. Ironically, with the dams overflowing there is still water rationing in some parts of the region.

While some effects are felt throughout the societies those hit hardest are the poor and disadvantaged. Along the lines of Lasswell’s thinking the UNDP:s Human Development Report from 2006 (Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis) identified power and inequality to be at the centre of the water issue. Striking and new to many in 2006 (who previously mostly discussed the water crisis in terms of scarcity (too little water) or abundance (too much water)) the conclusion that it is power and inequality that affects people’s water situation more than natural factors is more true than ever in the East African context.

Still in 2010 it is clear that power determines who gets what water, where, when and why. People with little or any access to power will be at liberty of those making the decisions be it in terms of water allocation or flood protection measures. The need to look for explanations (and solutions) to the water crisis beyond water mere scarcity is as strong as ever. This will inevitably need to involve increased participation by those disadvantaged.

by Dr Anders Jägerskog, Associate Professor, First Secretary
Senior Programme Manager, Water Resources
Regional Team for Economic and Environmental Development (REED), Sida
Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya
 

Swedish Water House is involved in the negotiation through SIWI and together with Stakeholder Forum and UN-Water, we are planning a Water Day in Bonn on 2 June. The Water Day is a follow up to last year’s Water Day arranged during the climate negotiations in Barcelona, 2nd - 6th November, 2009. The main objective is to keep up the pressure for the integration of water and climate policy in the negotiations towards COP16, as well as to discuss the vital and possible pathways on how to implement water resource management to cope with climate change.

As always during the negotiations a lot of things are going on and everyone has a lot on their agendas. The challenge for us the following two weeks is to be as sharp and concise as possible in our message and deliver concrete examples on how to integrate water into the negotiated texts.

by Hanna Wolf 

vilken surrande möte!

Målet med det här tvåårsprojektet är att ta fram riktlinjer som textilföretag kan följa i arbetet mot sina leverantörer. Riktlinjerna kommer att behandla vattenförbrukning, vattenrening, produktionsteknik, avfallshantering och hur man kan påverka lagar och regeringar i vattenfrågor.
Forskarna Bo Mattiasson och Maria Jonstrup från Lunds universitet presenterade under mötet sitt arbete med metoder för att avlägsna och bryta ner färgrester i vatten som använts vid textilfärgning. De är redo att testa detta i större skala och flera företag visade intresse för att detta skulle bli verklighet.
 

Förutom att arbeta fram riktlinjer kommer projektet också att vara en läroprocess kring vattenfrågor för textilindustrin. Det område där kunskap framför allt efterfrågades var vatten för bomullsodling och övrig fiberframställning. Även påverkan av konsumenter kommer att vara en del av projektet.
Det känns positivt och spännande att textilföretagen visar en öppenhet för att samarbeta med varandra för att dra sitt strå till stacken i de globala vattenutmaningarna. En förhoppning är att detta sätt att arbeta även kan inspirera andra branscher.

av Johanna Sjödin, Koordinator för frågor om vatten och företagsansvar

Håkan berättade om de politiska dilemman som MRC brottas med. Samtidigt gav han beröm till organisationen som sliter för att länderna längs floden ska hitta gemensamma strategier för hur flodens resurser bäst ska utnyttjas. För mig som också tillbringat 1,5 år i regionen var det både igenkännandets glädje och en stark oro som väcktes när jag såg Håkans bilder avlösa varandra på PowerPointen. Under min tid i Kambodja samarbetade jag med några av alla de NGO:s som försöker skydda Mekongfloden och dess känsliga ekosystem. Det är inte bara ett arbete för att skydda miljön, de över 1 200 fiskarterna och de fascinerade djur som lever i regionen (exempelvis sötvattensdelfinerna), utan också ett arbete för de människor som är direkt beroende av floden och dess resurser för sin överlevnad. Uppemot 60 miljoner människor beräknas försörja sig på Mekongflodens ekosystem. Håkan berättade hur MRC på senare år allt mer uppmärksammat vilka konsekvenser det blir för alla dessa människor om ekosystemen hotas eller förstörs. Att MRC nu belyser detta ger mig hopp och kanske kan uppmärksamheten på sociala faktorer kring flodens betydelse genomsyra fler politiska beslut. Planering för anpassning till klimatförändringar i Mekongregionen måste se till alla konsekvenser som förändringar i floden kan ge och jag är övertygad om att friska ekosystem i framtiden kommer bli livsnödvändiga för de allra fattigaste i regionen.

av Anneli Nordling, klustergruppsledaren, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

Having observed transboundary water management programmes and the people involved in managing those as well as the complexity (technical as well as political) which is associated with these programmes I am inclined to think that perhaps bit more of Machiavellian analysis would make sense. Anyone that has read his seminal book The Prince would be familiar with the pre-eminence of power in its hard and brute form. He can be seen as the forefather of what has become the realist strand of political science. However, most people working with development cooperation and support to, among others, transboundary water management programmes are clearly not realist. Quite the contrary, we tend to be fans of Immanuel Kant (although not always aware of it) who is behind what is called the idealist or functionalist school of thinking. An idealist tend to believe that cooperation over a “low politics” issues such as water may be something that spur cooperation over even more sensitive political areas. And that cooperation would spur more cooperation.

Often it has been assumed in the debates over transboundary water that if we build technical cooperation that would lead to more political contacts, improved relations and eventually equitable agreements signed. Still, that is not really what is happening in cases such as the Nile or the Jordan River Basin.

It may be argued that in the development business (myself included) there has been a tendency not to engage to much with the perspective that realism represents. This perspective has been left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs security people and the Ministry of Defence. In sociological language there has been a de-emphasising of the risks associated with such a perspective. Arguably, often development practitioners adopt more of a functionalist approach to matters. This may result in that certain risks are missed with potentially serious consequences. Issues of power relations in a river basin context are but one example. If these are ignored in the preparatory work there is a risk that investments may be misguided or that there is a risk that the results of the investments may be derailed by political conflicts not anticipated at the outset (because the development practitioners had their ‘functionalist’ glasses on).

Thus, it may be so that some investments that were viewed as going to result in good results actually do not and that this is, from a realist perspective, understandable when looking at the assumptions made at the outset of the project/programme. What to do about it? Well, to start with it may be argued that a bit more of a Machiavellian analysis would do the development community a favour.

by Dr Anders Jägerskog, Associate Professor, First Secretary
Senior Programme Manager, Water Resources
Regional Team for Economic and Environmental Development (REED), Sida
Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya
 

Bakgrunden till mina raka frågor är att det verkar som om intresset för internationella kontakter är litet eller är begränsat till ganska få personer i svenska vattenföretag. Stämmer det? Eller är det tvärtom så att intresset är stort och brett men resurserna för små? Det måste vi göra något åt. Kunskap är ju faktiskt en färskvara som behöver fyllas på. Man kan lära mycket av varandra i Sverige och internationellt.

Jag är sekreterare i NKV, den svenska nationalkommittén för vatten. NKV representerar International Water Association i Sverige. Vi som ingår i kommittén vill bidra till att Sverige kan hålla sitt försprång och har därför satt som mål att på olika sätt ta hem kunskap till Sverige genom IWA och att öka det svenska engagemanget i världens största sammanslutning av vattenspecialister. Vi vill också att Sverige ska dela med sig av goda erfarenheter till andra länder och medverka till att kunskaperna om vatten breddas och når ännu flera.

”Cities of the Future” är ett av IWA prioriterat tema. Det syftar till att VA-verksamheterna måste bli synligare och tidigt ta aktiv plats i samhällsplaneringen. För att visa fram goda exempel och möjligheter från Sverige och många andra håll planerar NKV tillsammans med IWA en konferens i Stockholm i maj 2010. Medarrangörer är IFHP, International Federation for Housing and Planning, och deras svenska part Föreningen för Samhällsplanering. SIWI deltar också. Huvudarrangör är Urban Water AB, ett konsultföretag med rötter i Chalmers.

Årets Världsvattendag den 22 mars hade till tema ”Kommunicera vattenkvalitet – utmaningar och möjligheter” och Världsvattenveckan i Stockholm 5-11 september fördjupar med ett liknande tema. Personligen ser jag det som en verklig chans att engagera politiker, företag och privatpersoner i det gemensamma arbetet att värna rent vatten och skydda vattentillgångar. Det är ju vi själva som skapar avloppsvattnet… 

Jag undrar ofta varför vatten inte har högre status i samhället. Varför är telecom intressantare än vatten? En del beslutsfattare säger faktiskt att vatten är en ”icke-fråga”. Det är ju alldeles omöjligt! Så kan vi inte ha det!

Flera svenska VA-verksamheter är skickliga på att kommunicera med kunder och allmänhet. Men vi kan göra mer tillsammans. I Sverige är det många, ofta ganska små, organisationer som arbetar med vatten och sanitet - allt från kommunala VA-verksamheter till teknikföretag och biståndsorganisationer. Tillsammans har vi massor av erfarenheter och kunskaper att dela med oss av till varandra. Tillsammans kan vi bli starka och göra verklig skillnad. En plats att enkelt mötas på (digitalt) är de olika nätverken som Swedish Water House har skapat.
Ett internationellt exempel att följa är de franska vattenföretagen som annonserar tillsammans för att visa att vattenyrkena är högintressanta. Veolia Water står numera högt på önskelistan för studenter. Tänk när svenska VA-företag blir så eftersökta!

För övrigt anser jag att Världsvattendagen ska finna med i alla almanackor.

av Brita Forssberg, Sekreterare i NKV, den svenska nationalkommittén för vatten, IWA i Sverige

Here in Sweden, public, private and social media is arguably publishing more reports about water related issues now than ever before, reflecting global trends in environmental reporting.

The Swedish private sector is also getting more proactive on discussions around corporate social responsibility and water, which was very ripe during last year’s World Water Week – and continued through the Swedish Water House network.

So far there has been a positive response from some of the largest actors in the private sectors – with Swedish textile retailers joining SWHs efforts to exchange information on best practices in water utilization, production, marketing and environmental conservation. 


Figure: courtesy of IBM Water

This is yet reflecting on a trending water interest amongst larger producers, such as Nestlé and Coca Cola. Corporations realize that they need to address water in their production – by enhancing their production output while minimizing the input, especially, their water footprint.

Take burgers, for example. Throwing away (or over-eating) one burger means a waste of approximately 2,400 liters of water that went into its production. Science shows us that loss is highest at the consumers end, in terms of accumulated water use. This cost must be considered by producers, which in retrospect affect many others along the food value chain. Over and under consumption are both bad for everyone: the environment, the industry, the consumer…etc. What is needed is to find a good balance between the needs of the market and the natural resources available for exploitation – or recycling, etc.

There are positive signs to consider.

With 87 per cent of the world’s population or approximately 5.9 billion people using safe drinking-water sources today, the world is on track to meet or even exceed the drinking-water target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), according to a recent report by UN Water. However, the MDG for sanitation is lagging much behind, which also back fires on water quality and quantities and leads to a deterioration of global health. The use of clean water for drinking and agriculture is also of paramount importance to achieving the first MDG, targeting hunger and poverty, and therefore there is an increased need to act on global priorities – and it is only five years left to meet the MDGs.

What is required is definitely more responsible, reactive and proactive, public-private partnerships on local and international levels, and there are many ways to go about this business.  That is why the Swedish Water House is increasing its efforts this year as a network for Swedish actors, public and private, to work on exchanging experiences within corporate social responsibility and water.

Currently there are many ideas and a variety of tools and methods available for companies that want to find out how they can efficiently use water resources. To this extent, the Swedish Water House is contributing to an ongoing process creating an ISO standard for Water Footprint - which harmonizes this variety of tools, so that they can give comparable results and contribute to better corporate social and environmental responsibility.

What is most exciting is that this came to be after requests from the private sector itself.

by Rami Abdel Rahman, Communications Officer, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)

 I dagens globaliserade handel blir leverantörskedjorna ofta en direkt koppling mellan företag i en del av världen och vattenresurser i en annan. Vi har redan sett att företag från rikare länder kan spela en stor roll när det gäller att driva utvecklingen mot ett mer hållbart användande av vatten i fattigare länder där produktionen äger rum, genom att bidra med sitt intresse och kunnande.
 
Under det här året kommer Swedish Water House på allvar att sätta igång sitt arbete med frågor om vatten och företagsansvar. Detta efter att flera företag har hört av sig med frågor om samarbete och nätverkande. Att ämnet är aktuellt speglas också i det betydande antal internationella initiativ som startat på temat under de senaste åren.

 
Bland dessa internationella initiativ finns ett arbete för att ta fram en global ISO-standard för water footprint (ett verktyg för att mäta och lokalisera vattenanvändingen för produkter, processer och organisationer/företag). SIWI har en representant i den svenska kommitténför denna standard och en referensgrupp under SWH med deltagare från näringsliv, forskning och NGOs följer utvecklingen och fungerar som bollplank för honom. Swedish Water House kommer också framöver att stödja ett samarbete mellan textilföretag i Sverige och jobba för ett ökat svenskt deltagande i internationella processer som rör vatten och företagsansvar.
 
Vi ser att vatten kommer att bli en allt viktigare fråga för företag. Framtidens hårdare konkurrens om vattenresurser kommer också att röra dem. Därför vill vi bidra med att sprida kunskap om de många olika verktyg och arbetssätt som finns för företag som vill ta sitt ansvar för en hållbar vattenanvändning och stötta de företag som redan visar engagemang för vattenfrågor. 
 
av Johanna Sjödin, koordinator, vatten och företagsansvar
 

Utsläpps- och övergödningsproblem var även i fokus under konferensen Avlopp & Kretslopp som hölls i Linköping förra veckan. Under två dagar träffades miljöinspektörer, förtroendevalda, teknikleverantörer, forskare, representanter för länsstyrelser m.fl. och diskuterade svenska exempel på kommunalt förändringsarbete, tekniknyheter och växtnäring i kretslopp. Vidare berättade representanter från Naturvårdsverket, Boverket och Vattenmyndigheterna om sitt arbete och vad som är aktuellt när det gäller vatten och avlopp, och kanske framför allt hur enskilda avlopp ska hanteras och åtgärdas. Bland annat driver Naturvårdsverket just nu en tillsynskampanj ”Små avlopp ingen skitsak” i samarbete med kommuner och länsstyrelser i syfte att fler fastighetsägare ska utrusta sina avlopp med godtagbar rening. Naturvårdsverkets havsmiljöanslag finansierar under två år ”Kunskapscentrum Små Avlopp” som ska ta fram oberoende och kvalitetssäkrad information och kunskap om teknik, lagstiftning, kommunikation och planering. Kunskapscentrum ska även fungera som ett forum för erfarenhetsutbyte och utbildning, allt i syfte att påskynda åtgärdandet av de små avloppen. Både tillsynskampanjen och uppbyggandet av kunskapscentrum är resultat av prioriteringar och vilja att påskynda processer för att miljön ska bli bättre för alla. Detta nationella arbete hoppas jag även kan visa vägen för andra.

En person som har lyckats med att koppla ihop nationellt och internationellt är Gunilla Brattberg, fd Programme Director på EcoSanRes, Stockholm Environment Institute samt tidigare Miljö- och Utvecklingschef vid Stockholm Vatten. Under konferensen tilldelades Gunilla 2010 års Avlopp och Kretsloppspris med motiveringen att hon under lång tid varit pådrivande vad gäller utveckling av mer hållbara VA-system i Sverige och internationellt, och att hon dessutom har arbetat hårt för att sprida kunskap såväl nationellt som internationellt om avloppssystemets betydelse för samhällets kretsloppsflöden.

Vatten, avlopp och kretslopp – allt hänger ihop såväl i Sverige som i världen!

av Anna Norström, Swedish Water House

The note starts of with presenting key processes in river ecosystems, and discusses the impact hydropower dams has on these processes. Further, opportunities for integrating environmental flows are presented, both on a regional and local scale. A number of structural and operational considerations in hydropower dam development that can facilitate integration of environmental flow objectives are presented, such as; variable outlet and turbine-generator capacities, multilevel selective withdrawal outlet structures, re-regulation reservoirs, power grid interconnection, coordinated operations of cascades of dams, flood management in floodplains, sediment bypass structures and sediment sluice gates, and fish passage structures.

One section of the note discusses re-operation of existing dams. These operations have often not been built with consideration of environmental flow releases to maintain downstream ecosystems. However, the authors argue that recent technical investigations suggest that it is frequently possible to improve the environmental performance of existing dams without significantly reducing their social or economic benefits. This work shows that such reoperation can also, in many instances, increase power generation, reduce downstream flood risks, and buffer the effects of climate change. This chapter also includes a screening tool for selecting best candidates for dam reoperation. Finally, the importance of adaptive management of dams is discussed. To be ecologically sustainable, it is important that a monitoring-, evaluation-, and  adjustment program is fully and explicitly integrated into any hydropower development or reoperation plan. Management should be continually modified in light of increased understanding or changes in human and ecosystem conditions.  It is also important that economic risks associated with uncertain environmental constraints are addressed explicitly as part of the adaptive management strategy.

If you are interested in this Working Note, it can be downloaded from this link.

by Birgitta Malm Renöfält, Cluster Group Leader, The Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative

Genom det enorma misslyckandet i Köpenhamn har även förhandlingarna köpt sig viss tid. Kanske kan ett år av ytterligare förhandlingar ge möjligheter till ett bättre avtal än vad vi hade kunnat få i december. Kanske? - Så vill jag tro och hoppas, men vem vet, media verkar vara trötta på klimatförhandlingarna. Internet översvämmas av konspirationsteorier mot IPPC. Fokus är där mer tillbaka på om klimatförändringarna är verkliga än på den centrala frågan vad vi måste göra för att stoppa klimatförändringarna. Dessutom kanske vi inte har tid, beroende på hur klimatförändringarna kommer slå, borde inte alla resurser tillgängliga sättas in så snabbt som möjligt på att minska utsläpp och ge de fattigaste länderna möjlighet att anpassa sig?

Men nu är det som det är, de Boer avgår, och jag hoppas att delegaterna för nästa klimatförhandling kan enas om konstruktiva avtal som räddar världen från de värsta farhågorna i IPPCs rapporter. Vi som arbetar med vattenfrågorna kommer följa förhandlingarna fram till Mexico noga och försöka bidra så gott vi kan med vår kunskap. Klustergruppen för klimat kommer ordna ett antal möten och seminarier kring vatten och klimatfrågorna. Ett annat exempel är Stakeholder Forums och SIWIs projekt GPPN – där vi vill främja en dialog mellan de som är aktiva inom klimatdebatten med de som är aktiva inom vattenbranschen. Kunskap från båda dessa ”läger” är nödvändiga för ett lyckat avtal i Mexico.

av Anneli Nordling, klustergruppsledaren, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

© UNDP

Till en början fanns det ett akut behov av dricksvatten i den tryckande hettan. Tidningarna pryddes av bilder där hjälporganisationerna delade ut flaskvatten och brandbilar försökte portionera ut det vatten som fanns tillgängligt till förtvivlade invånare. Men efter att västvärldens journalister och fotografer sakta börjat lämna ön så finns risken att många av Haitis behov glöms bort och att pengar slutar strömma in. Det finns fortfarande mycket att göra för att få landet på fötter igen. Till exempel behövs det reningsverk. Att få tillgång till bra kvalité på dricksvatten är viktigt, annars kan sjukdomar och diarréer spridas som är en stor riskfaktor för framför allt barn. Lika viktigt är det med sanitet och avloppsrening. För att undvika att avfall och föroreningar hamnar i vattendrag och förstör en livsviktig naturresurs måste vattenrening ha en central roll, både nu när landet befinner sig i ett utsatt läge och även senare när det är dags att återuppbygga infrastrukturen på Haiti. Därför skulle jag vilja säga att ett av de bästa sätten att hjälpa Haiti är att sända vattenreningsverk och resurser för att säkra tillgången till bra vattenkvalité, och att det kommer finnas ett fortsatt arbete med detta även när journalisterna lämnat ön.

Situationen på Haiti är ett konkret exempel på varför tillgången till bra vattenkvalité är så viktigt, och detta är också årets tema på Världsvattendagen den 22 mars. Då kommer deltagare ifrån hela världen att fira dagen med olika aktiviteter som på olika vis vill belysa vilken betydelse bra vattenkvalité har för jordens ekosystem och människors hälsa och välbefinnandet.

av Johanna Rösth, SIWI

Om 5 år ska vi ha uppnått FNs Milleniummål. Även om utvecklingen går framåt inom många områden, så ser det också dystert ut för vissa länder och regioner och även för flera mål totalt sett. Ett exempel är målet om att halvera andelen hungrande, där utvecklingen nu går åt fel håll. Betydelsen av tillgång till vatten är en avgörande faktor för att nå många av milleniummålen, men får vattenfrågorna tillräckligt utrymme i vårt utvecklingssamarbete? På vårt seminarium under Världsvattendagen kommer denna frågeställning att stå i fokus.

Vattenresursfrågorna är också centrala för klimatanpassningen och en viktig komponent i energifrågan - hur används våra vattenresurser så hållbart och effektivt som möjligt när vi ska utveckla fossilfri energisystem? Dessa frågor kommer vi att belysa i såväl nationella som internationella sammanhang.

Ytterligare en fråga som vi kommer att arbeta mycket med är frågan om allas vårt ansvar för en effektiv och hållbar vattenanvändning, med fokus på det virtuella vattnet. Vatten och företagsansvar, hur man kan standardisera mätning av total vattenförukning från ax till limpa är ett av flera områden som vi kommer att gräva mer i under året. Vi kommer också att fortsätta att arbeta med frågor om vatten som en mänsklig rättighet, hållbara vattenflöden och gränsöverskridande vatten.

Hur vi löser de globala vattenreursfrågorna kommer att bli helt avgörande för möjligheten att minska fattigdom och skapa hållbara välfärdsökningar för en växande befolkning. Det kommer att krävas att aktörer från olika dicipliner samverkar för att bygga konsensus kring svåra beslut och för att det ska bli möjligt att genomföra de åtgärder som krävs. SWH bidrar till detta arbete. Det är kul och viktigt. Välkommen med!

av Karin Lexén, Chef, Swedish Water House

Swedish Water House kick started its activities in 2010 with strategic and practical planning. I can promise water will definitely be put on the climate agenda this year.

Hannah Stoddart from Stakeholder Forum came over from London to discuss how to move on after COP 15 and strategise towards COP 16 in our joint project, the GPPN (http://gppn.stakeholderforum.org/). Inspired from last year’s success we can promise a Water Day also in 2010 that will identify the cross-cutting impacts of water on a diversity of livelihoods, sectors and ecosystems.

Swedish Water House will of course also continue being the meeting place for dialogue within the international policy development and cooperation in the water and development field with seminars and workshops. Furthermore the cluster groups will keep working on their different focus areas; Water & Rights, Climate, Water & Vulnerability and Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative. Are you interested to join, please read more about the cluster groups here.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy 2010 and a warm welcome to network with us at the Swedish Water House!
 

By the keyboard,
Hanna Wolf

Ann-Mari Karlsson i korridorerna på COP15

John Matthews (WWF), Hannah Stoddart (Stakeholder Forum), Karin Lexen (SIWI), Ainun Nishat of the Bangladesh Delegation and IUCN, Mike Muller (GWP)

Moderatorn Mike Muller från GWP betonade att vattensektorn sitter på kunskap och erfarenhet som är värdefull och bör tas till vara vid framtida klimatanpassningsprojekt. Att hantera osäkerheter i vattenflöden och att värdera risker förknippade med vattentillgång- och försörjning är redan en del av det dagliga arbetet för ingenjörer och hydrologer över hela världen.

Publiken deltog med diskussion, engagemang och åsikter kring olika aspekter på länken mellan klimat och vatten. Många verkade redan insatta i frågan, och Hannah Stoddart från Stakeholder Forum/GPPN varnade för att vattensektorn har lätt för att fastna i interna diskussioner. ”Vattensektorn måste prata klimatsektorns språk”, menade hon, och visade hur man genom mindre tillägg kan få vattenresurshantering att integreras i förhandlingstexten kring anpassning.

Karin Lexén från Stockholm International Water Institute menade att det inte bara behöver vara en svaghet att vattensektorn står enad, och påminde om de många ”statements” och projekt som har växt fram under möten och samarbeten under de senaste året. Några exempel är Stockholm Statement från World Water Week i Stockholm och ”Danish Dialogue on land and water management”.

Lovisa Selander mitt i COP-15
 

av Lovisa Selander, SIWI

Att registrera samtliga anländande och få dem igenom säkerhetskontrollen är inget litet företag, och de av oss som anlände redan igår kväll rapporterade om timlånga köer utanför entrén. I morse hade dock kön krympt avsevärt - både säkerhetskontroll och ackreditering klarades av på en dryg halvtimme. COP-15 markerar upploppet på flera månaders arbete med projektet GPPN, Global Public Policy Network. Under de senaste månaderna har SIWI tillsammans med organisationen Stakeholder Forum varit närvarande vid förhandlingarna i Bonn, Bangkok och Barcelona med syftet att integrera vattenfrågan i klimatdiskussionen. Under klimatkonferensen i Köpenhamn kommer vi att vara involverade i flera aktiviteter.

Idag höll vi en press-briefing för ett sextiotal journalister och observatörer. Det hela filmades av UNFCCC, så vill ni se hur det gick kan ni göra det här. Imorgon är det dags för ett Side-Event tillsammans med Global Water Partnership och Stakeholder Forum: COP-15 and Beyond: Bridging the Water and Climate Change Agenda.

av Lovisa Selander, SIWI

Danish Water Forum som också var där och hälsade på, har också många företag i sitt nätverk. Vi på SWH har ju mest jobbat med universitet, NGOs, myndigheter och visserligen delvis privata delar av vattensektorn hittills, och med inriktning på policyutveckling. Men ganska nyligan började vi utforska hur vi kan jobba mer med företag kring t ex Water Footprint-metoder, så det var intressant att se hur Danmark och Finland gör. Och att de är ganska inriktade på att främja export. Vi pratade om att göra något tillsammans under nordisk flagg på internationella konferenser, och att företag som konkurrerar med varandra också har mycket att vinna på att samarbeta.

Nya Muminmuggen har vattentema

Jag tror faktiskt detta var början på mer nordiskt samarbete vilket är jättekul!
 

av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Helsingfors den 20 november 2009

 
 After a short introduction by Göran Ek of Naturskyddsföreningen of the launched policy brief " Adapting Water Management of Climate Change" (Att säkra vattenresurser i ett förändrat klimat) prepared by Swedish Water House's Cluster Group for Climate, Water and Vulnerability, opening remarks and response to the main issues raised in the policy brief were made by Elin Einfors, Stockholm University and Bo Kjellin, Stockholm Environment Institute. They stressed the importance of encouraging adaptive capacities of vulnerable people and ecosystems to the effects of current climate variability and future climate change and the need to focus on climate - water issues especially in the context of the upcoming climate negotiations at COP 15.

Short comments were also made by the parliament members Sofia Arkelsten (M), Per Bolund (MP), and Birgitta Ohlsson (FP) of their thoughts, expectations and hopes regarding mitigation and adaptation issues. They stressed the need for global unified action and the importance that Sweden takes action in a concrete and influential manner. But they also expressed concern that different countries and governments may prioritise other issues before climate.

Open statements and questions from the floor further penetrated the issues of how to increase awareness and prioritise water and climate issues and how we, at different scales and in different contexts, within Sweden and the EU, can work positively to meet the climate-related challenges ahead of us. 
 
 by Julie Wilk, Ph. D at SMHI

• The need for environmental flows to fulfill the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive
• How does the Swedish Water Authorities work with flow related issues?
• What environmental benefits can come from environmental flow regimes in regulated rivers and streams?

We had three invited speakers reflecting those various topics. First out was Professor Mike Acreman who works at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK. Professor Acreman's main research interests lie at the interface between hydrology and ecology. The water needs of aquatic ecosystems, including rivers and wetlands, is a particular focus. He recently led the definition of UK river requirements to meet the WFD. As leader of the World Bank Environment Flow advisory panel, he also has been supporting the development of environmental flow allocations in Tanzania and China and advising on the global program. He has recently published a paper on the very topic of environmental flows and the WFD, that can be found here.

Next speaker out was Maria Sandvik Widemo who works at the Gävleborg county board. She is project leader on the project "Water Flow in Nedre Dalälven". She was presenting a very concrete example on how re-regulation of water flows in Daläven would benefit the unique natural values in the Nedre Dalälven Delta. 

Our final speaker was Johan Kling from the Västra Götaland county board, and the Västerhavets Water District. He was talking about how the water authorities approach the work of the Water Framework Directive, and the need he saw to focus more on the hydro-geomorphic context of rivers in this work.

One of the interesting things that came forward during the presentations was the different ways the UK and Sweden has taken on the work with the WFD. While the UK is striving for getting as few as possible of their water bodies in the “heavily modified” category, quite a few of the Swedish water bodies falls in this category. The UK has also made alterations in hydro-geomorphologic criteria a basis for their status evaluation, while in Sweden evaluates on basis of biotic criteria. 

If you are interested in seeing the presentations they will shortly be uploaded on SEFI’s page.

by Birgitta Malm Renöfält, Cluster Group Leader of the Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative

av Ann-Mari Karlsson

Ms. Wangu Mutua told the participants at the Side Event "Separate Streams" at the World Water Week how Vi Agroforestry have supported farmers to develop a number of simple but ingenious actions to enhance their adaptability to a changing climate. I personally was impressed by the work with promoting the raising of low feed small animals. For example, chicken breeds that both can exist on lower levels of feed and are resistant to long drought periods. Ms Wangu also told about how farmers improve their agricultural practices by for example covering the earth between the plants with dry grass to limit evaporation. All methods they use are at field-level and do not require large investments. The staff of Vi Agroforestry live in the rural areas close to agricultural communities and engage with existing institutional groups, such as church groups that local people already trust and feel comfortable with.

I can understand that the work is difficult and it has taken a long time to reach the fruitful results that are being seen today. These results give more hope for the future. Since some groups have been successful with adaptation strategies to climate variability, it shows that it is possible for others to learn from them and to develop similar but locally adapted methods. If just a fraction of the money that is discussed for adaptation could support some programs like this one I believe there is greater hope for dignified livelihoods for many more people in a changing climate.

Read more about the Vi Agroforestry program in the newly published policy brief "Adapting water management to climate change".

by Anneli Nordling, Cluster Group Leader, Cluster Group Climate, Water and Vulnerability

Just as with other rights, such as the right to food and the right to education, people who can afford it are often required to pay to have these things - but states need to consider that prices are affordable for all. The important thing is for states to make sure that those who cannot afford water and improved sanitation are not deprived of their rights. One of the added values of recognising the human right to water and sanitation is that it can help strengthen focus on the rights of those who are underserved, marginalised or discriminated in society.
 

by Ann-Mari Karlsson, Cluster Group Leader, SWH Cluster Group Water and Rights

Water managers have a daunting task of maximising economic and social welfare, and doing so without compromising the health of vital ecosystems. Incorporating environmental flow regimes in water management is an efficient way to safe guard vital ecosystems. The aim of the seminar was to highlight how different sectors work to incorporate environmental flows in their water management and what benefits and tradeoffs exists for the goals of maximising economic and social welfare, and how climate change will affect this work in the future.
One of the more important things that were highlighted in the seminar was that the environmental flow concept is evolving from a biodiversity conservation concept to more and more reflect the human aspect. Maintaining health ecosystems is not only a question for conservation of biodiversity, but really a question of maintaining resources that humans are dependant on. None the less, the term in it self may be a hinder for implementation as many view any term containing the word "environmental" to be something that only concerns biodiversity conservation. Another interesting thing that came up was the implication of climate change on implementing environmental flows, and the need to incorporate this in e-flow work. Even though climate change and increased variability and uncertainty will make the work harder, it is important to remember that the implication climate change will have on water availability and flow patterns, it is miniscule to the implication of human water use such as large scale irrigation schemes and hydropower production.

And then, in the evening, finally it was time! After what feels like a long journey, the cluster group on environmental flows launched the report "Securing Water for Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: The Importance of Environmental Flows". This report is a joint collaboration between the conveners of the afternoon seminar. The launch was accompanied by a press release and a press event where the refreshments were served and a short presentation of the key messages of the report was made.
 

A pdf of the report can be found at http://www.swedishwaterhouse.se/opencms/en/resources/
 

by Birgitta Renöfält, Cluster Group Leader of the Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative
 

En hållbar stad måste numera också bygga flexibla system som klarar av både mer och mindre vatten i framtiden. Vi vet inte exakt hur klimatförändringar kommer slå, och därför måste man ny tänka på ett nytt sätt när man bygger infrastruktur som rör vatten. Förbereda för extra pumpstationer till exempel. En utmaning är också hur samhällen ska börja bygga för framtida generationers behov och inte bara de behov som vi själva har just nu. Det låter bra, men hur genomför man det politiskt? Hur kan man argumentera nationalekonomiskt? Svaren kommer säkerligen diskuteras under veckan som kommer. Det ser jag fram emot!
 

av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Water and Rights cluster group leader

The Swedish water house will be busy during the week in launching two new policy briefs… and several seminars and side events… As usual many burning topics will be discussed and transboundary waters will be in focus.

Another hot issue; water and climate change will be intensively discussed throughout the week; how can the water community contribute the best to the climate change processes and what role will water have in the COP-15 agreement? Watch out for exiting discussions and results!

by Karin Lexén, Director, Swedish water House

Det behövs förstås också ny kunskap men behovet är akut att de projekt som fungerar idag får möjlighet att utvecklas och att fler kan lära av dessa. Ett av de projekt som gruppen har tittat närmare på och som beskrivs i den snart färdiga policy briefen är Vi-skogens arbete med ’agroforestry’ runt Viktoriasjön i Östra Afrika. Där har man sedan 80-talet arbetat med att inspirera och stötta bönder att plantera snabbväxande träd i och kring åkrarna. Det handlar inte om någon avancerad ny dyr teknik, utan bygger på enkla metoder där man genom att bland annat plantera träd får en mängde positiva resultat. Man introducerar också nya odlingsmetoder och åtgärder för att förhindra erosion och öka fuktigheten i marken. Markens näringsinnehåll ökas genom kompostering och gödsel från djur och genom att de träd som planteras är av arter som göder marken. Träden bidrar till högre fuktighet genom att de behåller vatten från regnen och sedan sakta släpper ifrån sig fukt. Rotsystemen från träden binder jorden och tillsammans med marktäckande växter, eller helt enkelt löv och grenar som läggs mellan det som odlas, så hindras erosion. Träden ger dessutom skugga för det som växer i närheten. Allt detta innebär att odlingarna blir mindre känsliga för torka. Agroforestry är även ett jordbrukssystem med stor biologisk mångfald som i sig minskar sårbarheten mot plötsliga klimatförändringar. Att detta projekt har fått så positiva reslutat ger hopp i de annars så mörka framtidsutsikter som prognoserna för klimatförändringarna ger. Klustergruppen hoppas att fler projekt som detta ska bli kända och inspirera beslutsfattare att satsa resurser på hållbara anpassningsåtgärder.

Vår policy briefen kommer att lanseras under ett seminarium på Världsvattenveckan i augusti och då kommer också Wangu Mutua från Vi-skogen i Kisumu, i Kenya för att berätta vidare om deras arbete. Seminariet med titeln ”Separate Streams? Integrating Climate Change Adaptation with Water Management” arrangeras tillsammans med den brittiska organisationen Tearfund.
 

Läs mer om seminariet på seminariets hemsida där också policy briefen kommer att finnas för nedladdning så fort den är klar. 
 

av Anneli Nordling, klustergruppsledare, Klustergruppen klimat, vatten och sårbarhet
 

Almedalsveckan är framförallt en stor mötesplats mellan olika aktörer och det är i dessa möten som möjligheten finns att synas och föra fram idéer och inte minst att så frön för framtida kontakter och påverkan. Swedish Water House och SIWI har ordnat fyra egna seminarier med olika teman, Östersjöstrategin, Mellanöster, Klimat- och anpassning och Water foot print och företagsansvar. Vi har bjudit in politiker, företag, journalister och idéburna organisationer till våra seminarier. Intresset har varit stort och våra seminarier har varit välbesökta. Inte minst viktigt är att vi har hört att våra seminarier har pratats om efteråt. Våra skjortor med SWH loggan har lett till frågor och samtal. De kassar som vi har delat ut med SWH och SIWI loggorna har ofta tagits emot med intresse. Vattenfrågan nämns ofta som nästa stora miljöfråga och att det finns ett momentum att ta vara på.
Det är viktigt att vara på plats under Almedalsveckan och det kommer att bli allt viktigare att tänka strategisk kring närvaron.

Almedalen: THE place to be.   (Foto: Gotlands kommun)

Det är roligt och mycket lärorikt att hålla i seminarier och leda samtal. Men det känns ändå väldigt skönt att stänga väskan och att lämna Visby för denna gången. Efter allt pratande och minglande hägrar några veckors semester längst ut i havsbandet i norra Bohuslän – innan det är dags för nästa upp laddning till Världsvattenveckan.

by: Michael McWilliams, Stockholm International Water Institute

Karin Lexén höll en inledande presentation om hur vattensituationen i världen är i dag och hur den framtida situationen ser ut med klimatförändringar, ekonomisk tillväxt och befolkningsökning. Därefter presenterade Anna Forslund från WWF begreppet Water Footprint. Konceptet är relativt nytt och en del företag har börjat anamma det trots dess komplexitet och ofullständiga verktyg.

Helena Hagberg från Banco Fonder menade på att alla företag är beroende av vatten någonstans i produktionen, leverantörskedjan eller i konsumentledet. Efter att ha gjort en egen undersökning av svenska företags ansvar kom hon fram till att det inte finns några perfekta företag. Men med en kombination av livscykelsperspektiv på företagets produkter, kartläggning av företagets vattenhantering, rapportering av kvalitativa och kvantitativa vattenparametrar samt tydliga kvantitativa mål har flera företag kommit långt.

Mats Landén presenterade hur Unilever reducerar miljöpåverkan av sina varumärken, hur de erbjuder produkter som hjälper människor att minska sin egen miljöpåverkan och motiverar människor till bra sätt att använda produkterna på.

Med en intresserad och nyfiken publik kombinerat med intressanta presentationer avslutades seminariet med frågor och ett samtal kring företags och konsumenters ansvar.
 

Från vänster: Anders Wijkman, europaparlamentariker, Per Bolund (mp),
Anders Ygeman (s), Sofia Arkelsten (m), Åsa-Britt Karlsson, statssekreterare Miljödepartementet.

Den avslutande panelen bjöd på en livlig och intressant diskussion kring hur man ska kunna ta vara på erfarenhet och kunnande från separata sektorer i de övergripande förhandlingarna, och se till att pengar och åtgärder når dit där de behövs mest. Dessutom diskuterades Sveriges roll under EU-ordförandeskapet.
 

Efter mig kom Henrik Fröjmark som gav en bild över hur Svenska kyrkans samarbetsorganisationer arbetar med vattenfrågan på Västbanken och vilka svårigheter de möter på grund av den israeliska ockupationen. Därpå följde en paneldebatt med Niklas Ekdahl (fd DN och numera frilansande journalist), Heidi Avellan (politisk chefredaktör, Sydsvenskan), Peter Weiderud (s) samt Anders Wijkman (kd). Debatten och diskussionen svepte över stora områden, kopplade ihop vattenfrågan med den politiska situationen, klimatfrågan samt med markfrågor. En gemensam syn hos alla var att det knappast finns en lösning på vattenfrågan utan en lösning av den politiska konflikten. Samtidigt lyftes det fram att alldeles oavsett om parterna kan nå en förhandlingslösning av konflikten så kommer det på sikt ändå inte att lösa den prekära vattensituationen - som sannolikt förvärras av de kommande klimatförändringarna och kompliceras av den näst intill skenande befolkningsökningen i regionen.

Snart är det dags för seminarium nummer 2 för dagen – Anpassning till klimateffekter i utsatta länder – en försummad nyckelfråga i klimatförhandlingarna?
 

EU-minister Cecilia Malmsten intervjuas av Euro News efter seminariet.

av: Lovisa Selander, SIWI

As you sail the Baltic on the three-hour ferry ride from Nynesham to Visby, it is easy to forget about the environmental problems facing the sea. Even in the cold rain and wind, the sea was beautiful. But the problems in the Baltic are real, they are serious, and they are the reason I went to Visby.  

The sea contains too much nitrogen and phosphorus, the result of pollution from sources including phosphates in detergents and agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertilizer residue. This has led to “eutrophication,” making the Baltic bloom with algae. Overfishing, oil spills, waste from cruise ships, oxygen depleted-seabed areas, and other problems have also contributed to the Sea’s deterioration.

A new initiative may mean hope for the Baltic, though. On June 10, the EU Baltic Sea Regional Strategy was announced, containing recommendations to clean up the Baltic and to simultaneously make the entire region a more prosperous, accessible place.  As Minister for EU Affairs Cecilia Malmström said when she introduced the strategy, “With eight of the nine Baltic Sea States members of the EU, the Baltic has become something of an EU inland sea. This makes the Baltic Sea’s state of health a matter of concern for the entire EU.”   Adoption and implementation of the strategy is a high priority for the upcoming Swedish Presidency of the EU.

Jointly organized by the European Union Directorate General Office for Regional Strategy (DG REGIO) and the Swedish and Lithuanian Managing Authorities, the conference in Visby emphasized the priorities of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region , including environment, energy, transportation, and competitiveness.

For the programme of the conference, click here.  In the environment workshop I attended, many people questioned whether the strategy could be effective without legally requiring anything of the Member States and without creating funding incentives for compliance in the absence of such requirements. My research is focusing, in part, on those questions.

And so, the conference did what it was supposed to do: introduced new ideas and concepts and raised questions about how to move forward from here. 

Visby itself is a magical place, unlike anything I have seen in my home town of Washington, D.C., back in the States. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995 and is surrounded by a medieval wall (the "Ringmuren”) constructed beginning in the 12th century. Inside the wall, perfect little Swedish cottages nuzzle against the medieval ruins of churches long gone. Outside the wall, a meadow fills a moat, and the Baltic lies quietly against grey rocks, looking beautiful despite its problems.

For more information about the EU Regional Strategy for the Baltic, go to http://eu.baltic.net/Baltic_issues.3549.html
 

by Megan Walline, visiting researcher at SIWI

SEFI has collaborated in the work of one of those articles; titled “Effects of hydropower generation and opportunities for environmental flow management in Swedish riverine ecosystems” that now can be found on early view. In the article we give a brief review on how hydropower production affects rivers and their ecosystems and, by using examples from Sweden, we discuss how negative effects of hydropower could be mitigated. Special emphasis is given to flow regulation through re-operation of dams. The abstract of the article, or if you have access to FB, a pdf of the whole article, can be found here: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122400941/abstract
 

by Birgitta Renöfält, Cluster Group Leader of the Swedish Environmental Flows Initiativ

Mitt leende blev ännu bredare i dag när jag fick reda på att ytterligare ett land har sällat sig till skaran. Jippi! Även Tunisien har nu ratificerat . Nu fattas 18 underskrifter!

av Anna Forslund, Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative och WWF

I was even happier today when I learned that Tunisia just ratified the Convention and one country closer to the entry in to force. Eighteen more to go!

by Anna Forslund, Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative and WWF
 

Den 7 april var det deadline för att anmäla sig till tävlingen Svenska Juniorvattenpriset. En jury bestående av representanter från bland andra SMHI, Albaeco, Ramböll och forskare från universitet samt representanter från skolvärlden, valde ut 9 projekt att gå till final i tävlingen. Finalisterna kommer till Stockholm den 22 till 24 maj. Då väntar en helg med mycket spännande att lära, trevliga evenemang och inte minst en hel del spänning i tävlingsmomentet t.ex. juryintervjuerna men inte minst prisceremonin. Helgen avslutas med prisceremonin under vilken vinnaren tillkännages. Vinnaren belönas med en glasskulptur och 30 000 kronor som fördelas lika mellan vinnaren och dennes skola för att stimulera till framtida vattenprojekt. Vinnaren kommer sedan vara Sveriges bidrag i en internationell final.

Svenska Juniorvattenpriset är en av många (drygt 30) nationella tävlingar som pågår världen över. Vinnarna i dessa tävlingar får representera sina respektive länder i den internationella finalen Stockholm Junior Water Prize som genomförs under världsvattenveckan i Stockholm i augusti.

Mer att läsa om 2009 års finalister i Svenska Juniorvattenpriset finns i olika lokalpress. Klicka här för länkar.

av Annika Börje

So a short flight from crowded Beijing (population 12 million ) brought me into Chinggis (Genghis) Khan airport on the edge of Ulaan Baatar, capital city of the emptiest country in the world.  The rural areas – the vast Gobi Desert and steppes - did indeed look more like the surface of the moon, home to just 300,000 nomads who occupy a rural area the size of Western Europe.
 

I was visiting Mongolia at the request of UNDP, who had identified the country as being ‘off track’ and at risk of missing the Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation.  Water scarcity may be the issue in some countries, but overwhelmingly the failure to deliver these basic necessities is due to poor governance, and to a lack of will to address taboo or “unglamorous” subjects.  UNDP’s GoAL-WaSH programme seeks to address these issues, supporting national efforts to meet the MDGs.
 

And water and sanitation do indeed seem to have been neglected.  Two huge new coal mining deals with China – that could potentially double the size of Mongolia’s economy – seemed to be the talk of the town.  Hummers and large 4x4s crowded Ulaan Baatar’s dilapidated streets, and the city centre was surrounded by vast tented camps – ‘ger’ areas containing former nomads who had abandoned their traditional way of life and set up their tents on the edge of town.  Water, sanitation and other public services in these areas are dire.
 

Mongolia’s extreme climate complicates the sanitation situation further.  Open defecation when it is -40˚C outside is no joke.  And when summer comes – and temperatures rise to 40˚C - untreated waste rapidly becomes a health hazard.  
 

I was pleased that our workshop was so well attended by stakeholders in the Government and other actors involved in water and sanitation.  But much more resources are needed to ensure that Mongolians’ most basic needs are met.  Let us hope that the new mining revenues actually help?
 

by Alastair Morrison, Projrct Manager, UNDP Water Governance Fercility at SIWI

The Swedish Water House will once again support the involvement of Junior Rapporteurs at the World Water Week. These JRs will team up with a lead rapporteur and follow specific themes throughout the week with the goal of presenting their reflections at the closing plenary session and preparing a thematic report for the Synthesis Report of the week. From the reaction we received from last year’s Junior Rapporteurs, we are sure this will continue to be an exciting (but very intense) opportunity for many students and water professionals starting their careers. We are now starting the selection process for the JRs by going through almost 100 applications received over the past few months.

SWH will convene a number of events as well. SWH events range from the Young Water Professionals seminar on Sunday to the Water Footprint seminar on Tuesday to the Water and Climate Focus days on Wednesday and Thursday. We continue our support to the European Union Water Initiative (EUWI) Multistakeholder Forum by funding a number of participants from developing countries. Our cluster groups will play an active role in organizing the environmental flows seminar, two side events on the right to water, and two side events on water and climate change. It’s going to be a busy week!

For more information on Swedish Water House involvement in the week, stay tuned to this website as well as www.worldwaterweek.org.

by Michael Moore

The conference I am headed for will focus on issues such as investments in water infrastructure, the challenges facing the water sector in the region as a result of the ongoing financial crisis, and how to strike a balance between supply and demand in the region.  I have been invited to act as chairperson the first day of the conference, take part in a panel focusing on the regional outlook on natural water resources, and to deliver a key-note on “Demand management as an essential and effective water policy tool in the Middle East”.  My presentation will draw on one relatively recent SIWI policy brief:”On the Verge of a New Water Scarcity: A call for Good Governance and Human Ingenuity” as well as an article that I co-authored with Håkan Tropp as a background paper for the UNDP 2006 Human Development Report: "Meeting the Water Scarcity Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa". Hopefully it can stir some useful debate around the question of supply oriented approaches and more demand oriented approaches, much needed in at least part of the Middle East region.

The lion’s share of participants in the conference is coming from the private sector and public companies. It seems that I’ve been invited to provide a slightly different (and hopefully complementing) perspective, focusing on policy development, and the water challenges facing the Middle East region. The coming days promise lot’s of interesting and informed discussions about the future of the region’s waters as well as the possible scale of investments in its water sector.
 

by Anders Jägerskog, project Director, SIWI

Aktiviteten på SIWI är febril under sommaren, och det känns att sommaren närmar sig. Själv samordnar jag ett side event tillsammans med Svenska kyrkan, lantbruksuniversitetet SLU och tyska departementet för ekonomiskt samarbete och utveckling (BMZ) om vatten som mänsklig rättighet på tisdagen den 18 augusti (med uppföljning onsdag den 19e).

Vi kommer få ett blixtbesök av FNs Oberoende Expert för vatten och sanitet som mänsklig rättighet, Catarina de Albuquerque, vilket verkligen är toppen. Efter det första av hennes tre år på posten ska det bli intressant att höra hur hon tycker att regeringar kan förbättra tillgången till rent vatten och sanitet för de som saknar det.

av Ann-Mari Karlsson

The activity at SIWI is intense in the summer, and it is clear that summer is approaching. I co-organise a side event together with the Church of Sweden, the agricultural university SLU, and the German Ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ) on water as a human right, Tuesday the 18th August (followed up on Wednesday the 19th).

We will get a quick visit by the UN Independent Expert on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, which is really great. It will be interesting to hear her thoughts, after the first out of three years on the post, on how governments can improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation for those who lack it.

by Ann-Mari Karlsson

Nu finns det en sammanfattande rapport från seminariet. Du hittar den under Resources. En övergripande slutsats från dagen är att även om det kan vara en utmaning att fördela gemensamma vattenresurser, så är samarbeten trots allt långt vanligare än konflikter. Det grundläggande behovet av vatten verkar kunna få till stånd en dialog till och med mellan länder som i övrigt befinner sig i konflikt.

En extra högtidlig programpunkt var offentliggörandet av vinnaren av 2009 års Stockholm Water Prize. I år går utmärkelsen till Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, en indisk sanitetskämpe och människorättsaktivist.

av Lovisa Selander, Communications Officer, SIWI

Alla vill vi vara med i Mekanismen. Men denna mekanism som diskuteras av länderna är väldigt övergripande. Den handlar i mycket om koldioxidutsläpp, och den benämner helst inte enskilda ’sektorer’ som skog och vatten. Därför sitter vi alla med våra specialintressen i lobbyn och runtom om mig hör jag upprörda röster från andra fåtöljgrupper: ”avskogningen, det största problemet är ju ändå avskogningen!” eller ”Ingenting kommer fungera utan genusperspektiv!” och ”det viktigaste här är ju kustområdena!”.

Deltan och Bergsområden. Själv tycker jag förstås att vatten är ett av de mest grundläggande elementen att ta hänsyn till ju mer press ekosystemen utsätts för. Jag lärde mig också ett och annat om just vatten, bland annat på det side event vi arrangerade tillsammans med SIWI, tyska Miljödepartementet, Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate, och Tearfund. En konkret lärdom är att deltan och bergsområden är lite bortglömda, extra känsliga områden för klimatförändringar. Därför vore det bra om man i Köpenhamn kunde inkludera deltan och bergsregioner i listan av ’hotspots’, områden som bör prioriteras för anpassningsarbete, på samma sätt som man gör med öriken och torra områden.

Låt Anpassningen Börja. Att få in en rad om vatten i texten som kommer ut av klimatförhandlingarna i Köpenhamn är ett viktigt första steg, men sedan följer en lång rad steg för att sätta igång och anpassa. Anpassning kan t ex vara att satsa mer på ’rainwater harvesting’ och mer effektiv användning av vatten för att klara torka, eller dränering och säkra sanitetslösningar för att bättre klara av översvämningar. Det gäller att titta på vad som har funkat i olika länder och sprida de goda exemplen. 
 

SIWIs/Stakeholder Forums side event på UNFCCC-mötet i Bonn för att diskutera “Bridging the water and climate agenda” – fokus på vattnets roll i klimatanpassning. I panelen: Felix Dodds och Hanna Stoddart från Stakeholder Forum, Henk van Schaik från Co-operative  Programme on Water and  Climate, Thomas Stratenwerth från tyska miljödepartementet och Sara Shaw från Tearfund.

Kolla även GPPNs färska rapport om vatten och klimatanpassning!

Rapport från lobbyn i Bonn
av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Swedish Water House

Our very own bloggers at the famous Golden Horn: Adèle Skogsfors, Michael McWilliams, Karin Lexén

Lively networking: Michael Moore on the front

Let the discussion flow: Environmental Flow Network's meeting at the IUCN booth

Curious group welcomed at the SWH booth

Despite going towards the end of the Forum, yesterday’s and today’s session on transboundary waters brought up a lot of emotions and resulted in intense discussion. Acting as a co-chair of the introducing transboundary session on basin management and hydrosolidarity it almost felt as if I was caught in the cross-fire. Seemingly semantic questions on whether to use terms such as ‘international waters’ or ‘transboundary waters’, ‘sharing water’ or ‘sharing benefits’ were areas for passionate debate. The organizers of the transboundary theme of the week – UNESCO and INBO – certainly face a challenge in summarizing the key results and outcomes. One does not envy them.

Last night I also chaired a session organized by the Palestinian Water Authority in which an option for an inclusive (including all five riparians – Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory) Jordan Basin future may look that, over time, will put all parties better off in terms of water availability. While the concept is thought-provoking and received positive responses from various parts of the basin the idea may well be hostage to political developments. This event will be followed up at a seminar during the World Water Week in Stockholm in August.

Today I talked at a session organized by the Euphrates Tigris Initiative for Co-operation (ETIC) about so called ‘track two’ initiatives and presented the Transboundary Waters Opportunity (TWO) Analysis that SIWI has been developing with colleagues in Namibia (PRA) and South Africa (CSIR). The presentation gained a positive response and the conceptual framework of the TWO analysis will be utilized in by the ETIC network.

Tomorrow - the final day of the Forum – coincides with the UN World Water Day with the theme – Shared water – shared opportunities where SIWIs Executive Director Anders Berntell will take part.
The days here start early and have a tendency to end very late. I do not foresee that this day will be any different. I am quite happy that it is only one day left…..
 

by Anders Jägerskog, Project Director, SIWI

Mission: manage and protect water resources

This session was a little different to other sessions that we have attended in the way that it was highly participatory and interactive. The conveners and sub-conveners had selected a series of statements and discussion topics that was presented to the audience with a short background to key questions by key note speakers followed by a presentation of the actual statements and additional questions to be discussed given by various speakers, of which we where one. The audience then participated in round table discussions for about 45 minutes. Each presented topic was given two tables and each table was asked to come back with three recommendations. The total six recommendations for each topic were the ranked by the whole audience during a voting session. The three highest ranked recommendations will then be included in the report coming out from the thematic session. It really felt like this format fostered a good and lively debate on the issues, and people where highly active despite the fact that we where given a rather late spot in the day.

Another thing we have been active in is a discussion series hosted by IUCN on Environmental Flows and Human Well-being. This series has run through out the week and is based on the various topics and chapters we are covering in an upcoming report on this very subject. The discussions are very informal, starting with a short background of about 20 minutes and then followed by a discussion with the audience participating. The number of participants has varied over the week, but we have had quite a good turn out every day, and what is especially nice to see is that a core group of people has come back every day to take part in those discussions.

by Birgitta Renöfält,
Cluster Group Leaders for The Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative
 

The Swedish Water House delegation has certainly gotten its share of attention. 

Readers of this morning’s edition of the Daily News & Economic Review – Turkey’s highly regarded English language newspaper - read of comments by SIWI Executive Director Anders Berntell at yesterday’s panel on Food, Water, and Energy. The article titled “Better Management of Water” also featured a prominent solo photo of Anders as he made his remarks. Earlier in the day, Anders recorded an interview about trading water with Radio Free Europe to be broadcast today at several times across most European countries. On Monday, Anders sat with a lead economic writer for The Economist to inform a major focus feature now in development at the London-based publication.
 

SIWI's Anders Berntell in the panel on Food , Water and Energy. Photo by Mehmet Kacmaz © NarPhotos

Dr. Anders Jägerskog arrived here in Istanbul late yesterday, and had barely stowed his gear when he sat for a lengthy recorded interview with the Middle-East correspondent for The World – the popular news and analysis radio program jointly produced by PRI for National Public Radio in the United States and by the BBC. Anders engaged the correspondent in a lively, wide-ranging discussion about the role that water plays in many of the region’s issues.

Four days down, four more to go. We expect the focus to sharpen as the forum moves toward its conclusion.

by Michael McWilliams, Communications Director, SIWI

As the opening plenary ended, so started a week of topic sessions, side events, exhibitions, high level summits, and of course valuable networking time. One of the more impressive components of the Forum is the level of high level political buy-in. Heads of State and Ministers from a number of countries are present to discuss and debate water-related issues, with one aim to develop a Ministerial Declaration by the end of the week. Given the size of the venue which stretches across the water, the number of participants and the ever-enticing charms of the surrounding city, we at the Swedish Water House and SIWI hope that we can make all those connections, capitalize on linking with our partners, talk with many visitors to our Swedish Water House booth and of course learn some things along the way.

The week has started well for the Global Environmental Flows Network, or Eflownet, which had its inaugural steering committee meeting in the IUCN booth. Members of the steering committee met to formalize the structure of our network and agree on the way forward to ensure that the network continues to grow and develop. Commitment is key from all the partner organizations involved, as is making the most of venues such as the World Water Forum and World Water Week to bring in new perspectives and partners. Stay tuned to www.eflownet.org!
 

by Michael Moore, project manager for the World Water Week in Stockholm

Väl tillbaka på måndag morgon trodde vi inte våra ögon. Hur många hade egentligen jobbat hela natten för att lyckas färdigställa detta kaos? Nej visst, allt var inte på plats men det var så gott som färdigt. Efter en dag med många nyfikna besökare känner vi oss mycket nöjda och hoppas på fortsatta intressanta möten.


Buzzing SWH/SIWI booth in Istanbul.

av Adèle Skogsfors och Annika Börje

Som grund för debatten fanns den nya rapporten ”Global Europe and Sustainable Development”. Jag hade inte läst rapporten innan men Jens Andersson som skrivit rapporten inledde med att kort referera det viktigaste i innehållet. Först det kanske själklara konstaterandet att klimatförhandlingar och klimatavtal har stor betydelse för utvecklingsländerna. Klimatförhandlingarna kommer att avgöra vilka åtaganden om att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser som utvecklingsländerna eventuellt måste göra. De kommer också att styra hur finansieringen av klimatsmart teknik och anpassning i utvecklingsländerna ska gå till. Men minst lika avgörande för utvecklingsländerna är rätten och möjligheterna att själva välja utvecklingsväg. Både Jens och Naturskyddsföreningen menar att handelsavtalen har en direkt inverkan på detta.

Mikael Karlsson betonade i sina inlägg vikten av att utvecklingsländerna ges goda möjligheter att på olika sätt stärka motståndskraften mot klimatförändringarna. Han betonade att handelsavtalen måste ta hänsyn till klimatförändringarna och utvecklingsländernas egna utvecklingsmöjligheter. Jag, liksom många med mig, som hört om hur handelsförhandlingarna går till, höll med Mikael när han betonade att formen för hur EU bedriver förhandlingarna måste förbättras. Jag blev nästan lite förvånad när handelsministern Ewa Björling helt höll med om detta och medgav att förhandlingarna, som EU drivit för de så kallade EPA-avtalen, hittills inte skett på ett bra sätt. Hon betonade att utvecklingsländerna har både brist i resurser och kompetens att driva fram rättvisa avtal. Handelsministern berättade hur hon träffat alla Afrikanska ambassadörer för att diskutera handelsavtalen och att hon vill ha mer dialog kring frågorna. Detta gjorde mig mycket mera hoppfull. Handelsministern konstaterade att hon tyckte det är bättre att låta förhandlingarna ta mer tid är än att landa i avtal som ingen kan vara nöjda med. Hon försvarade dock avtalens centrala innehåll och Sveriges hållning till dem.

Mikael Karlsson betonade dock i sin avslutning att Naturskyddsföreningen är djupt oroad över hur förhandlingarna drivits och hur avtalens innehåll innebär att fattiga länders handlingsutrymme minskas och att deras möjlighet att anpassa sig till klimatförändringarna försämras.

Med på seminariet fanns även Peter Kleen, Trade Policy Consultant och Gunnel Axelsson-Nycander, Svenska Kyrkan som avslutade seminariet med att ge sina personliga och ganska olika reflektioner kring vad som sagts.

En dokumentation av seminariet kommer att läggas ut på Naturskyddsföreningens hemsida inom kort. Rapporten och en svensk översättning av rapportens förord finns att ladda ned på:

http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/natur-och-miljo/klimat/klimatpolitik/eus-handelspolitik/
 

 av Anneli Nordling, Klustergruppledare, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

This is a first report from the Swedish Environmental Flow Initiative. We are now at the second last day of the International Conference on Environmental Flow Allocations in Port Elisabeth, South Africa.The theme of the conference has been on implementation. Over the last 15-20 years the scientific field has developed enormously, and many methods to asses how much water a water shed needs to keep the desired ecological status has been developed. South Africa and Australia have been pioneers in the work of developing methods that aims at preserving the whole ecosystem and the whole range of important flow variables. Despite a lot of good science and a lot of commitment, the implementation process has been slow, though.

Waves of Environmental Flow have arrived at Port Elizabeth...

Jackie King from South Africa, who is one of the leading experts in the field, held one of the very first plenary talks, summing up her long and committed work for a more equitable water allocation between users, including the ecosystem. The South African water act only gives right of water to two users; the ecosystem, or in South African terms the Reserve, and for basic human consumptive use. Water can be allocated to other uses, like such as industry, irrigation and hydropower production only when those two needs are fulfilled. Many of the South African rivers are over- allocated or on the brink of being over- allocated. Jackie recognised the fact that actual implementation of the results from Environmental Flow Assessments has been too slow, but also stated that due to the fact that the law has changed on who has the right to water, the hand out of permits to take out any more water has stopped or slowed down substantially. This “stop loss” of water from the system is one important step in re-allocation.

Before the meeting there was a pre-workshop on the “nuts and bolts” of flow re-allocation, with the question of what is the most effective way to re-allocate water. The way to re-allocate water is predominantly done either through regulation, cooperation between users, or through market based approaches with water being sold on a market. This is a very interesting discussion that is likely to go on for some time. Many countries are now looking at a more market based approach to buy up water for environmental use from those that holds the right to this water. In some cases, such as in the Columbia River Basin, in the US, this seems to have been quite successful. What works best in what situation is likely to be both country and site specific and dependant on pre-conditions in the basin though.

We, Anna and I, presented a paper on environmental flows and human well -being. This topic was highlighted in many talks as being a very important step forward, and it feels like we are within a very important debate on the topic of environmental flows. Jackie King mentioned in her talk that we do really need to start to look much more closely at the cost for many poor subsistence users when they losevital ecosystem services, such as availability of fresh water fish. There are also other aspects of human well being that are connected to rivers, including a spiritual connection to these systems. This was really shown by Professor Jay O’Keefe, who works with UNESCO-IHE to produce Environmental Flow Assesments for the Ganga River in India, a river with great spiritual value for many, many people. The Indian government was in the process of starting to build a dam in the head waters that would affect the main stem of the river. One of the freshwater ecologists, who works within that project, and is also a devout Hindu, has been fasting for a long time in protest of those plans to the point where he was so weak he could no longer travel around or work. On Tuesday Professor O’Keefe showed an e-mail he had got from the project that the Indian government has, at least for the moment, stopped the plans for the dam.

The conference has been very good so far, and also very intensive, so this is just a first report of what is going on here. When we get back home, we will try to write up a more comprehensive report on what is gong on in the world of environmental flow allocations.

by Birgitta Renöfält & Anna Forslund,
Cluster Group Leaders for The Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative
 

“Worldwatch has gathered the best thinking from 47 experts to answer the following question: How do we keep climate change at manageable levels and how do we adapt to what is coming our way, no matter how successful we are in reducing future greenhouse gas emissions?”

It is definitely worth checking out. The different chapters can be downloaded separately here:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5658

by Ingrid Stangberg
-Ingrid is an assistant for the World Water Week team at SIWI.

av Ann-Mari Karlsson, Water and Rights klustergruppledare

by Ann-Mari Karlsson, Water and Rights cluster group leader

Det har väl knappats undgått någon att det är i år som världen ska enas om ett nytt klimatavtal. Förhoppningen är att avtalet ska bli tillräckligt kraftfullt för att undvika de värsta klimatkatastroferna. Förhandlingarna är sedan länge i full gång även om Klimatkonventionens femtonde partsmöte inte hålls förrän i december. Frågan är bara vad detta Köpenhamnsmöte verkligen kommer att uppnå. Det finns mycket som spelar in.  
 

Finanskrisen skapar nya utmaningar

Den globala ekonomiska krisen sätter retoriken om att med kraft möta klimathotet och om hållbar utveckling på hårda prov; Vågar våra politiker besluta om åtgärder som svider ekonomisk på kort sikt men som på lite längre sikt är helt nödvändiga? Är vi själva beredda att ta följderna av dessa beslut? Hur ska näringslivet klara att stå fast vid CSR-koder och miljöstrategier när kraven på lönsamhet dras åt? Slutligen, är vi verkligen beredda att innefatta också de mest utsatta människorna i de åtgärder som krävs för att möta klimatförändringen? Och hur ska det i så fall gå till?

Ingen tillit

En annan stötesten för klimatförhandlingarna är den förtroendekris som finns mellan rika och fattiga länder. Alltför ofta har löften om åtgärder och resursöverföring stannat vid avtalet på pappret. Monterreymötet 2002 och 0.7 procentmålet är bara ett exempel. Ett kraftfullt avtal där alla parter deltar kan bara komma till stånd om förtroendegapet mellan rika och fattiga länder minskas men det förutsätter också att eliten i utvecklingsländerna är beredda att ompröva privilegier och att bidra med sina resurser.  
 

Ansträngningar för klimat

Under året hålls en rad globala möten utanför själva klimatförhandlingsagendan som kan bli viktiga hållpunkter för inspel inför Köpenhamn. Först i raden av dessa möten kommer World Water Forum i Istanbul i Mars, vars arrangörer hoppas på en politisk deklaration som kan driva på en tydlig plats för vattenfrågorna i klimatförhandlingarna. CSD 17 i New York i maj har jordbruksfrågor som huvudtema och är en utmärkt avsats för att öka medvetenheten om att om att effektiv vattenanvändning i hela värdekedjan – inte minst i konsumtion av virtuellt vatten – är en avgörande anpassningsåtgärd mot vattenbrist. I augusti hålls vår egen World Water Week, då Sverige nyligen har tagit över ordförandeklubban i EU och slutspurten mot Köpenhamn har inletts på allvar. 
 

Förutom teknik och forskning krävs något mer – en stark vilja att enas bortom trånga nationella och ekonomiska intressen och ett stort politiskt mod. Det krävs en etisk grundbult och en tydlig kompassriktning för vad vi vill åstadkomma och varför. Och det krävs att alla bidrar utifrån sin egen bärkraft och inflytelsesfär.
 

Hopp 

Därför var vi många som i en tid av global ekonomisk oro och svåra konflikter hälsade Barack Obamas presidenttillträde med stor glädje. Inte för att vi har illusioner om att allt nu ska bli annorlunda, eller att USA skulle ha fått en ”europeisk” president. Den viktiga brytpunkten mellan gammalt och nytt vid maktskiftet i Washington innebär att världens mest inflytelserika president nu är en person som tydligt vill styra utifrån grundläggande värderingar om allas lika rätt och värde och med sikte mot dialog och samförstånd.  En regim, som med ord lånade från Obamas installationstal, ”har valt hopp framför rädsla, ett enat syfte framför konflikt och oenighet”. 

 change... yes we can?

Om Köpenhamnsmötet ska lyckas beror på om vi vill se nya möjligheter i utmaningen – och om vi väljer att låta den ekonomiska krisen bana väg för nya strategier och tankebanor – eller om vi väljer att falla tillbaka till en förlegad syn på tillväxt och trygghet, och därmed backar tillbaka i en återvändsgränd. Medborgarrättskämpen Martin Luther King sa i ett av sina berömda tal apropå kampen för jämställdhet mellan människor av olika hudfärg att det värsta inte är de onda människornas ondska, utan de goda människornas tystnad.  I år och kommande år behövs draghjälp av alla människor med god vilja. År 2009 har inletts i hopp – och i förtvivlan. Nu är det dags att kavla upp ärmarna och se till att retoriken om hållbar utveckling omsätts i modiga beslut och kraftfull handling.
 

 av Karin Lexén, Director, Swedish Water House

It’s hard to miss the fact that the world is likely to see a new treaty on climate change emerge from the fifteenth conference of parties of the Climate Convention in Copenhagen this December. Considering the negotiations have been underway for some time now, hopes are high that the treaty will be strong enough to have a real impact. Several factors now seem to be in play.
 

Less money, more problems

The global economic crisis puts the rhetoric about climate and sustainable development to the test. Do our politicians dare to decide on measures with harsh, short term economic consequences, but that are necessary on the long term? Are we prepared ourselves for the consequences of these decisions? How will business manage to stick to codes of Corporate Social Responsibility and environmental strategies as the need for profitability gets more urgent? Finally, are we really prepared to include the most vulnerable people in the measures needed to meet the effects of climate change? If we are, how will we do that?

No trust

A successful treaty most somehow overcome the serious crisis of trust between rich and poor nations. Too often, commitments and promises about resource allocation have remained only words on paper. The Monterrey meeting with the 0.7-goal is just one example. Both rich and poor countries must work at closing the confidence gap between them for the treaty to engage all stakeholders. In some case, the elite in developing countries will need to reconsider their privileges and contribute resources of their own.
 

Efforts for the climate

During the year, a range of global meetings will happen outside the climate change agenda. These can be important checkpoints for preparing messages for work in Copenhagen. The first of these meetings is the World Water Forum in Istanbul in March, whose organisers are hoping for a political declaration firmly putting water issues on the climate negotiation agenda. CSD-17 in New York in May has agriculture as its main theme and is a perfect stepping stone for increasing awareness that efficient water use in the entire chain field to fork – not least in the consumption of virtual water- is a crucial adaptation measure in water poor regions. In August, our own World Water Week takes place with Sweden as the new chair of the EU and when the run-up to Copenhagen has begun for real.

Apart from technique and research, something more is needed: the political will to see and move beyond national and economic interests. Everyone needs to agree on the ethical grounding for what we want to achieve and why.  This will require everyone to contribute based on their own strength and areas of influence. 
 

Hope

Even caught in a time of global economic unrest and difficult conflicts, many of us greeted Barack Obama’s presidential accession with great joy. Not that we have illusions about everything changing suddenly, or that the USA has a more “European” president. The most important breaking point between old and new in Washington is that the most powerful leader in the world is now someone who clearly sees real global leadership as something founded on equal rights, dialogue and common humanity. Obama summed it up in his inauguration speech when he declared that his nation has “chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord”.
 

 change...yes we can?

Whether the Copenhagen meeting will succeed or not depends on if we want to see new possibilities in this challenge - and if we choose to let the economic crisis pave the way to new strategies and ways of thinking – or if we choose to return to an outdated view of growth and safety, and thereby step into a dead-end. The civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said in one of his famous speeches about equality between people of different colour that worse than the evil deeds of the wicked people, is the appalling silence of the good people. This year and coming years, the driving force of all people with good will is needed. The year 2009 has started in hope – and in despair.

Now it is time to role up the sleeves and make sure that the rhetoric about sustainable development is translated into brave decisions that make a real impact on real lives.

by Karin Lexén, Director, Swedish Water House