Suchergebnisse

In international comparison, Finland has one of the lowest rates of fatalities in road accidents per 100,000 people—8 in 2001. The rate of fatal accidents was the highest in 1972, close to 1,200, but by 2003, it had declined to 380 while the number of vehicles grew by 2.6 times during the same period. The article points out the major policy decisions and analyses of various political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legislative factors affecting this development. Traffic safety in terms of fatalities has evolved very positively for the past 35 years based on the various policies, principles, and practices. Yet improving traffic safety will be relatively more difficult in the future because relatively simpler means have already been introduced.

This article describes the evolution of urban and rural water supply and sanitation in Finland over the past 150 years. In addition to technology development, it explores various institutional issues related to the water sector such as legislation, utility management, human resources development, research and development, professional associations, sector enterprises such as consulting companies and contractors, and exporting activities. Though utilities in Finland are mostly publicly owned, they today adhere to commercial principles. Planning, construction, operation, and maintenance services are often bought from the private sector. The services have been, and still are, covered by direct consumer payments, whereas governmental subsidies have been small. Rural water supply is organized through consumer-managed water cooperatives. Water supply and sanitation systems and services have expanded gradually. Sometimes old treatment methods have been reintroduced. In the future, there will be more focus in the sector on increasing customer orientation, intermunicipal cooperation of utilities, and international cooperation. The gained long-term experience will be a cornerstone of future water policy and strategy development.

This paper aims at shedding light on the significance of water epidemics and their potential positive impacts on improving preparedness in water and sanitation services. We explore the water epidemic of Nokia in 2007 and preparedness-related reactions since then. The corona case confirms the fundamental role of clean water for well-being in communities, the need for sound management of water services to proactively promote public health, as well as the need for expanding conventional water and environmental engineering education and research to offer more holistic views.

The growth and development of urban spaces in all parts of the world is an outstanding feature of modern history. Apart from being notable growth generators of economies, cities have also been localities where the poorest of the poor congregate seeking the opportunity to make a living. Another outstanding feature of cities has been the growth and development of their comprehensive water infrastructure. The theme included eleven sessions with 37 presented papers and one Round Table Panel with five presentations that were regrouped for synthesis under the following categories: water and urban landscape, ancient urban water, managing urban water systems (technological breakthroughs, integration and regionalisation, flood control, policy and politics, challenges in developing and transition economies, sanitary and environmental education) and water privatisation. By 2007 more than a half of the world's population were living in urban areas; urban growth is fastest in the third world. Thus, the theme will only grow in importance in the future. Several presentations showed that decisions on water resources and services are to a large extent public by nature. The paradigm shift under way towards more efficient water use is limiting the growth of water use. The use of traditional technologies should also be considered when striving towards sustainability. Finally, understanding their pasts is a basic requirement for any sound strategic and visionary planning of preferable futures for cities.

This article discusses the evolution of community-managed projects (CMPs) along with the global community-based management of water supply and sanitation services since the 1960s, particularly the evolution of Ethiopian water resources development in the last century. The study was conducted with intensive reviews of journals, reports, project documents, and discussions with the people involved in CMP implementation, including many Ethiopian government officials. The article presents the various development phases of the water and sanitation sector in Ethiopia together with national and global influences. Currently, in the 2010s, the CMP financing mechanisms and the national development of water supply and sanitation are more organized and integrated, and are in the stage of scaling up. The recently agreed national water, sanitation, and hygiene strategic framework is expected to have significant impacts on the rural water supply and sanitation development in Ethiopia.

This article discusses the outsourcing of water utility operations and the prerequisites for successful partnerships between water utilities and external service providers. A questionnaire survey in Finland indicated that the outsourcing of various water utility operations will increase in the future. This trend includes great opportunities to utilize the best features of external service providers and efficiently develop the water services sector. However, the outsourcing also includes risks because there is a lack of trust between water utilities and private companies. Therefore, "hard," rigid contracts are preferred to reduce the uncertainty in outsourcing such undertakings. In uncertain conditions, this approach may not be an effective and fruitful development path in the long term. If relationships are more trust based, uncertainty can actually strengthen these relationships. Thus, more attention should be paid to building trust instead of intensively attempting to reduce uncertainty.