UNU/INWEH water pages

The "Water Virtual Learning Centre"

The curriculum will offer broad-based coverage of the principles and practices of IWRM, providing the students with core knowledge in the natural sciences, engineering, health, governance, public administration, social sciences, economics, resource conservation, strategic planning, as well as aspects of program and project management. Students will be exposed to alternative approaches to issue management and programmatic responses. Integration within the program will be reinforced by reference to the UNU/INWEH "Four Pillars" framework for capacity development and to other key integrative themes.

The curriculum will be CD-ROM based and Internet-supported. It will consist of 10 courses, totaling approximately 250 learning hours. A UNU "Diploma in Integrated Water Resources Management" will be given on successful completion of the entire program. The Rector and governing Council of UNU have approved the creation and presentation of the UNU Diploma to program graduates, the first offered in the history of UNU.

The WVLC curriculum will be finalized and tested by summer, 2003. The developmental pilot program will be conducted in Canada and will involve future coordinators and trainers from the regional centres and Canadian-based African and Asian students, supported by key course developers. The feedback from participants in this pilot will be used to finalize the program for its initial offering during the second half of 2003.

The curriculum includes:

Course #1: An Introduction to Integrated Water Resources Management
This course provides a basic introduction to the fundamental concepts, techniques and knowledge required to understand and manage water resources. Students will gain an overview of the more detailed information presented in subsequent courses.

Course #2: Water Transfer
The course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the hydrologic cycle; processes and measurements; the factors affecting movement and behaviour in terrestrial, riparian and lacustrine environments; surface and groundwater environments; the watershed concept and; the impacts of weather and climate.

Course #3: The Terrestrial Ecosystem and the Impacts of Land Use Changes
This course will introduce the student to fundamental ecological concepts; the role of the natural environment in the hydrologic cycle; the effects of changes in land use on water processes; the impacts of water on land; tools of watershed analysis; aspects of land use planning, control and conservation.

Course #4: The Aquatic Ecosystem
This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and ecological aspects of streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, estuaries and groundwater systems.

Course #5: Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Impact Assessment
This course builds directly on the knowledge gained in the previous course to examine the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the aquatic environment and the methods of measuring those impacts.

Course #6: Water Use
This course examines the various direct anthropogenic uses of water and the many impacts of such uses. In addition, the course examines human consumption of water and aspects of public water supply.

Course #7: Wastewater
This course examines in detail the problems resulting from point and non-point discharges; waste treatment processes; best management practices, monitoring and assessment approaches and; urban versus rural environments.

Course #8: Governance and Community Based Approaches
This course is designed to introduce the concepts and practices of community based water resources management; domestic and international governance, community involvement and gender issues.

Course #9: Organizational Infrastructure and Management
This course examines the issues, concerns and the various approaches to finance, budget, infrastructure, management and planning, as well as public health administration and project management.

Course #10: Applying Integrated Water Resources Management
Customized case studies, practical illustrations of the concepts and procedures of IWRM, and investigative techniques for students to assess their own IWRM needs, conducted in tutorial format.

Collaboration on curriculum development has thus far involved over 60 academics and professionals from a wide range of organizations worldwide, including:

• Canadian Universities: McMaster University, Acadia University, the Universities of Waterloo, British Columbia, Guelph and Windsor and Okanogan University College
• Canadian Government Agencies: Environment Canada's Ontario Region, Pacific and Yukon Region and National Water Research Institute; Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences; and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment
• US and Overseas Universities and Research Institutes: Wayne State University, University of Wisconsin, Kyoto University, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wood's Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and the International Institute of Ecology, Brazil
• US Federal Government: Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, Geological Survey. Fisheries Service and US Sea Grant
• Private and Not-for-Profit Organizations: Cumming Cockburn, OCETA, Canadian Association of Environmental Laboratories and the Grand River Conservation Authority
• UN and International Organizations: UNESCO, WHO, WMO, UNEP, UNU, SOPAC and the Canada/US International Joint Commission.

Regional WVLC Training Centres will be established, in concert with regional partners, to serve as teaching and resource centres for the program. The initiative will rely primarily on the technical capacity of the regional partner. Where possible, live course presentations will be given to small groups, especially for the first (introductory) and final (laboratory-style, tutorial) courses. They will also function as examination centres and provide training on personal computer use.

Computer servers and other technical support will be provided to Regional Centres to service remote course participants through the Internet. The resident servers will also act as "WVLC regional Web sites" and as "shadow" replicates of the core server. As such, they will receive updates of course materials in the classroom environment, serve as software repositories and provide conferencing, e-mail and "web-board" facilities for course participants and instructors. Depending on the capabilities and available technology in the Regional Centres, video conferencing, "white-board" interaction and other on-line facilities could also be provided to participants.

To assist local personnel with teaching and mentoring duties, a cadre of experts from the Regional Centres, DESA, UNU and other agencies will be organized and made available as required. Initially, they will assist with the actual teaching duties (training trainers) and eventually serve as remote "resource people" for course participants. Most of their ongoing interaction will be through e-mail and conferencing systems.

The WVLC project will provide capacity building beyond its educational component. It will assist agencies to identify training needs and deficiencies in organizational expertise. Furthermore, the establishment of WVLC training nodes at INWEH's centres of excellence and elsewhere will provide regional focal points for aquatic research and education. This, in turn, will attract and expand local expertise in the water sector, increase international scientific exchange and provide a resident focal point for science-policy advice.

It is anticipated that the first two WVLC regional delivery centres will be located at the University of Ghana and the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. The Ghana centre was selected, in part, to take advantage of collaboration with INWEH's sister UNU centre there, the Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU/INRA). Similarly, the Fiji location will benefit from interaction with UN/DESA initiatives for Small Island Developing States and the associated SIDSNET information system. The establishment of additional virtual learning centres will be supported by a second phase of the WVLC. Large-scale funding for a global WVLC network will then be sought from a consortium of donors through the follow-up to the WSSD.

Over time, UNU/INWEH's distance education program will also offer training courses for water specialists, as well as short courses for non-water professionals. Existing courses from INWEH's partners will be used where possible, with appropriate regional customization. Examples include courses on drinking water contamination, hydrology, decision support technologies and water governance. Support and outreach will be provided through our partnerships with water information and training networks, in particular the GWP, UNDP/CAPNET, WATERNET in southern Africa, AWARENET in the Middle East and The UN Water, Education and Training Support Group (WET).

To ensure curriculum quality and balance, an International Advisory Committee of eminent water academics has been established and has approved the framework organization of the WVLC. The committee membership is as follows:

• Professor Janos Bogardi, Department of Hydraulics and Hydrology, Wageningen Agricultural University and Senior Educational Specialist, IHP, UNESCO, Paris, France.
• Dr. John Hobbie, Senior Scientist and Co-Director, the Ecosystems Centre, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA.
• Professor Saburo Matsui, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Department of Technology and Ecology, Kyoto University, Otsu City, Shiga, Japan.
• Professor Bruce Mitchell, Department of Geography and Associate VP Academic, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
• Professor John Okedi, Environmental Consultant and former Executive Director, National Environment Management Authority, Kampala, Uganda.
• Dr. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Deputy Assistant Director General Secretary of the International Hydrological Program, UNESCO, Paris, France.
• Professor Jose Tundisi, President, International Institute of Ecology, São Carlos, Brazil.

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The African Centre for Aquatic Research and Education

The role of ACARE will be to improve knowledge and information sharing on the lake, to build a more informed stakeholder constituency, and to enhance local and national capacity for more effective ecosystem monitoring and management. The centre will undertake capacity development and adult education, basin-scale monitoring, knowledge dissemination and large-scale, long-term, freshwater ecosystem research on land-water interactions, biodiversity and impacts of climate variability in the Lake Malawi basin. The goal is to create a permanent home for African-based research and teaching expertise in aquatic ecology, limnology, biodiversity conservation and community-based water management.

In Malawi, agricultural settlement is moving from the south into the more mountainous northern portions of the Lake Malawi basin. With population pressures becoming so extreme, mountainous regions are increasingly coming under cultivation, especially along the rift escarpment, which bounds the lake. With the loss of forest and bush cover comes increased water runoff, more erratic river discharges, increased erosion and increased loss of nutrients into the rivers. Within the lake, this leads to higher water levels, increased sediment loading and increasing nutrient concentrations. Such changes are known to have caused the degradation of Lake Victoria, with its accompanying fish extinctions, degradation of local potable water and increased risk of water-borne disease. In this complex situation, it is imperative that environmental management be proactive, not reactive, and that scientific information be put to work to allow resource managers, political decision-makers and the public at large to see the future consequences of their actions.

The management challenge facing Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique in the Lake Malawi Basin is enormous. In fact, the costs of failure in terms of human and ecosystem health, as well as social and economic development, are beyond even the international assistance capacity of the developed world. Hence, the African countries themselves must meet this challenge, but can only do so by developing their own capacities for water resource management at the individual, institutional, national and regional levels. No single "project" can achieve this goal. A new integrated approach is required, one based on local ownership and responsibility, supported by strong international partnerships for problem solving. Without it, the needed "bridge" to the developed world, across which knowledge, technology, experts and management approaches can be transferred, will not be built. Thus the goal for ACARE is to help to overcome historical impediments to progress in the basin, including: past reliance on intermittent, narrowly-focused, externally-driven projects; the fragmentation and inaccessibility of available information; the limited capacity for sophisticated instrumental analysis; and the unmet demand for technical expertise in national institutions, due in part to the loss of highly qualified personnel from the region.

The primary raison d'etre for ACARE is to create permanent, indigenous scientific and institutional capacity to permit improved management of the Lake Malawi Ecosystem. To that end, ACARE will be established and operated for an initial, 8-year inception period by INWEH. For its part, the Government of Malawi will make available the extensive premises and facilities at Senga Bay and the provision of the large research vessel, "Usipa", the latter by agreement with the UK DIFID. Near the end of the inception period, the GOM and UNU will decide together the future status of ACARE as a permanent national or regional centre of excellence. To assist in this decision, an independent review and evaluation of the effectiveness of ACARE will be conducted.

The planning process for ACARE within LMEMP is well advanced. Stakeholders from government ministries and agencies, universities and other organizations in Malawi have agreed on the proposed research and education themes and accepted INWEH's leadership in the establishment and operation of ACARE. As a UN agency, INWEH was recognized as an effective, neutral organization with the capacity to bring to Malawi world-class expertise in lake sciences, ecosystem modeling and integrated watershed management. Overall, there is broad consensus that ACARE will bring meaningful benefits to the region as a permanent, African-based, regional institution, responsive to African perspectives and aspirations.

UNU has also confirmed the technical and institutional feasibility of ACARE, including the legal basis for agreement between the GOM and UNU to operate ACARE as an autonomous regional institution. The adequacy of premises, facilities and communications and the availability of a large research vessel were also confirmed. The in-kind contribution from the Government of Malawi is exceptional: a 16-acre, lake-side site at Senga Bay comprising a permanent office complex, water research laboratories, conference hall, 25 houses for professional staff, a hostel dormitory, vehicles, boathouse, and a world-class, 17-meter research vessel, "Usipa", and its associated instrumentation, as well as docking access through the Fisheries Department.

The capacity-development, and research-networking program of ACARE will focus on six themes:

• Regional scale, training, dissemination, outreach and cooperative education
• Interactive impacts of people, land and the Lake Malawi ecosystem
• Aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem function in Lake Malawi
• State-of-the-Lake-Ecosystem monitoring and reporting
• Ecosystem decision-support modeling and forecasting
• Impacts of climate variability on Lake Malawi and its basin

The modus operandi of ACARE will be to collaborate and to serve as a catalyst with national, regional and international agencies, universities, and stakeholders to enhance the range of expertise, analytical capacity and educational resources available in the basin. In this way, intellectual capacity will be mobilized to effectively address essential basin-scale and whole-lake ecosystem issues. It will further serve as a permanent repository through its databases, reports and publications for information on the Lake Malawi ecosystem. Lastly it will provide mentoring in best research practices, advisory and educational services, and professional development to the regional ecosystem science and management community.

In its education, training, science and outreach programs, ACARE will cooperate with regional educational institutions to ensure that its educational courses and activities are complementary to current educational opportunities in the region. Programs will be developed for mid- and senior-level professionals and managers seeking enhancement of their knowledge of ecosystem processes and management approaches. Through INWEH's "Water Virtual Learning Centre" (WVLC), UNU-certified, extension courses in ecosystem analysis and management will be offered both at ACARE and national institutions. Technical-level training courses will also be offered.

ACARE's education program will also facilitate graduate and faculty research, offer postgraduate degree co-supervision by regional and international scientists at regional institutions and provide access to ACARE for research by graduate students from riparian universities. ACARE staff will facilitate and conduct professional and policy seminars and workshops, targeted at government institutions and regional experts, on basin issues and ACARE's program results. Technical support will also be provided to NGO's and sectoral extension programs involved with community outreach concerning water and ecosystem management.

ACARE, with its core staff, strong infrastructure and lake access, is expected to be a magnet for research interests in the lake. INWEH will seek to transform this interest into increased investment in research capacity and enhanced research and educational opportunity for regional scientists, while strengthening national research and educational capacities. ACARE scientists will collaborate with university faculty and visiting scientists to conduct research and will facilitate professional, technical and faculty exchanges with national and international research and education partners. ACARE will also bring to bear the latest and most effective information technology to accelerate dissemination of knowledge about the Lake Malawi ecosystem and ecosystem management. Emphasis will be given to building vibrant electronic networks with regional and international institutions to insure that lake issues, research results, and planned activities are well known and current.

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Participation in the UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

The second component of the WWAP is envisaged to be a "Global Water Information Network" (GWIN), the central element of which would be a global-scale "metadata database" - a database of databases. This database would provide access to accurate and comprehensive water data and be a supporting tool for the training of personnel in developing countries on data assessment and information management. GWIN will lead to improved data access, sharing and reliability and will help to address the data hoarding and competing national interests that fosters "non-cooperation" and "grid-lock" in data sharing.

As a first step in the development of GWIN, UNU/INWEH, on behalf of the WAP Secretariat, has undertaken a feasibility study for database design. The report proposes a distributed, internet-based, metadata database that will store references and links to actual data held on other servers, electronic libraries, or in paper format. Development of the system would include cooperative design of the metadata description, iterative implementation of the database through a series of "staged models" and testing of the system, as "proof of concept", on WWDR case studies. The UNU/INWEH study has been strongly endorsed by several WWAP expert groups and a working group is now developing an implementation plan. As the architect of the database component, UNU/INWEH will participate within the WWAP to design, create and operate the system.

The third component of the WWAP is anticipated to be a capacity-building initiative providing support, methodologies, training, project assistance, etc., to key institutions and networks in countries contributing data to the WWDR. UNU/INWEH will contribute the "Water Virtual Learning Centre" (IWRM distance education) as one element of this effort to improve the capacity of developing countries to assess and track progress in water management.

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The "Managing Shared Waters" Conference, 2002

UNU/INWEH commissioned four background case studies on capacity development issues in the Laurentian Great Lakes, the Caribbean Sea, the Lake Victoria Basin and the Chao Phraya River and estuary in Thailand. It is anticipated that the proceedings of the conference, including the background papers, will be published through UNU Press.

The conference concluded that:

• Increased, long-term investment in integrated capacity development is a critical and urgent imperative for coastal management
• Capacity development must be focused primarily at the community level, with greater emphasis placed on awareness raising and on local-level participation in decision-making
• Alternatives to conventional monitoring are needed, with stronger research support for new approaches and local applied studies
• Improvements in water supply and sanitation, which remain grossly inadequate, must come from innovative partnerships at the community level and from the application of existing and promising new technologies.

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The UNU Chair on African Great Lakes and Rivers

The Chair is a cost- and work-sharing partnership with the University of Waterloo and Environment Canada's National Water Research Institute (NWRI). Its goals include university capacity development in the aquatic sciences, graduate education and training, research on African aquatic ecosystems, scientific consultancy services and information dissemination.

Through the partnership, NWRI provides access to its extensive world-class water laboratories and the participation of its scientists in INWEH projects, where possible. The University of Waterloo provides operating funds and appropriate office, laboratory and support services for the Chair and its associated research professionals and graduate students. INWEH helps in the provision of support staff and provides managerial, administrative, communications and outreach support for projects.

A support team of research associates and students to identify, fund and implement new projects is in place and several universities in East and Southern Africa serve as associate institutions of the UNU Chair.

Under the aegis of the Chair, a number of INWEH activities have been undertaken, including:

• Assistance to the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) to organize an international conference on the state of the Lake Victoria ecosystem, entitled "Lake Victoria 2000: A New Beginning", held in Jinja, Uganda, in June 2000. In support of a synthesis of historical scientific information for that conference, a "Legacy Database" for Lake Victoria, including a prototype environmental information system and WWW Internet site, was developed. Four interns, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, collected the legacy information in the riparian countries, working in close cooperation with LVFO. Bibliographic databases on limnology and fisheries were constructed using web-enabled software, while personnel at the Fisheries Institute in Jinja, Uganda, were trained on the use of the system.
• Placement and supervision of over 10 Masters and Ph. D. students from East Africa at the University of Waterloo and other Canadian Universities.
• Completion of an exploratory consultancy to Makerere University, Kampala, concerning development of a "Regional Aquatic Toxicology Center". This "Center of Excellence" would develop the local expertise needed to address the serious economic, ecological and human health impacts from the use of pesticides for agriculture and for water hyacinth control in the Lake Victoria basin.

• Collaboration with the World Bank and the Global Environmental Facility in planning for the "Lake Malawi Ecosystem Management Project", including the creation and UNU operation of the "African Centre for Aquatic Research and Education".

• Advisory assistance to the Ugandan Water Resources Management Department concerning projects on capacity development for lake-wide water quality monitoring, for assessment of pesticide impacts on water quality in the Lake Victoria basin, and for analytical certification of its Water Quality Laboratory in Entebbe, which is slated to serve as a regional Lake Victoria reference laboratory.

• Consultative advice to the World Bank on the extension of the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme and to the GEF on a planning study on integrated land and water management in East Africa.

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Predictive Modeling of Lake Malawi/Nyasa

Although Lake Malawi currently has exceptional water quality, recent studies suggest that increasing nutrient inputs create the potential for rapid eutrophication, as has happened in Lake Victoria. To prevent such deterioration, there is a need to develop a predictive capability to evaluate the future consequences of changing land-use and water-resource demands in the catchment. A massive, prolonged fish kill in the fall of 1999, never seen before in Lake Malawi, highlighted its vulnerability. Better integration of modeling and monitoring into the local management systems is needed, as is further research on the causes of fish kills and on littoral-zone ecology.

The UNU/INWEH model enables local scientists to predict nutrient and sediment inputs, pollutant dispersal and future rates of eutrophication. The model also enables prediction of projected land use effects on river and lake quality and evaluation of potential mitigation strategies. A generic "toolkit" of models of differing scales and purposes, integrated within an expert decision-support system, permits forecasting and "gaming" by resource managers.

The project was implemented by a UNU/INWEH consortium involving the University of Waterloo and Delft Hydraulics of the Netherlands, supported by scientists from several universities, government institutes and private firms in Malawi, Canada, the USA and the UK.

The modelling effort was judged so successful that the World Bank funded UNU/INWEH to undertake a follow-up workshop to train local practitioners and managers on the application of the model and database for decision-making in the watershed. The training course, held in March 2001, was led by instructors from the National Water Research Institute and the University of Guelph, Canada. Students were taught application of the Lake Malawi watershed model combined with an environmental decision-support system, allowing them to become practitioners of these systems and to apply them to integrated watershed management planning in Malawi. By the conclusion of the course, the trainees developed a high level of familiarity and comfort with the technical operation of the model.

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Assessment of Pesticide Impacts on Water Quality in the Lake Victoria Basin, Africa:

The project will yield new information on the fate of currently used pesticides in Uganda, emissions of airborne pesticides and persistent organic pollutants from agricultural areas in the Lake Victoria basin and their inputs to the lake via atmospheric deposition and surface runoff. Fieldwork has commenced and laboratory analyses are proceeding smoothly at NWRI. The project will run for two years.

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Building Capacity for Scientific Monitoring of Lake Victoria

During the 18-month project, UNU/INWEH, in partnership with the National Water Research Institute of Canada, will provide essential scientific equipment, establish operating protocols and procedures, and conduct on-the-job training of Ugandan field staff to sustain a long-term programme, managed and funded locally. The observational programme includes meteorology, water temperature, currents, water quality parameters and suspended sediments. Training for Ugandan field and laboratory staff has included deployment, recovery, refurbishment and electronic data downloading of instruments. To date, 18 professionals and technicians have received their certificates of completion.

The project will provide Uganda with the capacity to sustain a basic physical and water quality monitoring programme on the Ugandan sector of the lake, the first such programme in history and a critical prerequisite for comprehensive monitoring by all three countries, leading to improved management of the lake. Similar training projects are anticipated for the Kenyan and Tanzanian components of LVEMP in the future. The Ugandan project inaugurates a longer-term partnership between UNU/INWEH and the Ugandan Water Resources Management Department for cooperation in capacity building, including participation in the next and larger phase of LVEMP.

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Capacity-Development Activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Sea Water and Beach Quality in the Gaza Strip: UNU/INWEH, in cooperation with the Islamic University of Gaza and the Palestinian Higher Council for the Environment, undertook a project on near-shore and beach water quality in the Gaza Strip, supported by the Arab Gulf Fund for UN Development (AGFUND) and the Government of Norway.

The study found that contamination of seawater by sewage outflows causes widespread illness among users of popular coastal recreation areas along the Gaza Strip, with fecal coliform and fecal streptococci levels well in excess of U.S. EPA standards at some locations. The worst seawater pollution was found in the central part of the Gaza Strip, where effluent from Gaza City is discharged. People in their teens and early 20s were the largest users and almost all who swam reported problems ranging from skin irritation and headaches to respiratory and intestinal illness. Only one-third of more than one million people living in the Gaza Strip are serviced by wastewater treatment facilities, a situation further exacerbated by the lack of appropriate industrial zoning, the proliferation of unregulated stone quarries, and urban planning without regard for environmental quality. The study recommends a permanent monitoring program, upgraded wastewater treatment plants, a public awareness program including development of guidelines for bathing water and beach quality, strict controls on fishing, and further study of health impacts, especially among children, of contaminated beach sands.

Institutional Capacity Development, Palestinian Higher Council for the Environment: Effective water management institutions are a critical element for sustainable development in the Palestinian Territories. To this end, the Palestinian Authority has created a consolidated Higher Council for the Environment (previously the Ministry of Environment Affairs - MEnA). In 2000, UNU/INWEH undertook an advisory consultancy with The Palestinian Authority and UNDP to recommend an appropriate structure and management regime for this new and important Palestinian institution. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, former Executive Director of UNEP, led the consultancy, with funding for the project from the UNDP Trust Fund for Palestinian Development and UNU/INWEH.

The Project team reviewed existing and proposed organizational structures, consulted widely with stakeholders and made a variety of recommendations on mandates and functions. It was recognized that success would depend upon a number of factors - an energizing and inspiring vision; a clear and strong mandate; adequate resources; and most importantly, an effective, productive and professional organization and staff. Particular attention was thus directed to organizational structure, job descriptions, performance indicators, management training, decision-making processes, strategic planning and external coordination and cooperation. The direction recommended was a management shift over time from control to prevention, from discipline-specific science to interdisciplinary, from the provision of information to advocacy of behavioral change, from project-based funding to development of viable programs and from departmental to government-wide horizontal management of policy.

Integrated Watershed Management, Jordan River Valley: The natural carrying capacity of the land and water resources in the watersheds on both sides of the Jordan River valley has been greatly exceeded, resulting in environmental degradation and limited economic development. To help create sustainable development conditions, UNU/INWEH will undertake a watershed management project in the Wadi Al-Faara'a area of the West Bank and at the Wadi Zerqa in Jarash, Jordan. Site evaluation by the donor has been completed and funding has been confirmed from the Short and Medium-Term Environmental Priority Action Program (SMAP), EURO-MED Partnership. Initial priority is being given to those aspects of the project that can be completed outside the Palestinian Territories.

The project will be undertaken in collaboration with the PHCE and the Jordanian General Corporation for Environmental Protection. The Palestinian and Jordanian Water Authorities and Ministries of Agriculture will also participate. Short-term pilot projects will be carried out in these two areas, followed by the development of medium-term integrated management plans. The pilots will address reuse of rural wastewater, water harvesting and drought management measures, application of marginal waters for agricultural purposes, adoption and optimization of cropping patterns and soil erosion protection. The management plans will be based on the results from the pilot projects, as well as on an integrated assessment of cause-effect relationships. The project will be supported by a dedicated baseline information system.

Water and Integrated Rural Environmental Protection in Palestine: The rural environment of the West Bank and Gaza faces serious threats from desertification and soil erosion, water scarcity and air and water pollution from stone quarrying, agricultural fertilization and pesticide use. Through this project, supported by the European Commission's LIFE programme, the Palestinian Higher Council for the Environment will establish an international center for rural environmental protection and develop a rural environmental action plan to reverse and prevent further deterioration. As a part of this initiative, UNU/INWEH will provide project management services and develop aquatic impact assessment procedures in support of regulatory action. Support will also be provided for the development of a rural environmental information system within the international center.

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Regional Groundwater Remediation (Blue-Baby Syndrome)

With funding from the Arab Gulf Fund for United Nations Development (AGFUND), UNU/INWEH examined groundwater pollution from cesspits, the impact of fertilization techniques and the relationship between nitrate concentration and the proximity of drinking water wells to pollution sources. Guidelines are now being finalized for cesspit design, for fertilization practices, and for buffer zones around wells to minimize nitrate pollution. The initiative promotes the planting of special crops capable of reducing nitrate from seeping wastewater around cesspits. Local staff is also being trained to implement the guidelines.

The results of this project are of sufficient concern that a new proposal to the European Union is now being prepared to undertake a major regional groundwater assessment and nitrate remediation program in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. The proposal is being prepared jointly with national environmental officials from the four countries involved.