Dams, justice and the future of the Mekong Basin
OWN member Jesper Svensson interviews Brian Eyler, Senior Fellow and Director of Stimson’s Southeast Asia program, on dams, justice and the future of the Mekong Basin. Listen here.
Archive for month: April, 2020
WASAG Water Productivity Workshop 2020
OWN member Ranu Sinha reports on the WASAG Water Productivity Workshop 2020.
Transboundary water relations in post conflict Syria
OWN member Hussam Hussein discusses transboundary water relations in post conflict Syria for the Jordan Times. Read about it here.
New Incentives, Strategies and Innovations for Water Scarcity
Tom Iseman & OWN’s Dustin Garrick ask: Can a new collaboration between economists and conservationists deliver a sustainable future for freshwater? Read more here.
ECI Honorary Research Associate publishes trade book on water science
The book is the personal journey of Edoardo Borgomeo, a young hydrologist, to discover the future of the world’s water. It braids science and history with interviews of people from different places around the world to show the surprising influence of water on our lives. From an urban farmer in Mexico City to an activist in Karachi, the book brings to life the quest to better manage our world’s water resources through the lives and histories of real people. The book takes a humane perspective to water science and invites us to rediscover our hydrophilia, our love for water, in times of climate change. The book was published this March in Italian by Laterza, one of Italy’s oldest publishers.
About the author
Edoardo Borgomeo is a honorary research associate at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford where he researches how we can better plan and manage water resources in times of climate change. He also works as a consultant for international financial institutions and UN agencies. He is from Rome and is a graduate of Imperial College and the University of Oxford.
Edoardo is currently searching for English-language book publishers and welcomes ideas and contacts. Please get in touch at: edoardo.borgomeo@ouce.ox.ac.uk
Rethinking the economics of water – special issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy goes open access for March and April 2020
Oxford University Press have made the successful Oxford Review of Economic Policy (Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020): Economics of Water open accessthrough to the end of April as part of celebrations for World Water Day.
To read pieces by several Oxford Water Network members, follow this link and tweet @oupeconomicswith your thoughts!
Articles included in the issue (with OWN members in bold):
Dustin E Garrick, Michael Hanemann, Cameron Hepburn, Rethinking the economics of water: an assessment, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 1–23, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz035
Richard Damania, The economics of water scarcity and variability, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 24–44, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz027
Marc Jeuland, The economics of dams, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 45–68, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz028
Dieter Helm, Thirty years after water privatization—is the English model the envy of the world?, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 69–85, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz031
R Quentin Grafton, Long Chu, Paul Wyrwoll, The paradox of water pricing: dichotomies, dilemmas, and decisions, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 86–107, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz030
Michael Hanemann, Michael Young, Water rights reform and water marketing: Australia vs the US West, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 108–131, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz037
Sarah Ann Wheeler, Dustin E Garrick, A tale of two water markets in Australia: lessons for understanding participation in formal water markets, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 132–153, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz032
William Blomquist, Beneath the surface: complexities and groundwater policy-making, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 154–170, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz033
Rob Hope, Patrick Thomson, Johanna Koehler, Tim Foster, Rethinking the economics of rural water in Africa, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 171–190, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz036
Dale Whittington, Mark Radin, Marc Jeuland, Evidence-based policy analysis? The strange case of the randomized controlled trials of community-led total sanitation, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 191–221, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz029
19 open access articles on IWA Publishing
WSPM elective lecturer, David Johnstone, highlights Wetland Technology: Practical information on the design and application of treatment wetlands and Milestones in Water Reuse: The Best Success Stories as key reads within a collection of new open access articles and books on IWA Publishing.
OWN subscribers may be interested in the following open access publications:
A-B Processes: Towards Energy Self-sufficient Municipal Wastewater Treatment, Yu Liu, Jun Gu and Meng Zhang
Wetland Technology: Practical information on the design and application of treatment wetlands, Gunter Langergraber, Gabriela Dotro, Jaime Nivala, Otto R. Stein and Anacleto Rizzo
Benchmarking of Control Strategies for Wastewater Treatment Plants, Krist V. Gernaey, Ulf Jeppsson, Peter A. Vanrolleghem and John B. Copp
Chemistry of Ozone in Water and Wastewater Treatment: From Basic Principles to Applications, Clemens von Sonntag and Urs von Gunten
Computational Hydraulics: Numerical methods and modelling, Ioana Popescu
Costing Improved Water Supply Systems for Low-income Communities: A Practical Manual, Fabrizio Carlevaro and Cristian Gonzalez
Detection of Pathogens in Water Using Micro and Nano-Technology, Giampaolo Zuccheri and ikolaos Asproulis
Filtration Materials for Groundwater: A Guide to Good Practice, Ivan Kozyatnyk
Large Risks with Low Probabilities: Perceptions and Willingness to Take Preventive Measures Against Flooding, Tadeusz Tyszka and Piotr Zielonka
Hydrological Design of Multipurpose Micro-catchment Rainwater Management, Mooyoung Han and Duc Canh Nguyen
Milestones in Water Reuse: The Best Success Stories,
Valentina Lazarova, Takashi Asano, Akiça Bahri and John Anderson
Rational Design of Next-generation Nanomaterials and Nanodevices for Water Applications, Peng Wang
Sewage Treatment Plants: Economic Evaluation of Innovative Technologies for Energy Efficiency, Katerina Stamatelatou and Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis
Smart Water Utilities: Complexity Made Simple,
Pernille Ingildsen and Gustaf Olsson
Water Quality Modelling and Management Training Course in Addis Ababa, February 2020
Over 2 days (Feb 4-5th 2020) Prof Paul Whitehead gave a training course on Water Quality Modelling at the Water and Land Resource Centre at Addis Ababa University. 13 people attended from a range of catchment authorities in Ethiopia representing the Awash River, the Blue Nile and the Rift Valley River systems. In addition, stakeholders from the Federal EPA for Ethiopia attended. Following introductory lectures on water quality modelling, Paul distributed copies of the INCA training model for flow, nitrate and ammonia and extensive training/practical sessions were undertaken. The new versions of INCA set up for the Awash River system were provided and a set of scenarios for point source and agricultural runoff were evaluated. In addition, new model setups for the INCA Metals model version were established to model metals in the Awash, Akiki and Rift Valley catchments. Sets of scenarios were evaluated to evaluate potential clean up scenarios with most concern over the highly toxic Chromium6, lead, zinc and cadmium coming from Tannery effluents. Paul also gave a presentation on Biosensors for cell and genetic toxicity in contaminated rivers, lakes and soils. This was also of interest to Ethiopian colleagues because of the need to rapidly determine water toxicity in a rural environment. The Biosensors provide this possibility—see recently published paper below.
This training workshop was funded by the DFID REACH programme as part of the Oxford Reach Programme — see www.reachwater.org.uk
See recent papers
Rampley C.P.N., Whitehead P.G., Softley L., Hossain M.A., Jin L., David J., Shawal S., Das P., Thompson I.P., Huang W.E., Peters R., Holdship P., Hope R., Alabaster G. River toxicity assessment using molecular biosensors: Heavy metal contamination in the Turag-Balu-Buriganga river systems, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Science of the Total Environment, Volume 703, 2020
Whitehead, P.G., Bussi, G., Peters, R., Hossain, M.A., Softley, L., Shawal, S., Jin, L.,Rampley, C.P.N., Holdship, P., Hope, R., Alabaster, G., 2019. Modelling heavy metals in the Buriganga River System, Dhaka, Bangladesh: impacts of tannery pollution control, Science of The Total Environment 697:134090 , DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134090
Whitehead, P.G., Bussi, G., Hossain, M.A., Dolk, M., Das, P., Comber, S., Peters, R.,Charles, K.J., Hope, R., Hossain, S., 2018. Restoring water quality in the polluted Turag-Tongi-Balu river system, Dhaka: Modelling nutrient and total coliform intervention strategies. Science of the Total Environ. 631–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.038.
Restoring water quality in the polluted Turag-Tongi-Balu river system, Dhaka: Modelling nutrient and total coliform intervention strategies, 2018 Science of The Total Environment, Volume 631-632, Pages 223-232, by Paul Whitehead, Gianbattista Bussi, Mohammed Abed Hossain, Michaela Dolk, Partho Das, Sean Comber, Rebecca Peters, Katrina J. Charles, Rob Hope, Md Sarwar Hossain https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718307939?via%3Dihub
New Review of Economic Policy
OWN’s Dustin Garrick leads call for economists to embrace the politics of water in new Review of Economic Policy. Read more here.