Suchergebnisse

AbstractCitizens approve $38,800,000 bond issue for normal expansion of water system until Colorado River project is finished.

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Giné, R.; Pérez, A. Sustainability assessment of national rural water supply program in Tanzania. "Natural resources forum", Novembre 2008, vol. 32, núm. 4, p. 327-342., which has been published in final form at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121517446/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 ; Sustainability of rural water supply programs in developing countries is still an elusive goal. It is widely accepted that, as a rule, they have failed to deliver benefits to society in the long run. Emphasis has frequently been placed on the short-term activities. Fast production of new schemes is thus a common strategy, prioritizing the engineering component, while sidestepping social and participatory issues and community empowerment. In 2006, the Government of Tanzania launched a national program to meet water sector targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. In this study we evaluate key features of the program on a sustained basis. There is evidence that the Government is promoting more sustained facilities, focusing on cost recovery and on 'decentralization by devolution'. Nevertheless, there are several shortcomings which threaten the long-term functionality of the infrastructure that has to be built. In light of the implementation of the program, and based on the outputs of its pilot phase, we review the factors that can determine its sustainability. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (author's final draft)

More recent development discourse favour a mix of top-down and bottom-up approaches in development. In the discussion that has ensued, much focus has been on the rural and urban contexts of development; thus, leaving the peri-urban situation hardly attended to. The fast growing phenomenon of peri-urban development in developing countries and its associated challenges requires that development discourses recognise and take it into account. Current discussions on the supply of potable water in developing countries have largely focused on the rural and urban contexts and reveal a peri-urban gap. This research seeks to contribute to the intellectual discourse by providing insights on the discourse on peri-urban development. This research into the harnessing of local potentials for peri-urban water supply draws mainly on the concepts of endogenous development and uses the theory of institutional economics as a supporting theory. It is largely a qualitative research which uses the case study methodology involving two cases in its empirical component, although it incorporates some quantitative methods. The empirical research involved the use of a mix of data gathering methods: interviews, observation and questionnaires. The main findings of the study are firstly that the quality of the local human resource base from which the leadership of the entire development process is drawn is intrinsic and vital to the determination of the success of the development process with positive and negative potentials. Again, the existence of appropriate local institutions and the creation of an enabling local development environment as well as the presence of institutional interests that generally support the local development process are important. Nonetheless, there exists a seemingly complex and subtle power-play that supports or stifles the success of the water systems depending on who are involved in the system at a particular time. Other key revelations of the research relate to the potentials and the inherent weaknesses of the pluralist leadership system in supporting local development processes; and how in-country pilot projects which form the basis for the formulation of cross country institutional frameworks are not certain to yield successfully functioning frames because they still can be distant to local contexts and appreciation. The study suggests that there exist good prospects for the pursuit of endogenous development in the peri-urban context and concludes by providing suggestions relating to policy, practice and the conceptual underpinnings of the research. It recommends that pluralist leadership systems be made less susceptible to variations in actors? stance; through the formalization of verbal agreements especially in societies that are heavily dependent on oral communication. Notwithstanding the benefits of pilot projects, this study recommends that the local level is rather assisted to develop its own institutions through processes that may be guided by the outcomes of pilots. It suggests this as a means to achieving a favourable institutional environment in which local institutions can thrive. At conceptual level, the study also recommends that elements of individual decision-making be given more prominence in the endogenous development model.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the La Joya Water Supply Corporation's (Corporation) controls over the acquisition and use of grants, contracts, and loans associated with the Economically Distressed Areas Program (EDAP) and the Colonias Waste Water Treatments Assistance Program (CWTAP) are adequate; and to determining whether the Corporation has controls to provide reasonable assurance that funds are used to accomplish stated objectives and expenditures of fund comply with applicable rules, laws, regulations, contract terms, and best practices.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to show that the recent changes in the framework of water-related services represent, on a national scale, the effect of a recent structural change in the dynamics of global capitalism. The purpose is to clarify readers in the field of health on the process of financialization that is taking place in the sanitation sector in Brazil, which threatens public health. Therefore, we intend to show, from the perspective of the critical geography theory, how the new sanitation framework and the creation of a water market in Brazil meet the interests of the international elites who, in the face of cyclical crises in the productive field, seek for opportunities to profit from common goods and nature. It also discusses the role of the State in this entire process and the likely effects that have already been pointed out by the literature on the subject.

AbstractThe Loch Katrine water supply to Glasgow was unfiltered until a new treatment works was completed in 2007. Disinfection observations on the unfiltered supply are reported here for the decade 1995–2004. On one half of the supply, raw water contamination by gulls led to annual final water microbiological failure rates up to 2.7%, which fell below 0.4% after introducing revised gull control measures. Seasonality in gull contamination contributed to marked seasonality in observed final water microbiological failure rates. A 14‐min chlorine contact time at pH 5.8 realised all the effective disinfection; a longer second stage contact time at pH 8.6 provided no significant (P > 0.05) improvement. For a range of raw water Escherichia coli counts, a logistic regression model predicted probabilities of a final water E. coli failure that varied with quarterly period; this was consistent with seasonal factors, aside from raw water quality, contributing to probability of these failures.