EUROPEAN WATER MANAGEMENT NEWS, 28 APRIL 2008

This news is brought to you by the NETHERLANDS WATER PARTNERSHIP (http://www.nwp.nl) under the aegis of RIZA (the Netherlands Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment,
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/rws/riza/home/english/index.html) for the EUROPEAN WATER ASSOCIATION (EWA).

The European Water Association (EWA) is a non-profit association of European water management scientists and experts. If you like to know more or to participate in the activities, visit the website of the European Water Association at http://www.ewaonline.de

The Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) is an independent body set up jointly by the Dutch private and public water sector to act a.o. as an international focal point for the exchange of information related to water and water activities.

The web version of the EWMN you may find at the website of the Netherlands Water Partnership: http://www.nwp.nl/ewmn

Contents

EUROPEAN WATER NEWS TO SUCCEED EWMN

1. European Water News to be launched second of May

FROM EU
2. EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Results of study in Mediterranean published

IN BRIEF
3. AUSTRIA - Forecast for big sea level rise
4. AUSTRIA - Melting Mountains A "Time Bomb" For Water Shortages 5. CYPRUS - Asbestos fears prompt relocation of desalination unit 6. DENMARK - DHI Water Policy released Draft Concept on

water-energy-climate nexus
7. ITALY - Risk of desertification for 70% of the land surface of Sicily 8. MALTA - Global warming threatens fresh water resources
9. SPAIN - Two ministries involved in water merge
10. SPAIN - Objections against plans to supply Barcelona with water 11. TURKEY - Istanbul Urban Water Declaration
12. EUROPE - Key messages CAIWA Conference available
13. EUROPE - EWP reaches 50 members
14. GLOBAL - Next venue of World Water Forum to be decided

FROM EWA
15. 3rd Joint Specialty Conference Sustainable Water Management in

Response to 21st Century Pressures, 5-9 May 2008

MEETINGS & EVENTS
16. International conference on Ozone & Related Oxidants in: Advanced

treatment of water for human health and environment protection, 15-16 May 2008
17. Riskbase General Assembly, 15-17 May 2008
18. Water Resource Systems Management in Extreme Conditions, 4-5 June 2008 19. Seminar on Monitoring and Assessment of Transboundary Waters,

16-17 June 2008
20. Workshop on adaptation to climate change in the water sector,

1-2 July 2008
21. Seminar on Nordic acceptance schemes and standardization of products,

2-3 September 2008
22. 13th European Biosolids & Organic Resources Conference, Workshop &

Exhibition, Call for papers

PUBLICATIONS
23. Sewerage for the 21st Century (UK), UKWIR
24. Strengthening Global Water Initiatives, Environment Journal

VACANCIES
25. ITALY - PhD Programme in Science and Management of Climate Change 26. ITALY - European Sustainable Water Goals looking for applicants for

training week
27. SWEDEN - SIWI looking for communications director
28. THE NETHERLANDS - UNESCO-IHE looking for analyst (m/f)
29. THE NETHERLANDS - UNESCO-IHE looking for lecturer in wastewater

engineering (m/f)

Your colleagues can get a free subscription to this e-mail newsletter too. All they have to do is send us an e-mail at ewmn ät nwp.nl with "Subscribe European Water Management News" in the subject line. At this moment, there are 5,300 subscribers to this newsletter, which is sent only on request. You can unsubscribe by sending us a blank e-mail at ewmn ät nwp.nl with "Unsubscribe European Water Management News" in the subject line.

You may read earlier issues at the website of the Netherlands Water Partnership: http://www.nwp.nl/ewmn

Best regards,
Harro Riedstra
NETHERLANDS WATER PARTNERSHIP
E: ewmn ät nwp.nl
I: http://www.nwp.nl

Over the last years the European Water Management News has grown to become a major newsletter on European water news, reaching out to a steadily increasing readership. In those years the importance of water as a subject on the political, media and business agenda has risen, not only in Europe, but all around the world. We therefore thought it time to extend the services of the EWMN and create a broader platform on European water news, continuing the cooperation with the European Water Association: the "European Water News".

European Water News aims to be the Europe-wide information platform on water-issues and will be dedicated to news, papers and reviews on water management in Europe. It will consist of a website and related weekly newsletter bringing together information on the water-challenges facing Europe and the innovative technologies and solutions available to address these challenges. European Water News is focused on key decision-makers in European businesses, politics and NGOÆs. The newsletter will be sent out to all the current subscribers of the EWMN.

The website will be launched on the second of May at
www.european-waternews.com

We aim to make sure European Water News achieves as broad a coverage of European news as possible. We would therefore like to ask you to contact us with any news, events and publications you would like to have published at:

Joost Boers, Editorial Manager, joost.boers ät reedbusiness.nl Harro Riedstra, Project Manager, EWP, h.riedstra ät ewp.eu

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank presented the results of a study on potential investments addressing pollution hotspots in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The study, undertaken as part of the Commission's Horizon 2020 Initiative designed to tackle the major sources of Mediterranean pollution by the year 2020, recognises the need for a programme to help the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean reduce the pollution they release into the sea.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/horizon-2020-helping-protect-mediter ranean-sea

Source: Emwis Flash

Sea levels could rise by as much as 1.5 m by the end of this century, according to a study by British and Finnish scientists presented at the annual European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Svetlana Jevrejeva of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory near Liverpool, England predicted that by 2100, the rapid melting of polar ice sheets would cause oceans to rise by 0.8 m to 1.5 m.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7349236.stm

Source: SAHRA Water News Watch

Hydrologist Wouter Buytaert of Bristol University in England told a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna, Austria that global warming was melting glaciers and snowcaps earlier each year, creating "a time bomb" for the world's water supplies. The sooner snowmelt runs off, the less is available during the summer when rainfall is lower and people need it the most, she said, adding that small glaciers could vanish in 30-50 years.

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-water.html?scp=3&sq=water&st =nyt

Source: SAHRA Water News Watch

The Cypriot Ministry of Agriculture and communities surrounding the site where a floating desalination unit will be constructed have come to a settlement over the project's location, moving it 250 m south of Pyrgos in Morfou Bay.The original location aroused vehement objections from residents of Moni, Parekklisia, and Pentakomo, who feared that asbestos from old power lines buried in the area would leach into the water when construction began.

Read more at:
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=38742&archive=1

Source: SAHRA Water News Watch

There is increasing concern that rising energy demands resulting from climate change and economic development will impact negatively on global water resources. It is expected that there will be both winners and losers in the resulting 'water footprint'. DHI Water Policy released a Draft Concept Note, March 2008, on the water-energy-climate change nexus - a connection of growing concern.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/draft-concept-note-march-2008

Source: EMWIS Flash

Around three-quarters of the Italian island of Sicily could become a desert, with the areas around Enna, Caltanissetta, and Trapani at particular risk, warned Giovanni Arnone, head of the Regional Council's Civil Defense Service. Addressing a seminar in Palermo that included President Gian Vito Graziano of the Sicilian Geological Society, he labeled 43.22% of Sicilian land at "very high risk" of desertification and 30.79% at "high risk."

Read more at: (Italian)
http://www.lastampa.it/_web/cmstp/tmplrubriche/ambiente/grubrica.asp?ID_blo g=51&ID_articolo=650&ID_sezione=76&sezione=

Source: SAHRA Water News Watch

Malta is one of the most crowded spaces in the world. It is also highly vulnerable to climate change. Rising sea levels in the Mediterranean over the next century caused by global warming threaten to submerge parts of the island. But there is another aspect to sea level rise that is already having a significant effect on Malta. It is the impact on the supply of drinking water.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/briny-future-vulnerable-malta

Source: Emwis Flash

After last elections in Spain, a new Ministry has been created as a fusion of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA) and the Ministry of the Environment, and will take charge also of sea protection issue that belonged to the Ministry of Development. The name of this new ministry is "the Ministry of Rural, Marine and Natural Environment" under the responsibility of the Minister: Elena Espinosa.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/spain-new-government-and-elena-espin osa-minister

Source: Emwis Flash

Murcia and Valencia have threatened to place an appeal before the Constitutional Court against the Government's plans to run a new 60km long pipeline from Tarragona to Barcelona to supply the city of Barcelona with drinking water. The planned pipe will be fed from an existing feed to Tarragona which takes water from the mouth of the Ebro river.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/spain-murcia-and-valencia-threaten-c hallenge

Source: Emwis Flash

Authorities from nearly 40 cities met last month during World Water Day to draft a declaration, known as the Istanbul Urban Water Consensus. The statement recognizes the likely damaging effects of climate change on urban water resources and calls on governments to properly fund adaptation plans. It encourages authorities to improve water availability through technological solutions, land-use reform, and greater collaboration with the business sector. The agreement also outlines specific targets, such as asking cities to set goals for preventing water loss and improving water treatment.

Read more at: http://www.worldwaterforum5.org/index.php?id=2136

Source: Water Resources Management

The first international conference CAIWA on adaptive and integrative water management took place in Basel, Switzerland, from 12 to 15 November 2007. This scientific conference attracted scientists from various disciplines to exchange and discuss the problem of how to cope with complexity and uncertainty in water management under changing conditions. The results of this conference are summarised in key messages, which are now available.

Read more at: http://www.newater.uos.de/caiwa/

The European Water Partnership (EWP) is pleased to announce its 50th member organisation, AquaFed, to take part in the Partnership. The EWP was created just over two years ago as an action-oriented open forum for all stakeholders to find solutions for the water challenges in wider Europe and to stimulate partnerships.

Read more at: http://www.ewp.eu

For the next edition of the World Water Forum, the government of any country, in collaboration with a city, is invited to demonstrate its capacity to organise such an important event. In order to be considered for the next steps in the bidding procedure, a preliminary expression of interest should be received by the World Water Council (WWC) Headquarters in Marseille by 1 June 2008 and must be presented or endorsed by a representative of the central Government of the country concerned, at the highest possible level.

Read more at:
http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/news/does-your-country-wish-host-6th-worl d-water-forum/

Source: Emwis Flash

Response to 21st Century Pressures, 5-9 May 2008

Venue: Munich, Germany
Organisers: EWA, JWSA and WEF

Managers, planners and designers in water management are already dealing with a number of pressures such as new regulations, increases in water usage, greater demands in terms of risk avoidance, and changes in population demography. But now it is obvious that the changes in weather bring new pressures. This conference is focused on the practical consequences of the changes and how these can be mitigated and accommodated. The programme will have a practical focus which fits in well with the interests of the delegates and exhibitors at IFAT 2008.

Read more at: http://www.ewaonline.de/downloads/IFAT2008_Programme.pdf

treatment of water for human health and environment protection, 15-16 May 2008

Venue: Brussels, Belgium
Organisers: EA3G, IOA and Vivaqua

The issues of disinfection of water and wastewater and elimination of micro-pollutants with control of by-products formation address todayÆs fundamental challenges related to natural water quality for next drinking water production and environment preservation. This event will provide an overview of the current state of knowledge and latest advances regarding the use of Ozone and Related Oxidants and their mechanisms of action for the elimination of pathogens and persistent pollutants and
micro-pollutants, not forgetting the related engineering aspects and the transfer of sound science into industrial approaches.

Read more at:
http://www.ioa-ea3g.org/objets/fichiers/news/Brussels_2008_Invitation.pdf

Venue: Budapest, Hungary
Organisers: RISKBASE

In RISKBASE, leading European scientists and represen-tatives of major European stakeholder groups will review and synthesise the outcome of EC RTD Framework Pro-gramme projects, and other major initiatives, related to integrated risk assessment-based management of the water/sediment/soil system at the river-basin scale. The synthesis will lead to the development of integrated risk assessment-based management approaches enabling the prevention and/or reduction of the negative impacts caused by human activities on that system. The second General Assembly of RISKBASE will take place from 15-17 May in Budapest.

Read more at: http://www.riskbase.info

Venue: Moscow, Russia
Organisers: The Federal Agency for Water Resources, Netherlands Water Partnership, SIBICO International, Ltd and ECWATECH Ltd.

The objective of this Conference is to enhance collaboration between specialists and knowledge exchange in such an important field as water resources management under extreme conditions. The conference will be a platform for meeting of specialists involved in different aspects of water resources management. Participants will gather to discuss the current state and methods of water resources management under extreme conditions and present results of the latest research in order to provide possible trends for further development of resources management policy.

Read more at: http://waterextreme.sibico.com/

16-17 June 2008

Venue: Geneva, Switzerland
Organisers: UNECE

The Seminar will be organized under the auspices of the UNECE Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention).It is intended for transboundary water managers, representatives of established joint bodies, and experts with a role in monitoring and assessment of transboundary waters from governmental and non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Read more at: http://www.unece.org/env/water/meetings/monitoring_workshop.htm

1-2 July 2008

Venue: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Organisers: UNECE

The workshop will be organised under the auspices of the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) and of the Protocol on Water and Health to the Water Convention. The workshop is targeted at government officials from environment, health and water authorities; water supply and wastewater managers; scientists working on climate adaptation; representatives from private sector, non-governmental and international organizations.

Read more at:
http://www.unece.org/env/water/meetings/water_climate_workshop.htm

2-3 September 2008

Venue: Pori, Finland
Organisers: The Finnish Institute of Drinking water

The Finnish Institute of Drinking Water invites you to a Seminar concerning Nordic acceptance schemes and standardization of products in contact with drinking water in relation to drinking water hygiene. Harmonization of acceptance schemes at the EU level (EAS) will be discussed as well.
The seminar main themes are:
1) Acceptance schemes and standardization of materials and products in contact with drinking water and drinking water hygiene throughout the whole distribution system
2) Principles and terminology of acceptance schemes and standardization 3) Acceptance schemes and standardization in the Nordic Countries and Europe 4) Interaction of Drinking Water and Products/Materials (posters)

Read more at: http://www.prizz.fi/sivu.aspx?taso=4&id=154

Exhibition, Call for papers

Now in its thirteenth year, this annual conference continues to attract technical papers covering a wide range of topical areas and delivered by speakers recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise in this area. As a result it is consistently attended by a large and knowledgeable audience who debate and discuss the issues of the day in a learned and welcoming environment. Abstracts should give an overview of the intended paper comprising of approximately 250 words. The submission deadline is 30th June 2008, Please email all abstracts to Frances at franceseldon ät aquaenviro.co.uk

Read more at: http://www.european-biosolids.com

UK sewerage systems have changed little in the last 100 years in terms of their principles, materials and methods of installation and maintenance. However the pressures on the systems have increased enormously and the ways in which the service is managed, financed and regulated have changed greatly. Increasing environmental awareness, climate change and the drive for continuous improvement in efficiency and service all demand that the systems must adapt to meet future needs. This project seeks to identify the actions that the UK water industry must take to ensure that the sewerage infrastructure and the service it provides will meet the needs of the 21st Century. The report is published in four volumes covering data collection together with operations and management, active control of sewerage systems, lifestyle and environmental factors and finally, legal and regulatory issues.

Read more at: http://www.ukwir.org/ukwirlibrary/92163

Source: UKWIR

This article, by water scholars Robert Varady of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, John Rodda from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, and their colleagues at the University of Arizona û aimed at strengthening global water governance. The authors describe the evolution of a set of global-level water institutions and events û which they gather under the heading of ôglobal water initiativesö (GWIs) û and the major paradigm shifts in water management with which they have interacted. Although GWIs have existed for more than a century, especially in the form of the professional society, their numbers and influence have increased palpably since the Second World War.

Read more at: http://www.unesco.org/water/news/newsletter/203.shtml#news_1

Source: UNESCO-IHE

CaÆ Foscari University of Venice, in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC), launched a 3-year PhD Programme in Science and Management of Climate Change, organised in two Streams: Dynamic Climatology at CMCC in Bologna; and Climate change impact and management, at the Department of Economics of the CaÆ Foscari University in Venice.

Read more at: http://www.venus.unive.it/phd-climate-change/en

training week

European Sustainable Water Goals (ESWG 2007-2010) is a conference programme on sustainable water management which pays special attention to European water policies The proposed series of four conferences will lead to a significant step forward in the application of models of integrated water management in line with the WFD Water Framework Directive 2000/60) and will constitute a great opportunity for a comparison between the different approaches undertaken by various MSs for a correct Water Framework Directive implementation. The Programme is currently looking for a good PhD, Master Students and Early Researchers who would like to take the opportunity to study in the fields of Environmental Science. The programme provides an unique opportunity to train 30 EU researchers (the deadline to apply and get a EU scholarship is set at 30th of april). The training week will be held in Venice, 7-11th September 2008.

Read more at: http://eswg.watercivilizations.org/

The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is an influential and leading policy institute that seeks sustainable solutions to the world water crisis. Central to SIWIÆs work is an active and dynamic communications, marketing and advocacy effort which both complements and enhances the InstituteÆs work on current and future water, environment, governance and human development issues. We are looking for an experienced Communications Director skilled in the traditions of communications and marketing but desiring an opportunity to affect real change through advocacy, awareness building and leadership of a dynamic and creative internal communications team.

Read more at: http://www.siwi.org/sa/node.asp?node=33

The Laboratory of the Department of Environmental Resources provides post-graduate education and training to professionals in the field of environmental science, carries out research in this area and supports in the building of environmental knowledge centres in the developing world. The department has two core groups: Freshwater Ecosystems and Pollution Prevention and Control. The Laboratory is looking for a new Analyst.

Read more at: http://www.unesco-ihe.org/vacancy/index.htm

29. THE NETHERLANDS û UNESCO-IHE looking for lecturer in wastewater engineering (m/f)

The overall thrust of the Department of Urban Water and Sanitation is urbanization as one of the dominant global processes. Although urbanisation offers enormous opportunities for socio-economic development, it also presents major challenges for the equitable and sustainable development of drinking water and sanitation infrastructure and services. Within this context the Department of Urban Water and Sanitation helps to build the necessary human resources and higher education and research capacities through postgraduate education, training, research and other capacity building activities in the fields of water supply and sanitation. The department intends to recruit a lecturer in wastewater engineering.

Read more at: http://www.unesco-ihe.org/vacancy/index.htm

Harro Riedstra
Editor European Water Management News
NETHERLANDS WATER PARTNERSHIP
P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA DELFT, The Netherlands
T: +31 15 215 18 83
F: +31 15 215 17 59
E: ewmn ät nwp.nl
I: http://www.nwp.nl/ewmn