Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe article describes the context of the ICRC's operations in Iraq, where the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, the Gulf War in 1990–1 and the effects of sanctions preceded the 2003 conflict and the spread of sectarian violence. The many serious attacks, including the bombing of the ICRC delegation in Baghdad in 2003 and continuing threats to the ICRC delegates, led to a low-visibility presence and required a new modus operandi in which a real presence on the ground was backed up by remote-control mechanisms for assistance activities in the most insecure areas. Projects to cover essential needs by ensuring water supplies and sewage disposal and supporting health facilities exemplify this new ICRC operational framework. Whereas remote control and support operations enabled programmes of increasing scope and size to be implemented, they could not replace a direct physical presence on the ground, and acceptance-building had to be reinforced through networking and communicational aspects. The authors argue, however, that there is still room for independent, neutral and impartial humanitarian action in Iraq – despite inherent security risks.

The importance of infrastructure for sustained economic development is well recognized. High transaction costs arising from inadequate and inefficient infrastructure can prevent the economy from realising its full growth potential regardless of the progress on other fronts. Physical infrastructure covering transportation, power and communication through its backward and forward linkages facilitates growth, social infrastructure including water supply, sanitation, sewage disposal, education and health, which are in the nature of primary services and has a direct impact on the quality of life. The performance of infrastructure is largely a reflection of the performance of the economy. Infrastructure industries are measured by six key infrastructure and core industries (i.e., electricity, crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, steel and cement). In this paper, the overall growth and performance of infrastructure services has been examined in depth on the basis of the different parameters such as trends in growth of physical output in infrastructure sectors, telecommunications, power, ports, railways, civil aviation, and post so as to examine whether there is a negative or positive association between infrastructure development and India's economic growth.

When Rome conquered Greece in the second century BC, she had no equivalent to Greek rational medicine as established by Hippocrates and the Alexandrians. Roman medicine was of a quasi-religious nature, with a strong element of folk traditions and herbal medicine; the paterfamilias would treat any sickness in the family (including slaves and even animals) with his array of folk remedies. Greek rational medicine was initially received with great skepticism by the Roman elite, in particular, but it gradually transformed the scene, replacing superstition and magic with a reliance on rational science as it was understood at the time. However, the belief in herbal remedies and the Asclepian cult of temple medicine remained strong. Rome also made its own unique contributions in the fields of hygiene (effective water supplies, sewage and drainage) and military medicine (including the introduction of the first hospitals). Roman doctors gradually replaced their Greek colleagues, and by the fifth century Latin had established itself as a significant medical language. In practice Roman folk medicine was not necessarily much inferior to Greek rational medicine, because the latter was based on ill-understood and largely erroneous concepts of medical science.

Water, in its many guises, has always played a powerful role in shaping Southeast Asian histories, cultures, societies and economies. This volume, the rewritten results of an international workshop, with participants from eight countries, contains thirteen essays, representing a broad range of approaches to the study of Southeast Asia with water as the central theme. As it was exposed to the sea, the region was more accessible to outside political, economic and cultural influences than many landlocked areas. Easy access through sea routes also stimulated trade from an early age. However, the same easy access made Southeast Asia vulnerable to political control by strong outsiders. The sea is, moreover, a source of food, but also of many hazards. At the same time, Southeast Asian societies and cultures are confronted with and permeated by 'water from heaven' in the form of rain, flash floods, irrigation water, water in rivers, brooks and swaps, water-driven power plants, and pumped or piped water, in addition to water as a carrier of sewage and pollution. Finally, the volume deals with the role of water in classification systems, beliefs, myths, illness and healing.

International audience ; This study looked at how the media framed biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, from 1994 to 2004 by analyzing the 13 media frames found in 286 biosolid-related articles from newspapers in Florida, Virginia, and California. The researchers found the articles framed biosolids as a regulatory or legal issue most often, and most of the frames' tones were neutral (1,958). However, negative tone (507) happened three times more often than positive tone (149), and environmental, management, and public nuisance framing tended to be more negative than any of the other frames. Neither the frames themselves nor the tones had statistically significant changes over the past decade. Regarding the sources used in the stories, the most frequent source was local government officials, which were used twice as frequently as any other source, followed by corporations (16 percent) and citizens (14 percent). These findings should help biosolid producers and officials in developing a media strategy that is proactive toward shaping public opinion rather than reactive to an issue that makes its way to the media and spurs public concern.

This study looked at how the media framed biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, from 1994 to 2004 by analyzing the 13 media frames found in 286 biosolid-related articles from newspapers in Florida, Virginia, and California. The researchers found the articles framed biosolids as a regulatory or legal issue most often, and most of the frames' tones were neutral (1,958). However, negative tone (507) happened three times more often than positive tone (149), and environmental, management, and public nuisance framing tended to be more negative than any of the other frames. Neither the frames themselves nor the tones had statistically significant changes over the past decade. Regarding the sources used in the stories, the most frequent source was local government officials, which were used twice as frequently as any other source, followed by corporations (16 percent) and citizens (14 percent). These findings should help biosolid producers and officials in developing a media strategy that is proactive toward shaping public opinion rather than reactive to an issue that makes its way to the media and spurs public concern.

The notion that inadequate health services might have been one of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire is investigated. Despite many factors preventing the early development of an adequate public health service, the Romans had achieved much by the 5th century AD. Apart from many laws promoting public health, various official measures were taken by the Roman government, for example the appointment of state physicians and free medical services for the poor. But the greatest contribution of the Romans was the provision of facilities which served as an indispensable infrastructure for public health care, such as the provision of an ample supply of pure water, public baths, advanced measures for the disposal of sewage, and somewhat later under the influence of Christianity, hospitals for the general public. Although there were still deficiencies, the Roman government cannot be criticised for laxity as far as the provision of health services was concerned. Inasmuch as they were in default, it was because of lack of scientific medical knowledge which only evolved c. 1 500 years later.

AbstractA revision of the Regulations regarding the use of sewage sludge in agriculture has forced a change in emphasis in sludge treatment from stabilisation to achieving pathogen kill. Previous work carried out by United Utilities Service Delivery highlighted temperature as being a key factor in pathogen kill in mesophilic anaerobic digestion and a possible important factor in pathogen destruction in secondary digestion, which is normally carried out in large open tanks where temperature control is not possible. It was found that temperature is a key factor in the rate of pathogen de‐activation under isothermal conditions. However, in the full‐scale secondary digester trial under winter conditions it was found that there was a significant difference between the surface temperature and the bulk temperature within the sludge; at the surface the temperature decreased more quickly. There was no significant difference between the performance of the 'old'and 'new'design of concrete tank with respect to wall thickness, cooling rates and E. coli reduction rate. The glass‐coated steel‐tank design showed a marked increase in the cooling rate and, despite the low ambient temperatures and fluctuating sludge temperature, a minimum 1‐log reduction in E. coli was achieved.

The Privatization of the national public utilities that took place almost a decade ago in Argentina seem to be explained by the persisting deficits of the enterprises, a general dissatisfaction with their performance and the difficulties government faced in their control. During the period of private management, companies restructured their revenues by both regrouping consumers and raising their two-part tariffs unevenly, increased the number of customers and achieved perceptible quality improvements. For assessing the impact of the reforms in the telecomunications, electricity, natural gas and sanitation services upon residential consumers' economic well being, welfare changes of the initial consumers and the surplus of the newcomers are estimated using household level data from the Gran Buenos Aires. The results obtained suggest that the direction as well as the intensity of welfare changes differ across income groups and services and that magnitudes vary according to the rigidity of demands; the benefits for the newcomers also differ across services but they seem to have had little significance in all cases, except in water and sewage. – privatization ; public utilities ; regulatory reform ; welfare changes ; consumer surplus

AbstractRecent legislation has led to stringent ammoniacal‐nitrogen consents and the need for first‐time sewage treatment in coastal areas where land is limited. This has led to the need to improve 'small footprint'sewage‐treatment processes (such as biological aerated filters) which can be used for carbonaceous treatment, nitrification, or for combined treatment. The removal of ammoniacal nitrogen in filters containing different sizes of Lytag medium and operated for combined carbonaceous treatment and nitrification, was compared at different hydraulic and volumetric loading rates. The results suggest that filters containing the smallest media size (2–4 mm), gave optimum nitrification at ammoniacal‐nitrogen loading rates up to 0.6 kg/m3. d. At higher loading rates there was a rapid decrease in nitrification for this size of medium but, with 2.8–5.6 mm medium, nitrification continued at loading rates up to 1 kg amm. N/m3 d. The filters containing larger media sizes (4–8 mm and 5.6–11.2 mm) exhibited low levels of nitrification above a loading rate of 0.2–0.4 kg amm. N/m3. d.

ABSTRACTSeveral methods are available to remove hydrogen sulphide and volatile organic sulphides from ventilated air at sewage‐treatment works. Some methods use alkaline and oxidative chemical scrubbers which may have high capital and operational costs. Other methods, such as bio‐scrubbers and bio‐filters, are used to biochemically oxidize sulphides. Biological scrubbers have the advantage of low operating costs, but their performance may be adversely affected by a high concentration of sulphide (> 100 ml/m3).This paper describes the development of a novel, compact and low‐cost 'rusty‐iron' chemical filter which catalyzes the oxidation of hydrogen sulphide and organic sulphides to colloidal sulphur and water. Operating costs are relatively low, with no need for routine maintenance. Full‐scale demonstration of the effectiveness of such filters was carried out over two years at several treatment works, the results of which are described and discussed together with details of capital costs. The overall percentage removal of hydrogen sulphide by compact multistage filters was found to exceed 95%, irrespective of inlet sulphide concentrations which varied from 34 to 500 ml/m3 (ppm).

Policies in areas or subsystems which are dominated by well‐established policy communities tend to stability. However, policies that have firm political support and a solid ideological underpinning are occasionally subject to marked and whole‐sale shifts which then stabilize around a new equilibrium position. This article examines one such discontinuity in policy: British coastal water policy between the 1950s and the 1990s. Once the concern of engineers and local authority interests, the question of how to deal with the sewage generated by coastal communities is now deeply contested between a wide variety of different actors including environmental groups and European authorities. What was once a relatively well‐managed, professionalized policy community has become unstable as new ideas and domestic regulatory structures have forced the government to justify principles and practices that were implicit or simply rhetorical. This empirical example of what Weale has termed the 'new' politics of pollution, is tested against models of social learning developed by Paul Sabatier and Peter Hall, both of which lay great stress on the importance of changing ideas and beliefs as the main 'motor' of policy change.

ABSTRACTThe EC Directive on urban wastewater treatment will have a considerable impact on the methods used for the treatment and disposal of sewage at coastal locations. The Directive requires the natural processes involved in marine treatment to be enhanced by the use of land‐based treatment to meet the same standards.This paper discusses the implications of this change, in particular the problems involved in constructing and operating conventional treatment plants at coastal locations. Planning problems, both locally and on a catchment basis, are considered. It is concluded that these difficulties point to a need for new thinking in catchment planning and in the design and construction methods used for treating wastewaters in coastal communities. This is illustrated with UK and continental examples.In addition, the implications in terms of outfall design are discussed. It is shown that the change of emphasis towards land‐based treatment does not necessarily reduce the need for a high degree of dilution and dispersion in the sea in order to meet environmental standards. As a result, sound planning, design and operation of long sea outfalls remain as important as ever.

Since Independence, Harare has undergone major growth, both in size and population density. This has led to increasing pressure being placed on rivers draining the Greater Harare area, in terms of the legal and illegal discharges to them from various sources within the Manyame catchment. Consequently, several smaller streams which drain into the Manyame, such as the Mukuvisi and Nyatsime rivers, are highly polluted: the pollution load carried in these streams has contributed greatly to the present problems with water hyacinth in Lake Chivero. The water hyacinth problem is of great concern to the City of Harare since its presence in Lake Chivero threatens the efficient operation of the Morton Jaffray Waterworks, and therefore the quality of the drinking water which is supplied to the City. This paper will cover the nature of the pollution in Harare's rivers, the sources of pollution, what has or is being done to prevent illegal discharges to the rivers, the effect of pollution on the receiving waters, current legislation on illegal discharges, and also the current level of sewage treatment capacity in the Greater Harare area.

AbstractThe co‐disposal of petrochemical plant wastewaters with domestic and industrial effluent is described, with emphasis on pretreatment and effluent management aspects, as conducted by the effluent producer. A brief history of the specific development of co‐disposal of Shell Chemicals (Stanlow manufacturing complex) effluent is given, leading to the recently completed investment of £5.2 million in improved pretreatment facilities, allowing full and failure‐free advantage to be taken of the sewage‐treatment facilities installed by North West Water at Ellesmere Port for the disposal of Shell Chemicals effluent, at a cost of £7.5 million, and commissioned in 1985. Effluent quality problems, and the establishment of dedicated effluent monitoring routines, are described together with the installation of quality and volume monitoring of individual effluents, leading to both processing cost allocation and management accountability. A description is given of the original and redeveloped pretreatment unit for neutralization, de‐oiling and clarification of the effluent. Brief reference is made to liaison arrangements between Shell and North West Water and to the training of staff in effluent management.