Obregon, R. … [et al.] (2008). Communication, water, and sanitation in Latin America : the contribution of communication for development in water resource management and service implementation projects. Washington, DC, USA, Water and Sanitation Program. 32 p.
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This report summarizes the results of a study on the role played by communication for development (CfD) in water and sanitation projects and programs in Latin America based on a review of 39 case studies and on documented experiences in this field. The 39 cases correspond to different types of intervention and levels: local community, national, institutional and regional levels, 72% of which are from Latin America. The report centred on three study categories regarded as critical to the strengthening of CfD in the water and sanitation sector:

• types of intervention and communication strategies employed
• experiences based on the achievement of results and measurable goals, with an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation processes, and
• the added value of CfD in sector interventions.

US consumer and anti-water privatisation activist group, Food & Water Watch, has released a new brief on water multinational Biwater in its corporate profile series. This brief details the “failures” of Biwater’s global activity, giving particular reference to the recent Initial Public Offering (IPO) of their Cascal subsidiary. It provides a summary of Biwater’s canceled contracts (including the Dar es Salaam contract, Tanzania), challenges to existing contracts (e.g. Nelpsruit, South Africa) and the numerous withdrawal and rejection of project proposals (Philippines, Ghana, Ecuadaor etc.).

Other corporate profiles of water multinationals are available for:

American Water
Suez
Veolia
Bechtel
American International Group
Saur

The Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), UK, maintains a database of companies involved in the private provision of public services, focusing on multinationals and their subsidiaries in water, energy, waste management, and healthcare.  Some of the information in the database is available to the general public. Full access is normally only available to trade unions affiliated to Public Services International (PSI).

Rees, J.A., Winpenny, J. and Hall, A.W (2008). Water financing and governance. (TEC background papers ; no. 12). Stockholm, Sweden, Global Water Partnership. 56 p.
ISBN: 978-91-58321-70-4
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Traditionally, within the water sector, financing issues have not had a high profile and are mostly related to supply side investments. This is no longer sufficient as population growth, urbanisation, greater wellbeing and a higher quality of life puts the world’s fragile water resources under increasing stress. With the added threat from climate change the situation is set to deteriorate even more.

Supply side issues and the financial architecture for providing essential domestic services was addressed by the Camdessus Report in 2003 and the issue of demand management was covered by the Gurria report in 2006. These two landmark papers have prompted a wealth of interest in water financing. However, this has mainly focused on service provision and there is very little that covers the issues of financing for the overarching water resource management and governance systems that are critical for all users and for environmental protection.

Many commentators have stressed that financial needs will not be met without major reforms in water governance. By improving water governance the enabling environment for investment will improve as risks, commercial and political, will be better understood and addressed.

Over the last fifteen years an integrated approach to water resources management (IWRM) has evolved as the means to manage water more holistically and sustainably, and overcome the fragmented decision making and purely supply side approach common to the past uses and abuses of water resources.

There is a very close link between the integrated approach, good water governance and financing but, to date, there has been little discussion about this relationship. This paper aims to bring together these different strands so that a more coordinated, coherent approach to water financing is adopted. It focuses on the need to fund the water resources functions that are essential for security and sustainability and to examine the relationship between the different governance and organisational structures in the sector and their ability to secure funding for essential goods and services.

Water and wastewater utilities now have access to a new package of tools designed by their peers in six collaborating associations and the US Environmental Protection Agency to advance effective management practices to achieve long-term sustainability.

As recently announced by the Effective Utility Management coalition, which includes AWWA, the package of tools includes the downloadable Effective Utility Management Primer for Water and Wastewater Utilities. The free primer aims to help water and wastewater utility managers make practical, systematic changes to achieve excellence in utility performance.

The primer details five phases for improving utility management - from assessing current conditions, ranking the importance, graphing results, and choosing attributes through developing and implementing an improvement plan.

The document distills the expertise and experience of participating utility leaders into a framework intended to help other managers “identify and address their most pressing needs through a customized, incremental approach that is relevant to the day-to-day challenges utilities face.”

It also reiterates the 10 attributes of effectively managed water utilities and five keys to management success first identified last year in a report released by the group, which also produced a series of suggested performance measures that allow a utility to establish a baseline against which to measure its progress.

The coalition also launched a new Web site that serves as a hub for accessing relevant resources available from each organization.

Other coalition members include the American Public Works Association, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, National Association of Water Companies, Water Environment Federation, and USEPA, which has made better utility management a major focus.

Source: AWWA, 1 Jul 2008

Research and Analysis Working Group (2008). Tanzanian children’s perceptions of education and their role in society : views of the children 2007. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Research and Analysis Working Group (REPOA) and MKUKUTA Monitoring System, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. ix, 41 p.
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This study is the result of participatory research with children, a developing field of research in Tanzania, and in many other African countries. The research methodology is explained in chapter 2 and the annex of the report.

The survey involved 512 children aged from 7 to 14 years from ten regions in Mainland Tanzania.

As the ‘consumers’ of education, children provide useful information for those working for and with children - from policy makers to teachers. This report contains their opinions on a range of issues relating to education, such as school services (including healthcare, water supply and food), textbooks, performance by teachers, discipline, extra charges, and their desired improvements to education.

Researchers also asked for their opinions on their social and economic contributions to their families and communities, their desire for and access to information, formal and informal ways they are listened to, and their aspirations for the future.

Children were well aware of the contradiction between a curriculum that teaches the importance of clean water and good nutrition and what they actually receive at school.

Hoekstra, A.Y. (2008). Towards water neutrality : reducing and offsetting the impacts of water footprints. (Value of water research report series ; no. 28). Delft, The Netherlands, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.  36 p.

The report can be downloaded from the Water Footprint web site

During the past few years the concept of the ‘water footprint’ has started to receive recognition as a useful indicator of direct and indirect water use. The increased interest in the water footprint has prompted the question about what consumers and businesses can do to reduce their water footprint.

This report introduces the idea of ‘water neutrality’.

‘Water neutral’ means that one reduces the water footprint of an activity as much as reasonably possible and offsets the negative externalities of the remaining water footprint. Compensation can be done by investing in a more sustainable and equitable use of water in the hydrological units in which the impacts of the remaining water footprint are located.

The report critically discusses strengths and weaknesses of the water-neutral concept. The main conclusion is that, despite the possible pitfalls and yet unanswered questions, the water-neutral concept offers a useful tool to bring stakeholders in water management together in order to discuss water footprint reduction targets and mechanisms to offset the environmental and social impacts of residual water footprints. However, the concept can become really effective in actually contributing to wise management of the globe’s water resources only when clear definitions and guidelines will be developed. There will be a need for scientific rigour in accounting methods and for clear (negotiated) guidelines on the conditions that have to be met before one can speak about water neutrality.

Undoubtedly there will be a great market for water-neutrality and water-offsetting, but without agreed definitions and guidelines the term water neutral is most likely to end up as a catchword for raising funds for charity projects in the water sector. In that context, the term can also fulfil a useful function, but it would be ‘water neutrality’ in its weakest form. It will become a strong concept only when claims towards water-neutrality can be measured against clear standards.

Transparency International and Water Integrity Network (2008). Global corruption report 2008: corruption in the water sector. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. xxix, 367 p. ISBN 978-0-521-72795-2
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Also available in Spanish and French
Information on ordering hardcopies is available here

In its thematic section, the report demonstrates that corruption is a cause and catalyst for the global water crisis which is likely to be further exacerbated by climate change. Corruption affects all aspects of the water sector from water resources management to drinking water services, irrigation and hydropower. Scholars and professionals document the impact of corruption in the sector with case studies from all around the world and offer practical suggestions for reform. The second part of the Report provides a snapshot of corruption-related developments in 35 countries from all world regions. The third part presents summaries of corruption-related research, highlighting innovative methodologies and new empirical findings that help to better understand the dynamics of corruption and devise more effective anti-corruption strategies.

Executive summary

Contents of Part one: Corruption in the water sector

1 Introducing water and corruption

• Water and corruption: a destructive partnership / Janelle Plummer
• Corruption in water: a matter of life and death / Charles Kenny

2 Water resources management

• Corruption and water resources management: threats to quality,equitable access and environmental sustainability / Kristen Lewis and Roberto Lenton
• Climate change: raising the stakes for cleaning up corruption in water governance / Transparency International
• Can integrated water resources management prevent corruption? / John Butterworth
• Afghanistan’s upstream powers, downstream woes / Drewery Dyke
• Corruption fuels housing boom and water stress along Spain’s coast / Enriqueta Abad
• Corruption without borders: the challenges of transboundary water management / Transparency International

3 Water and sanitation

• Water for the poor: corruption in water supply and sanitation / Muhammad Sohail and Sue Cavill
• Corruption in urban water use by the poor / Bernard Collignon
• Building water integrity: private water operators’ perspective / Jack Moss
• Water corruption in industrialised countries: not so petty? / Per Ljung
• The public and private faces of corruption in water / Transparency International
• Pipe manufacturers in Colombia and Argentina take the anti-corruption pledge / Virginia Lencina, Lucila Polzinetti and Alma Rocío Balcázar
• Clearing muddied waters: groups in India fight corruption with information / Venkatesh Nayak

4 Water for food

• Water for food: corruption in irrigation systems / Frank R. Rijsberman
• Power, bribery and fairness in Pakistan’s canal irrigation systems / Jean-Daniel Rinaudo
• Questionable irrigation deals ignore plight of Filipino farmers / Sonny Africa
• Sealing water aid against corruption: donor interventions, donor responsibilities / Grit Martinez and Kathleen Shordt

5 Water for energy

• Water for energy: corruption in the hydropower sector / Lawrence Haas
• Hydropower corruption and the politics of resettlement / Thayer Scudder
• The disappearance of homes and money: the case of the Three Gorges Dam / Gørild M. Heggelund
• Industry view: public-private hydropower - minimising the corruption risks / Kathy Shandling and Reinier Lock
• Grand projects - grand corruption? / Peter Bosshard and Nicholas Hildyard

6 Conclusions

• Fighting corruption in water: strategies, tools and ways forward / Donal T. O’Leary and Patrik Stålgren

CASCWUA is a new organisation of water utilities drawn initially from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. By forming this association, water utilities from Central Asia and South Caucasus are taking progressive action to tackle the widespread problems with inadequate drinking water and sanitation for the millions of poor people in the region.

The CASCWUA web page, maintained by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), provides information on the organisations activities, with a special focus on the Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) Program.

WaterSISWEB is a free social bookmarking web site for water resources professionals. It is part of the SISWEBS (Scientific Information Syndication WEBsiteS) family of websites.

Registered users can post links to water resources content on the web, and other registered users have the opportunity to vote for or against them to appear more or less prominently on WaterSISWEB. These users also have the opportunity to comment on posts, reply to comments, vote on comments, bookmark posted links for later references, and recommend posts to non-WaterSISWEB members.

While the main focus is on USA/Canada, there are regional categories for Africa and Asia.

The content of WaterSISWEB is similar to that of the UNESCO-sponsored SAHRA Global Water News Watch

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) has launched the WASH Case Studies Series which showcases the evolution, activities and impact of national WASH Coalitions. The first three case studies cover Ethiopia, Nepal and Madagascar. In Ethiopia, a strong WASH movement has dominated the awareness raising agenda in the country. In Nepal, media work has been at the forefront. And in Madagascar, the Diorano-WASH Coalition has become the main sector coordination body for hygiene and sanitation promotion. To download or read the case studies visit see the WSSCC list of publications.