Introduction: Gender and Resilience
For the full table of contents for this and previous issues of this journal, please visit the Gender and Development website.
Reviving Lakes and Wetlands in the People's Republic of China, Volume 2, Lesson Learned on Integrated Water Pollution Control From Chao Lake Basin
Since the mid-1990s, the water quality of Chao Lake in Anhui Province in the floodplain of the Yangtze River has been steadily deteriorating. In 1996, the central government identified Chao Lake as one of the top three priority lakes in the country for environmental rehabilitation. It is among the five largest freshwater lakes in the country. The Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have provided large amounts of resources to control municipal and industrial pollution in the lake catchment. These investments have improved water quality, but they have not addressed all dimensions of the problem with the lake’s persistently poor water quality.
This case study on Chao Lake contributes to ADB’s body of knowledge on the success factors for reviving lakes and wetlands in the PRC. Expensive water cleanup programs across the PRC are not leading to substantial improvements in overall water quality. Rapid, unrestrained economic growth has led to dramatic ecological changes. Based on comparative case study work, ADB has identified four success factors to rehabilitating lakes and wetlands in the PRC: strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, effective management structures, and effective financial management.
Rising to the growing challenge of improving Chao Lake’s water quality, the Anhui Provincial Government (APG) has initiated the most progressive reforms in lake management in the PRC. Reform, especially through integrated water resources management, is a long-term process and one the APG has only just begun. Although the APG has adopted many success factors from national experiences, it has not yet implemented them comprehensively. The ADB-supported Anhui Chao Lake Environmental Rehabilitation Project, which was approved in 2012, supports the strengthening of the Chao Lake Master Plan and the Chao Lake Management Authority (CLMA) by introducing even more integrated approaches, continuing strides made in municipal wastewater treatment, and making new investments in nonpoint source (NPS) pollution control. The project will include a $3 million pilot to test various technologies, financing, and institutional innovations
An agenda for change : achieving universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) by 2030 : principles paper
Legionella pneumophila
Legionella is a Gram negative pathogen bacterium in the species of L. pneumophila that causes legionellosis or Legionnaires’ disease. The name originates from the American Legion convention in Philadelphia, USA, where the outbreak first happened in 1976.
In Indonesia, it was first found in Bali in 1996. Almost all reported cases in Indonesia originates from Bali (one report was from Tangerang in 1999). This is intelligible since the bacteria are mostly found in hotels and Bali, as the center of tourism, has more than 2000 of them. Another significant place where this bacteria grow is in hospitals. Buildings that have cooling towers, humidifiers, decorative fountains, spas, and other aquatic environments are also the source of legionella.
Legionnaires’ disease can affect anyone, but mainly affects elderly people and people with low immunity system.
The main purpose of this seminar is to increase awareness of this disease. It is possible that a number of cases in the field are much higher than reported. Jakarta, for example, is also home to many hotels, hospitals, and especially buildings in general. Regular inspection must be conducted to prevent this disease from spreading.
Promoting Integrated Water Resources Management and Improving Water Governance
WASH Human Resource Capacity Gaps in 15 Developing Economies
Shortages of human resources in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector will undermine the progress of many countries over the last two decades to increase access to water and sanitation. It will impede socioeconomic development of those countries that remain off-track to meet the MDG water and sanitation targets, and raises questions about how realistic WASH targets under the Sustainable Development Goals will be.
In this report, the first of its kind, the IWA provides an overarching recommendation for the development of national capacity development strategies that have high-level political buy-in with involvement from multiple actors to ensure sustained, adequate professional and technical capacity. The report also calls for concerted action at regional and global level to collect relevant human resources data, and perform further research to strengthen the evidence base on which action plans and strategies can be built.
