News Update Sep 2005.pmd - International Commission on ...

2 ICID <strong>News</strong> <strong>Update</strong> <strong>Sep</strong>tember 2005been presented during Beijing Congress(2005).Vice President Hon.Peter S. Lee visitsCentral OfficeOn 23 August 2005, Vice PresidentHon. Peter S. Lee visited the CentralOffice and had meeting with SecretaryGeneral Er. M. Gopalakrishnan. Healso held discussions with otherprofessionals at ICID Central Office.Several issues such as budget of ICID,options to balance revenue andexpenditure in the emerging scenarioin future, National Committees inarrears of annual subscription, etc.were discussed. Inter-alia, the scopefor ICID’s input for the World WaterForum-4 to be held in Mexico in March2006 also came up for a review.Workshop onCapacity Building :Design andImplementation ofCapacityDevelopmentStrategiesThe third in the series of workshops oncapacity development in irrigation anddrainage was held in Beijing during the19 th ICID Congress. This workshop wasbased on the outcomes of previousevents in Montpellier (2003) andMoscow (2004) which established thebasic framework of capacitydevelopment and discussedapproaches to capacity needsassessment. The workshop in Beijingfocused on the design andimplementation of capacitydevelopment strategies and had thefollowing objectives :• First, to present a generaloverview on how capacitydevelopment activities are beingpractised in developingcountries, including stepsfollowed when deciding to investin capacity developmentprogrammes and how totranslate the theory into practicalterms and concrete actions.• Second, to provide someguidance for successfullyengaging in the process ofdesigning and implementing, acapacity development strategy,presenting some real casestudies from developingcountries, and• Third, to provide a platform forfurther collaboration andnetworking in the field of capacitydevelopment for agriculturalwater management. Inparticular, it will considerlinkages to the cross-cuttingtheme Capacity-Building andSocial Learning for the 4th WorldWater Forum.The workshop discussed keynotepapers, deliberating on the conceptsand key issues, and followed by aseries of country case studiesreflecting real examples of design and/or implementation. The workshopconcluded with associated plenarydiscussions, from which someguidelines or guiding principles for thedesign and implementation of capacitydevelopment strategies are likely toemerge.For further information, please contact:Prof. Tom Franks, Chairman, WG-CBTE (tom.franks@btinternet.com).GWP CEE – NewwebsiteGWP CEE (Global Water Partnership:Central and Eastern Europe) haslaunched a new website that representsan important step in GWP CEE effortsto promote IWRM principles in CEEcountries. Website is atwww.gwpcee.com.BPW Award (Triennial)The Best Performing WorkbodyAward (BPWA) was instituted in2003 during 54 th IEC in Montpellier(France) to recognize theperformance of workbodies betweenthe two Congresses. The first suchaward has been announced by thePanel of Judges constituted for thepurpose to Working Group onHistory of Irrigation, Drainage andFlood Control (WG-HIST). The awardwas presented during BeijingCongress (2005). We congratulatethe Chairman and Members of theWork Group.Kyoto World WaterGrand PrizeThe World Water Council, the city ofKyoto, Soroptimist <strong>International</strong> ofKyoto and the 4 th World Water Forumare pleased to invite individuals andorganizations to submit theircandidatures for the first Kyoto WorldWater Grand Prize.An award of JPY 500,000 (orapproximately US$ 45000) will be givento the winning individual or organizationwhose grassroot-level activitiesaddress critical water needs ofcommunities and regions,corresponding to the overall theme ofthe 4 th World Water Forum, “LocalActions for a Global Challenge”.The application form is available throughthe Prize’s webpages :www.worldwatercouncil.org/kyoto_prize. Electronic submissionswill be accepted until October 31 st ,2005. E-mail :Kyoto_prize@worldwaterforum4.org.mx.2006 StockholmWater PrizeThe Stockholm Water Prize is presentedannually to an individual, institution ororganization for outstanding water-Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture • Water for Food and Rural Development

3 ICID <strong>News</strong> <strong>Update</strong> <strong>Sep</strong>tember 2005related activities. The activities can bewithin the fields of education andawareness raising, human andinternational relations, research, watermanagement or water-related aid anddevelopment activities in developingcountries.The Stockholm Water Prize enjoysRoyal Patronage and includes a US$150,000 award and a crystal Orreforssculpture. Nominations should be sentat the address : Stockholm WaterFoundation, SWP Secretary, C/o SIWI,Hantverkargattan 5, 11221 Stockholm,Sweden. Full guidelines are at theirwebsite (www.siwi.org). Additionalinformation or clarifications can berequestedfromswp.secretary@siwi.org.Advanced studies inWater ResourcesManagement andEngineeringA new program of advanced studies(postgraduate) in Water ResourcesManagement and Engineering has beenjointly organized by the laboratories“Hydrology and Land improvement(HYDRAM)” and “HydraulicConstructions (LCH)’ of the EPFL(Ecole Polytechnique Federale deLausanne) on the one hand and, on theother, by the Chair “Hydrology andWater Resources Management (IHW)”and the laboratory “Hydrulics,Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW); ofthe ETHZ (Ecole PolytechniqueFederale de Zurich). This program willbe developed in partnership with fiveEuropean universities; namelyInnsbruck (A), Liege (B), Munich (D),INP Grenoble (F), ENPC-Paris (F) aswell as the INRS-ETE-QuebecUniversity (CA). This Master ofAdvanced Studies (MAS) offers aspecialization in Hydrology or inHydraulic Schemes. It will be launchedin October 2005 for a two-year duration.Further information is available athttp://water-eng-mas.epfl.ch/Day-by-day, nations are growing moreinterested in sharing their ownexperiences and in finding out howeffective solutions have beenimplemented to solve differentchallenges regarding water issues.Therefore, the World Water Fora havebecome one of the most importantevents at the international level. As youmay know, the 4th World Water Forumwill be held in Mexico City, from March16th to 22nd, 2006. It is organized by theNational Water <strong>Commission</strong> of Mexicoand the World Water Council.The overarching theme of the 4th WorldWater Forum, “Local Actions for a GlobalChallenge”, was selected with theobjective of encouraging debate andinciting new initiatives to deal with thegreat challenges faced by local actors.The exchanges will be based on thepresentation of a large range of localexperiences and actions which havebeen carried out throughout the world.With the purpose of facilitating theorganization of the Forum, the worldhas been divided into five regions, andin each of these, regional meetings andlocal workshops are being carried out,which will help to identify and stimulatelocal actions. You will find moreinformation about the regional meetingsAfrica WaterJournalist NetworkThe Africa Water Journalist Networkhas been officially launched on 22March in Addis Ababa at the UnitedNations’ celebration of World WaterDay. It aims to become the mostdynamic site on this subject. Withoutaccess to clean water andbasic sanitation, Africa’s populationwill remain unhealthy anduneconomic. To become a memberplease click register atwww.africawaterjournalists.org.For more information, contactJames M. Dorsey atjmdorsey@africawaterjournalists.orgor Rupert Wright atrupertwright@africawaterjournalists.org.4 th World Water Forumand local workshops on the 4th Forumwebsite.The actions that you have implementedto face the great challenges identified inyour region will illustrate the variousconcrete solutions available, sharingthem with the world. You may also takepart in the analysis of how to duplicateyour actions or develop them at a greaterscale.We are all involved in water matters; it isa fact that we have participated insuccessful experiences andoutstanding actions that we would liketo share throughout the globe. In thisperspective, 4 th WWF cordially invite youto register your actions by filling in theonline application. Successfulexperiences and actions must beregistered on the Forum website.Selected experiences and actions willbe distributed among the Forum’sparticipants and the mostrepresentative will be presented in topicsessionsor through posters during theForum. Organizations and institutionsinterested in being session convenerscan express their interest through theForum website. The 4th World WaterForum website: http://www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx.European SearchEngine of Scienceand TechnologyThe Scienceineurope.NET team invitesyou to visit their website atwww.scienceineurope.net, where youcould find interesting links to scienceand technology projects and institutionsall around Europe. Totally free,Scienceineurope.NET is the Europeansearch engine of science andtechnology links.Facts and Figuresabout Water in theArab States• More than 85% of the Arab Regionis classified as arid and hyper arid,Managing Water for Sustainable Agriculture • Water for Food and Rural Development