Description
Book SynopsisThis title examines the role of privatization, technology and multi-sectoral partnerships to provide answers to one of the most pressing environmental and social problems of the twenty-first century how to provide access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation for some 2 billion of the world's poor in the next 15 years.
Trade Review...The Business of Water and Sustainable Development ... ranges over many issues such as smart metering, ecological sanitation in developing countries, demand management and water pricing. There are five parts: 1. General theory; 2. Privatization; 3. Technology and regionally focussed case studies; 4. on the rural environment; and 5. on the urban environment. The first part on theory discusses what is perhaps the most thorny issue relating to water: whether it is a good or a right. Should water be free? The answer the book provides is No stating that such a right would be worthless when the river runs dry. The five chapters under the part on privatization show no clear cut agreement for and against but conclude that the private sector has significant role to play and that the negative effects of private sector involvement need to be carefully managed. The part on technology has chapters on geothermal energy for desalination, dry sanitation options, water metering and water for isolated communities. Broken hand pumps litter South Africa because the local population cannot repair and maintain them. Sustainable technology means the local communities must be able to maintain equipment. Low tech solutions are just as important as high tech solutions. The part on case studies discusses how important it is to deal with social systems and agricultural reforms. For example, certain crop species in Mediterranean areas require too much water for irrigation and should not be subsidized. Reasonable access to basic safe water is defined by the World Health Organization as 20 litres of clean water per capita from a source within 1 km. of the person's home. The editors, Jonathan Chenoweth and Juliet Bird have attempted to show how meeting the Millennium Declaration of the UN General Assembly (2000) to halve the proportion of people with no access to safe drinking water can be met *
The Gallon Environment Letter Vol. 10 No. 17 (3 October 2005) *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Jonathan Chenoweth, University of Surrey, UK, and Juliet Bird, University of Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaPart 1: General theory1. Incorporating demand-side information into water utility operations and planning Steven Renzetti, Brock University, Canada2. The price of water: Separating the natural from the optimal in water supply – ensuring the broadest community access to safe water Daniel Terrill, ACIL Tasman, Australia3. Balancing the cost implications and benefits of compliance with advanced risk analysis Davide Bixio, Chris Thoeye and Greet De Gueldre, Aquafin NV, Belgium4. Environmental management with the balanced scorecard: A case study of the Berlin Water Company, Germany Carl-Ulrich Gminder, Institute for Economy and the Environment, SwitzerlandPart 2: Privatisation5. The private sector and service extensionDavid Lloyd Owen, Envisager, UK6. Private-sector participation in water and sanitation reviewed: Insights from new institutional economics Dieter Rothenberger and Bernhard Truffer, Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Switzerland7. Ownership and performance of water utilities Steven Renzetti and Diane Dupont, Brock University, Canada8. The involvement of the private sector in water servicing: Effects on the urban poor in the case of Aguascalientes, MexicoLeslie Morris, Consultant, Canada, and Luis Fernando Gallardo Cabrera, IMPLAN, Mexico9. Joint-use municipal–industrial infrastructure: An innovative approach to expanding urban water services in the developing world Jennifer Bremer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, and Steven Nebiker, Hydrologics Inc., USAPart 3: Technology 10. Autonomous water supply of a remote island community: The case of geothermal water desalination on Milos, Greece Thomas Nowak, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany11. Ecological sanitation: Reaching for the MDGs Mayling Simpson-Hebert, Catholic Relief Services, Regional Office, Kenya, Arno Rosemarin, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden, and Uno Winblad, Kyoto University, Japan12. A measured step toward sustainability for rural water supply: One metering strategy that works Eric Johnson, Aquasanitas, USA13. Sustainable water supply for a remote rural community in Mozambique: Oxfam Australia and the Chicomo Rural Development Project Elizabeth Mann, Oxfam Australia Part 4: Regionally focused case studies: Rural environments 14. Indigenous people, women and water: The importance of local knowledge for project planning in an African context Fenda A. Akiwumi, Texas State University, USA15. The commitment of the chlorine industry to sustainable societies: A partnership case study in Guatemala C.T. 'Kip' Howlett Jr, Chlorine Chemistry Council, USA16. Water-pricing policies and the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC: A first approach concerning the agricultural sector in the Axios River Basin Konstantinos Sarantakos and Elias Dimitriou, Institute of Inland Waters, Greece, and Areti Kontogianni and Michalis Skourtos, University of the Aegean, Greece17. Reducing water and sanitation backlogs in rural areas: Umgeni Water's response as an implementing agent within KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa David A. Stephen, Umgeni Water, South Africa Part 5: Regionally focused case studies: Urban environments18. The demand-side versus the supply-side approach: The case for sustainable management of water supply in developing countries Lingappan Venkatachalam, Institute for Social and Economic Change, India19. Water supply in Singapore: Challenges and choices Kim Chuan Goh, National Institute of Education, Singapore
