Corruption blamed for deaths in Jeddah flooding

After only a few hours of heavy rain last week, the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia was victim of severe floodings which resulted in over 100 deaths according to the official report and more 500 deaths according to Guardian writer Ali al-Ahmed. Corruption in the water system has resulted in many years of mismanagement of the city’s drainage and sewage systems, leaving some parts of the city without access to any such system. Following reports of the events, more than 11,000 users have joined a group on facebook to express their anger at the Saudi Arabian government. Click here to read Ali al-Ahmed’s story in the Guardian online for more details on the state of corruption in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s richets countries, and its impact on the country’s citizens.

Palestine: FoEME calls for replacement of “failed” Joint Water Committee (JWC)

EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) calls on the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to replace the failed Joint Water Committee (JWC) with a new joint water management structure. FoEME calls on the Quartet led by the new Administration of US President Barak Obama to focus on the dire Palestinian water economy as a matter of urgency and help the parties replace the JWC with a new institution that empowers both sides as equal partners.

The World Bank report “West Bank and Gaza : assessment of restrictions on Palestinian water sector development” reveals the extent to which water resources and sustainable development are being held hostage to the conflict.

“It is time to replace the failed mechanism of the Joint Water Committee, established under Oslo, with an institution where Palestinians and Israelis are true partners in both water supply and management responsibilities,” said Nader Khateeb, Palestinian Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East.

As earlier reports of FoEME detailed and the latest World Bank report highlighted, the Joint Water Committee has failed the interests of both peoples, not providing the water quantities needed to Palestinians and not protecting shared Israeli/Palestinian water resources from large scale pollution.

“The irony is that due to the water crises, following 5 consecutive years of [drought], pollution largely from Palestinian sources poses an ever increasing threat to the declining shared water reserves,” said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East. “A key problem with the JWC is that it has disempowered the Palestinians from being able to take responsibility for water management. The Palestinians receive so little of the shared water, that Israelis must ask themselves, what incentive do Palestinians have to protect shared water from pollution?” he added.

In 2008, FoEME released a Model Water Agreement that called for the replacement of the Joint Water Committee with a new body where equivalent powers and responsibilities would lie with both sides covering all shared water resources.

As the World Bank report highlights the present structure of the JWC gives virtual veto power just to the Israeli side on all shared water issues.

“After 15 years of JWC failure, the results have proven to be catastrophic. It’s urgent to free the water sector and water needs of both peoples from the conflict”, continued Nader Khateeb, FoEME Palestinian Director.

Source: FoME, 20 Apr 2009

Palestine: World Bank reports assesses restrictions on water development

A World Bank report blames Palestinian mismanagement and Israeli restrictions for severe water shortages in Palestinian areas. Palestinians get only a quarter of the water Israelis have access to. The existing problems effect not just daily supply but the development of water resources, water uses and wastewater management. ”Water related humanitarian crises are in fact chronic in Gaza and parts of the West Bank,” says the report.

For their water Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are completely dependant on scarce resources controlled by Israel. This has led to “systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources”, says the report, despite the joint governance rules and water allocations established under the 1995 Oslo interim agreement.  

But the Palestinian Authority (PA) too gets part of the blame. It is struggling to establish even a basic water infrastructure and management, concludes the report.

[...]  Israeli officials said the report was “grossly misleading” as Israel has a much more developed industrial sector which could skew the assessment. But in Gaza 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water at all, a report in the Palestine Telegraph says.

According to the local utility provider, several wells have been destroyed during the Israeli offensive earlier this year. Since then only three out of 80 trucks with spare parts and pipes for the water system have been allowed to enter Gaza. As a result the severe damages to two wastewater treatment plants could not be repaired and continue to affect water quality.

Read the full World Bank report “West Bank and Gaza : assessment of restrictions on Palestinian water sector development : sector note“, April 2009. 154 p.

Source: BBC news, 20 Apr 2009 ; World Bank, 20 Apr 2009

Yemen: Water Sector Support Project

The World Bank has approved a US$90 million IDA Grant for the Water Sector Support Project for Yemen. The project aims to support the the Government of Yemen’s implementation of the National Water Sector Strategy and Investment Program (NWSSIP) to: (i) strengthen institutions for sustainable water resources management; (ii) improve community-based water resource management; (iii) increase access to water supply and sanitation services; (iv) increase returns to water use in agriculture; and (v) stabilize and reduce groundwater abstraction for agricultural use in critical water basins.

For more information on this project go here

Source: World Bank, 24 Feb 2009

Yemen: Reforming the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation (UWSS) Sector

Gerhager, B. and Sahooly, A. (2009). Reforming the urban water supply and sanitation (UWSS) sector in Yemen. International journal of water resources development ; vol. 25, no. 1 ; p. 29-46. DOI: 10.1080/07900620802573668

Abstract
In the early 1990s, Yemen suffered from low service coverage and national tariffs that were too low to cover public expenditure, as well as an inadequate level of service provided by the centralized National Water and Sanitation Authority. In 1996, a reform study recommended that the UWSS sector should embrace a policy of decentralization, corporatization, commercialization, the separation of service delivery and regulatory functions, as well as public-private partnerships. The government approved this reform agenda as a Council of Ministers Decree in 1997. Awareness campaigns and consensus-building among stakeholders and political leaders and local demand supported the reform process. Currently, 95% of the total urban population related to utility towns is attended by independent utilities.

Contact: Team Leader: Eng. Anwer Sahooly, Technical Secretariat (TS)/ Reform of the Institutional Framework in the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector, Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), tel.: +967-1-425342/3,
mobile: +967-733212820, techsec [at] y.net.ye

Web site:  Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation – Water Sector Program

Iraq, Babil: corruption blamed for cholera outbreak

A deadly outbreak of cholera in [ in Babil province], Iraq is being blamed on a scandal involving corrupt officials who failed to sterilise the local drinking water because they were bribed to buy chlorine from Iran that was long past its expiration date.

[...] The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has appointed a commission of inquiry to find out why ineffective chlorine was being used. He is also refusing to release three officials [from the Badr Organisation, the militia wing of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI)] under arrest despite demands from the ISCI. In the town of al-Madhatiya, in southern Babil, a councillor involved in buying the chlorine was reportedly released after militiamen connected to ISCI intimidated police into freeing him.

The scandal over the contract is becoming a test case of the Maliki government’s willingness to tackle the pervasive corruption in Iraq [and its] ability to exercise central control over ISCI and parties which have been hitherto dominant outside Baghdad.

[...] An Iraqi government official, who did not want his name published, said the Health Ministry bought $11m (£6.4m) worth of chlorine from Iran for use in the provinces of Babil, Diwaniyah and Kerbala. [...] In the latter two provinces, officials noticed that the chlorine was old [...] and refused to use it. But in Babil the chlorine was put in the fresh water supply stations at al-Madhatiyah, al-Hashimiyah and al-Qasim, south-east of the provincial capital, al-Hillah. Soon 222 people were confirmed as having cholera in Babil, in a total of 420 cases of whom seven have died.

For updates of cholera in Iraq go the WHO web site

Source: Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 10 Oct 2008

First Arab Water Forum held in Riyadh, 16-19 November 2008

The 1st Arab Water Forum (AWF) was held at the King Fahd Cultural Centre in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in conjunction with two other big events: the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments, and the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. The Arab Water Council (AWC) is set to organize Arab Water Forums (AWF) every three years prior to the World Water Forums to become the most important inclusive water-related event at the regional level. The objective of the AWFs is to mobilize all water stakeholders in the region, to identify priorities of water-related issues and define solutions that can successfully address regional and country specific water challenges.

The AWF comes only four months before the 5th World Water Forum (WWF5) that will be held in Istanbul on 16-22 March 2009 with the main theme “Bridging Divides for Water”. Hence, the AWF focussed on presenting and discussing the progress of the MENA/Arab Region’s preparatory processes towards the WWF5, for which the AWC acts as the regional coordinator.

The preparatory documents of 1st AWF are available on the Arab Water Council web site [please note that many of the links were broken on 22 Dec 2008].

The Water Demand Initiative for the Middle East and North Africa (WaDImena) presented progress and findings of its applied research and pilot projects at the AWF. See a list of presentations below:

• Water Governance in MENA Region InWent experience
• GICs in Tunisia – by A BelHassan
• Greywater reuse in Jordan – by N AlHmoud
• Greywater reuse in Lebanon – by Ghogassian
• Saline water use in Morocco – by M Chati
• Wastewater reuse in Palestine – by M AbuMadi
• Bridging divides bet rich & poor – by H Laamrani S AbdDayem K AbuZeid M Hefny
• Challenges of WDM in MENA – by H Laamrani
• Inwent experience in MENA – by V Detlef
• Theme 4 Governance and Management – by H Laamrani
• WDM Tunisian experience – A Hamdane
• WDM in Jordan

Source: IDRC, 27 Nov 2008

Yemen: Updating the National Water Sector Strategy and Investment Plan (NWSSIP)

Key decision-makers from Yemeni ministries and water sector organisations as well as donors met in Taiz from 24-26 August 2008 to discuss the draft NWSSIP update prepared by sub-sector groups on Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (UWSS and RWSS), Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Irrigation and Institutional Development.

Regarding, IWRM it became clear that the decentralisation of water management needs to be speeded up. National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) branches need to be established and developed and Water User Associations (WUA) empowered. It was decided to address cross-cutting issues such as gender and conflict sensitivity also. Acknowledgement and registration of water rights was seen as an important precondition for an equitable rural-urban water transfer.

The Urban Water Supply and Sanitation (UWSS) discussion focused on how to involve the private sector to increase coverage and reduce operational costs.

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), the sector with the highest absorptive capacity, is challenged by sector coordination and planning processes. It was decided that a rural water strategy as well as clear coverage figures should be incorporated into the NWSSIP update.

[...]

It was concluded that institutional assessments need to be made in all the water sector organisations in order to identify capacity development needs.

Germany is one of the donors supporting Yemen’s water sector.

The Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation – Water Sector Program is now entering the final year of its first phase (ending in June 2009). Recently GTZ Head Office carried out an Program Progress Review (PPR) and Independent Evaluation (IE) to assess the performance of the program in terms: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact. In addition, harmonisation and alignment were assessed, and challenges and recommendations for the up-coming Phase II of the Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation – Water Sector Program, scheduled to start in July 2009, were highlighted.

“The program is on track and performing well. It is very likely that the objectives will be achieved,” the missions stated. [...] Water sector reform, decentralisation of urban water supply and sanitation – including targeting the poor through special tariffs and connection fees – and decentralisation of the National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) via regional NWRA branches and water basin committees are just some of the concrete outcomes of the program’s work.

Challenges still remain with regard to knowledge transfer to the Ministry of Water and Environment. In addition, gender issues will need more attention in future.

Source: Yemeni-German Water Sector Program, Aug 2008

The GTZ Yemeni-German Water Sector Program and the Swiss Video-lab Jetzt.bewegte bilder have produced an animated awareness video on water scarcity for Yemen’s National Water Resources Authority (NWRA). NWRA came up with Rowyan – an cheery animated raindrop to promote public awareness seen in this clip. He also has a wife called Rowyana with curling eyelashes, handbag and full-length black robe.

Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Meeting on Water, 29 Oct 2008, Dead Sea, Jordan

Following the proposal of the conference of the water directors of the Euro-Mediterranean and Southeastern European countries, Bled (Slovenia), in December 2007, the Ministerial Conference organised under the French Presidency of the European Union and the Euro Mediterranean Partnership aims to prepare a long-term strategy on water in the region. A day dedicated to civil society will be held on the eve of the ministerial conference (28 October 2008).

The four key themes are:

• Effective Water Governance
• Water and Climate Change Adaptation
• Water Financing, and
• Water Demand Management.

For more information go to the conference web site.