EMWIS Flash n°68, March 2009

10- The Government of Japan, in partnership with the Palestinian Water Authority and the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People signed a US$6.2 million agreement on Monday, 16th March 2009, to launch the cross boundary wastewater management project. The project will include the construction of three wastewater collection systems in the Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqylia Governorates serving 16,500 persons, in addition to building the capacities of the service providers and the Palestinian Water Authority regarding waste management issues. This project will also bring new jobs to the Qalqylia, Jenin, and Tulkarem areas and create a platform for cross boundary cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli municipalities on environmental problems. Approximately 35% of the population of the West Bank has access to wastewater network collection systems and there are only three treatment plants located in the Ramallah, Jenin, and Tulkarem districts. Due to old existing collection systems, sewage leakage reaches up to 50% in the areas of Tulkarem and Qalqylia. Poor wastewater management and lack of infrastructure development are one of the leading causes for environmental pollution and degradation of natural resources in the West Bank. Further information on EMWIS website

11- Two years of drought has left many farmers and herders without any income and has severely limited cereal production in Syria, pushing up local food prices and putting pressure on basic food supplies, according to UN and Syrian government officials. In 2008, Syria had to import wheat for the first time after a shortage caused by a second year of drought, which, the Syrian government says, has affected about a million people so far. Emergency wheat stocks have been depleted though adequate supplies remain. Syria is usually self-sufficient in providing food for its 21.6 million population. UN agencies warn that the country could become more food insecure if rainfall over the next two months remains as low as it has been at the start of 2009. A drought appeal was launched by UN agencies in Syria in September 2008. A US$1.8 million emergency operation by the FAO identified 9,630 farmers to receive 300kg of wheat seeds or 150kg of barley seeds – enough for each farmer to plant a two-hectare crop. These were distributed in December and January. This effort will continue until May 2009. But if rainfall continues to be low, a new appeal will be launched. Further information on EMWIS website

12- On the occasion of 5th World Water Forum held in Istanbul, Libya has presented its gigantic project to extract water from deep desert to be able to reach the cities of the coast. It is installing nearly 4,000 km of pipes 4 meters in diameter to carry water pumped deep into the desert to the north coast of the country, where 6 million of inhabitants are living. Further information on EMWIS website

13- The German Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety, Mr. Sigmar Gabriel, was on a visit to Algeria where he met Secretary General of the Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Zidane Merah. The German minister has called for the establishment of a sustainable partnership with Algeria, believing in the fact that such cooperation can be achieved through training and transfer of know-how. According to the Algerian-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce - AHK, more than 200 German companies are actually operating in Algeria, many of which specialized in the field of hydraulics. Further information on EMWIS website

14- The French group Suez Environnement announced it won two new contracts in Algeria for a total of 133 million euros. The Wilaya of Algiers has allocated to Degremont (Suez Environnement's subsidiary) in partnership with the Chinese Civil Engineering "China Geo Constructon", the reconstruction and doubling the capacity of the Waste Water Treatment Plant of Baraki for a total of 108 million euros. The station will complete the wastewater treatment for 1.8 million residents of Algiers. In addition, the "Agence Nationale des Barrages and Transfers (ANBT)" chose Safege, engineering subsidiary of Suez Environnement for the project of water transfer "East System" and "West System" that will fuel the two regions by drinking water, for an amount of 25 million euros. Further information on EMWIS website.

15- Degrémont with two Italian civil engineering companies (CCC & CMR) has signed a contract with the Maltese Ministry of Finance, for the design and construction of the most important wastewater purification plant on the main island. The objective is the design, construction and one year of operational support for a treatment plant that, with a capacity of 500.000 population equivalents, will process 80% of Malta's wastewater, including the quantity generated by the summer tourist population. With a number of similar initiatives, Degrémont contributes to the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), for which pollution control is one of priorities. Degrémont Italy opened a wastewater treatment unit last year to serve Gozo, Malta's second island. In Lebanon,Degrémont is currently completing a purification plant for Tripoli's 1 million inhabitants in the north of the country. In Egypt, Degrémont has recently won the contract for the design and construction of a plant in East Alexandria. Further information on EMWIS website

16- The Spanish government has approved a US$80mn donation to Bolivia’s environment and water ministry for potable water and sewerage projects [and the construction of water intake systems], Bolivian government news agency ABI reported. [The package is part of a water and sanitation development plan that requires US$500mn]. Further information on EMWIS website

17- Dow Water Solutions has started the construction of its Water Technology Development Center at the Dow facilities in Tarragona , Spain . The centre, a key component of Dow Water Solutions growth objectives, will include capabilities for application development and component testing, and is designed to accelerate the commercialisation of Dow's water treatment technologies, which help to enable the production of clean drinking water from various water sources, including sea water. Further information on EMWIS website

18- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Water Association (IWA) signed an agreement at the Fifth World Water Forum [on 20 March 20009]   to work together to increase access to clean drinking water and sanitation throughout the Middle East and Africa by strengthening water utilities and their regional associations. This partnership focuses specifically on access to clean drinking water and sanitation for the urban poor, water safety and quality management, leadership gaps and climate change. USAID and IWA will work to strengthen water utilities and their regional associations, such as the Arab Countries Water Utility Association (ACWUA) and African Water Association (AfWA). Further information on EMWIS website

19- The European Commission sent a final written warning to Italy for non-compliance with EU legislation on urban waste water treatment. A list of 299 cities and towns that do not treat urban wastewater in line with European standards has been established. The main wastewater treatment provided by the directive is biological or "secondary." This infrastructure should have been put in service no later than 31 December 2000. Further information on EMWIS website

20- Bilingual website of AWIS (African Water Information System) / SADIeau (Système Africain d'Information sur l'Eau), an ACP-EU water facility funded project (2007-2010) that aims to interlink water resource centres in sub-Saharan Africa to enable information exchange via a web-interface. AWIS approach is inspired from the "Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector" (EMWIS). Partners in the consortium are: Réseau Africain des Organismes de Bassin (RAOB), Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS), Office International de l'Eau (OIEau) (France), Centre Régional pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement à faible coût (CREPA) (Burkina Faso), Programme Solidarité Eau (PSEau) (France), Water, Engineering and Development Center (WEDC) (UK). Most information is available only in French at the moment.The outputs of the project are not (yet) available on the web site. Further information on EMWIS website

21- A kit designed to treat household waste water for reuse could be one of the ways to tackle water scarcity in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa, according to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), based in Canada. The kit consists of two large PVC barrels about 1.2m high, each able to contain up to 200 litres of water, pipes and sand. Before reaching the barrels, the waste water goes through a separate filter where things like small bits of food are removed. The barrels are filled with sand; there is an anaerobic digestion of the organic matter when the water goes through the sand filter and becomes cleaner. Further information on EMWIS website

22- Via-marina is a young engineering and construction company developing the submariver® system for the transportation of fresh water in large quantities and over long distances by an underwater flexible pipeline. This innovative system was presented at the 5th World Water Forum last 20 March in Istanbul. Many water authorities around the Mediterranean are considering potential projects using this system for reliable trsnaportation of fresh water. Further information on EMWIS website

23- Can we tell if there are more or fewer droughts as a result of climate change? How does one compare the intensity, duration and spatial coverage of agricultural droughts in countries? These were some of the questions raised at the recent International Workshop on Drought and Extreme Temperatures, organized jointly by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), which pondered ways to cope with the unwelcome impact of droughts and extreme temperatures on agriculture and forestry. The problem is that there are at least 20 kinds of drought indices - numerical scales based on data such as rainfall and temperature - used to measure three types of droughts: meteorological, agricultural and hydrological. Many times, appropriate indices are not used, as there are no standards or guidelines for the use of drought indices. The workshop has asked the WMO to develop standards for agricultural drought indices. Further information on EMWIS website

24- Since large-scale desalination started, the question of how to dispose of the reject material produced by the process has occupied the minds of engineers and economists. The quantity of brine discharged from desalination plants is increasing, and this trend will be maintained for the near future. The minerals extracted must have a value, but how can this best be realised?  A recent paper presents the current state-of-the-art in brine disposal, updating a paper originally presented at the European Desalination Society's EuroMed conference in Jordan in November 2008. The methods outlined provide both the production of a byproduct and environmental protection by processing the outfall brine from desalination plants. Further information on EMWIS website

25- Climate change and increased greenhouse gases will raise the level of the Mediterranean Sea and ocean temperatures in this area, a Spanish-British research team has forecast. The scientists from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) and the National Oceanography Centre of Southampton in the UK analysed simulations based on three scenarios. Their aim is to predict the sea level, salinity and temperature of the Mediterranean in the 21st century. The study's findings were recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans. The models used in the study comprised a series of socioeconomic scenarios capable of predicting what lies in store for the area. Concerning the salinity of the area, the models showed that the Mediterranean will become saltier. But the scientists said the forecast is not 100% accurate. Further information on EMWIS website

26- Akvo, an open-source water and sanitation web portal, is seeking partners and supporters to help provide its content in various languages. Akvo is targeting a large number of small drinking water and sanitation projects in developing countries to collect information about low-cost water and sanitation technologies there. It put them online on a website called akvopedia. Further information on EMWIS website

27- The project "European Analytical Quality Control in support of the water framework directive via the Water Information System for Europe" aims to support Member States implementing the WFD and designing water monitoring networks, the EAQC-WISE project was built with the ultimate objective to provide a BLUEPRINT of an efficient and potentially sustainable pan-European Quality Assurance / Quality Control (QA/QC) system in order to guarantee data reliability and comparability at river basin scale as well as at European scale. Further information on EMWIS website