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In this Issue
- IWC Masters
- IWC career opportunity
- $18 smart water facility in the pipeline
- IWC creates business-to-business opportunity at Riversymposium
- Philippines training on economic regulation
- International presence and presentations
- IWC website response
- Workshops on the Safe Water Guide
- Ecological risk assessment training course for Mekong River Commission
- Second Singapore project for IWC partner in the west
- Heat turned up on climate change debate
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IWC Masters
The approval process is underway for the IWC Masters in Integrated Water Management, which will provide excellence in teaching and be jointly badged by the IWC member universities.
The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Monash University and The University of Western Australia have collaborated to develop the Masters Program which is aimed at mid-career water industry professionals working in Australia and developing countries.
Specialisations that will be offered as part of the Masters include Water Governance, Catchment and Ecosystem Health and Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment. Graduates of the Masters will build on the area of expertise, gaining technical and managerial skills to implement integrated water resource management.
The Masters will be launched in 2007. A Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma will also be offered.
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IWC career opportunity
The International WaterCentre (IWC) is looking to appoint an innovative educator as Education and Training Manager to develop and promote the IWC's education and training products, in particular the Masters in Integrated Water Management. The leadership role will involve liaising with partner universities and managing client and partner relationships.
A full position description can be downloaded at www.watercentre.org
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$18m smart water facility in the pipeline
The International WaterCentre will provide the international portal for an $18 million smart water facility to be built at Griffith University's Gold Coast campus.
The Queensland Smart Water Research Facility will develop innovative solutions to growing water supply challenges, and bring scientists, water authorities and cutting-edge water technology companies under one roof.
IWC's contribution to the facility will be to disseminate and market the facility's outputs including exploring alternative water sources, safeguarding water quality and sustainable water solutions globally.
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IWC creates business-to-business opportunity at
Riversymposium
IWC will bring together businesses, water organisations and international aid donors at a lunch hosted and sponsored by IWC in conjunction with Thiess at Riversymposium 2006.
The purpose of this function is to provide businesses and the public sector with information about trends and donor strategies in the region and to explore new approaches for working with communities to attain the Millennium Development Goals. Through functions such as this IWC aims to encourage greater participation by water businesses in Riversymposium into the future.
IWC's involvement at Riversymposium also includes two presentations of research from the AusAID Australian Water Research Facility. Professor Helen Ross presentation will cover innovative approaches to catchment frameworks and Bronwyn Powell will present on work being undertaken in East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
For more information on Riversymposium visit www.riversymposium.com
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Philippines training on economic regulation
Following on from the IWC's training on integrated water management for senior managers of the Philippines National Water Resources Board (NWRB), the IWC in conjunction with QUT presented a ten day program to the NWRB on institutional strengthening for effective economic regulation of water services.
IWC was involved in program design and implementation, with Mark Pascoe presenting a session on international benchmarking of water regulation and international best practice.
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International presence and presentations
Twelve thousand delegates attended the American Waterworks Association Conference in San Antonio in June, at which IWC CEO Mark Pascoe presented a paper on the Southeast Queensland (SEQ) Healthy Waterways Partnership. The question of how SEQ will manage the influx of an additional million people coming to the region in the next 10 years is a key concern for maintaining healthy ecosystems.
IWC will present papers and host an information stand at the upcoming World Water Congress in Bejing, China in September. The IWC Chairman, Professor Paul Greenfield, will give a paper on Emerging Bio- and Nano-technologies and their application in water management.
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IWC website response
We are now averaging nearly 1500 visitors a month to our launched in April this year - www.watercentre.org.
We regularly update the site with news from our partner universities and other water related information.
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Workshops on the Safe Water Guide
Designed to raise awareness of AusAID's Safe Water Guide, a series of workshops are being held in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne this month and in August.
These workshops are being delivered jointly by World Vision Australia and WaterAid Australia with the active involvement of the AusAID Water Group.
The Safe Water Guide is the Australian Government's framework for managing water quality activities implemented under the Australian aid program. The workshop details can be found on our website.
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Ecological risk assessment training course for Mekong River Commission
Professor Barry Hart in collaboration with Dr Carmel Pollino from the Water Studies Centre at IWC partner university, Monash, will run an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) course for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) later this year.
Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) is a relatively new process that incorporates a transparent, scientific, precautionary and ecologically sustainable approach to the management of environmental risks to natural resources such as rivers, wetlands and estuaries.
This is the second course run by Professor Hart for the MRC. The first in 2004 involved 'learning by doing' training where participants undertook two risk assessments, one focused on the Mekong in the vicinity of Vientiane (Lao PDR) and Nongkhai (Thailand) and the other around Phnom Penh (Cambodia) that also included Tonle Sap great lake. The key risks assessed were fish toxicity, algal blooms and adverse effects on fish migration. These were all very low around Vientiane, but were somewhat higher around Phnom Penh.
Participants in the second course will again be from the four riparian countries - Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The focus this year will be on two areas - one in northern Thailand (Chaing Rai/Bokeo) and the other on the Cambodian/Vietnam border (Chau Doc). The two teams will undertake an assessment of the ecological risks to the Mekong River in both locations over a six month period.
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Second Singapore project for IWC partner in the west
The University of Western Australia's Centre for Water Research, in partnership with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has been awarded a $2.7 million project to develop and install a state-of-the-art automated Aquatic Real-Time Management System (ARMS), to enhance the operation of Singapore's Marina Reservoir.
In awarding the project, Mr Harry Seah, Public Utilities Board (PUB) Director of Technology and Water Quality said: "As part of PUB's efforts to ensure a diversified and sustainable supply of water for Singapore, we actively work with leading research institutes, such as the Centre for Water Research to study and test promising new technologies."
Much like a weather forecast, but more sophisticated, ARMS will allow the PUB, Singapore's national water agency of Singapore to forecast threats to the system and respond in a timely manner.
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Heat turned up on climate change debate
As polls show that most Australians want action now on climate change, the heat is turned up in the debate in the current edition of national quarterly journal, Griffith REVIEW: Hot Air – how nigh's the end?
In the first Australian publication of its kind dedicated to this important subject, the 12th edition of IWC university partner, Griffith University's Griffith REVIEW explores the issues surrounding global warming, its causes and consequences, and comes up with some challenging answers.
Australia's leading academics and writers including Ian Lowe, Peter Doherty, Geoffrey Blainey, Robyn Williams and veteran journalist Murray Sayle, offer their perspectives on the climactic debate and attempt to answer the burning question "how nigh's the end?"
In his lead essay Overloading Emoh Ruo: the rise and rise of hydrocarbon civilisation, Murray Sayle finds that the future is bleak if we refuse to change our ways. "We have only one single human household, the much-abused planet under our feet," he says. "If we go on like this, the outlook we refuse to face up to is grim."
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