Water: World Water Week 9/5-11: International Conference Sept 5-7, Stockholm, Sweden

The Cambodian city of Phnom Penh just won the award sponsored jointly by the WWW and the Stockholm Water Supply  Authority:

In recognition of its world class performance in water supply and self-sufficiency, the Cambodian Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) under the leadership of General Director Ek Sonn Chan has been named the winner of the Stockholm Industry Water Award 2010.

Historically, the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, thrived by the rivers of Tonle Sap and the Mekong.  However, decades of conflicts left the water supply system running low until the 1990s. In 1993 Mr. Ek Sonn Chan was appointed as General Director of the city’s Water Supply Authority (PPWSA).  Together with his team, he managed to refurbish the whole supply system, introduce cost-effective billing and payment collection methods, as well as world class management to provide water to almost all of the city’s residents.

"The PPWSA has successfully fought corruption and shown this can be achieved in a developing country on a large-scale basis using simple but effective management techniques that are based on well-accepted business principles and strategies. As a self-sufficient company, operating without subsidies from the state, PPWSA today provides 24-hour service and 90 per cent coverage to a city of 1.3 million and fully recovers its costs as it continues to develop both its infrastructure and management," said the International Award Jury in its citation. The PPWSA will receive the award during the World Water Week in Stockholm 2010, September 5-11.

I've been observing September 5-7 and will keep the practice this whole week by drinking only water for these days, and praying with each glassful for those without clean healthy water, that thru worldwide action the Lord may bless the thirsty lips of everyone on the planet.   If it's thru us that this change will come, the broad masses of us in the industrialized West, then the Lord has given us a tall order indeed! I'm not sure we're up to the task.

At the hub-conference in Stockholm and in the aftermath, vying r+t nopw for our attention, the 8 themes below will be workshopped by leaders of the movement to provide clean water everywhere.

Topics for World Water Week 2010 workshops:

• Workshop 1: Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
• Workshop 2: Shortcutting Historical Pollution Trends
• Workshop 3: Water Quality for Human Health
• Workshop 4: Improved Water Use Efficiency through Recycling and Reuse
• Workshop 5: Management of Groundwater Abstraction and Pollution
• Workshop 6: Minimising Land Use Based Water Pollution
• Workshop 7: Resilience, Uncertainty and Tipping Points
• Workshop 8: Origins, Pathways and Accumulation of Pollutants - An Urban Perspective

Join with others near you, and with us at refWr+t in observance now and in action in the months to come.

Leadership of the WWW conference:

•    Prof. Jan Lundqvist, Stockholm International Water Institute (Chair)
•    Dr. Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
•    Prof. Lotta Andersson, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
•    Prof. Paul P. Appasamy, Karunya University, India
•    Dr. Akiça Bahri, International Water Management Institute
•    Prof. Mohamed Dahab, Water Environment Federation and Nebraska University, USA
•    Prof. Malin Falkenmark, Stockholm International Water Institute
•    Dr. Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Center
•    Mr. Jack Moss, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and AquaFed
•    Prof. Peter Rogers, Harvard University, USA
•    Prof. Hubert Savenije, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
•    Dr. Thomas Chiramba, UNEP 
•    Prof. Thor Axel Stenström, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control and  
•          World Health Organization
•    Mr. Martin Walshe, Global Water Partnership
•    Prof. Xiaoliu Yang, Peking University, China
•    Mr. Anders Berntell, Stockholm International Water Institute
•    Ms. Katarina Andrzejewska, Stockholm International Water Institute (Secretary)
•    Mr. Michael Moore, Stockholm International Water Institute

. The S     -- Owlb