Research. Education. Networking.
Between the 3rd and 6th of October, the CB project held its second massive outreach effort through an International Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. The conference focussed on academic, policy as well as advocacy issues.
The International Conference on Water Resources Policy in South Asia was held from 18th to 20th December, 2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The agenda of the conference was to enhance understanding of water resources governance, management and use in the region, and critically assess initiatives for the reform of these.
SAWA Fellow wins Best Poster Award in Stokholm
Aishwarya Nandhini Elangovan, a SAWA fellow from CWR, won the Best Poster Award at the 2011 World Water Week held in Stokholm. Her poster was on “Rapid Urbanisation and Associated Sociological Impact due to flooding in an urban regime”. The poster dealt with dealing with the unpredictable challenges as an effect of exploding urban growth, where an Integrated Flood assessing modelling (IFAM) framework had been developed to quantify the sociological damages and associated economic sosts. The poster attempts to suggest management measures based on performance indicators (viz. Flood depth, inundated area and resilience period) developed to reduce the impact of flooding on the urban populace.
Congratulations to Ms. Eva Manandhar
We would like to recognise the achievements of one of our SAWA fellows. Ms. Eva Manandhar (M. Sc IWRM from NEC), was awarded by the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP) of the Ministry of Irrigation, on 7th July, for her research. The Director General, Deputy Director General and other high ranking officials attended the presentation, which was titled 'Study of Effectiveness of Water-induced Disaster risk reduction Initiatives by NGOs'.
As part of her research, Ms. Manandhar, has developed a completely new matrix to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of the activities of the institutes engaged in reduction of disaster risk in Nepal. She was awarded a cash prize of NRs. 35,000 for her work.
The fifth and final SAWA Fellows training programme, as part of the CB Project, was held on Participatory Field Research Methodology, at the PGIA, University of Peradeniya. The SAWA fellows’ training of this year was not included under the project document and there was no funds allocated for this activity this year. However, at the PIM and PAC meetings held in 2010, all three concerned PIs (BUET, CWR and PGIA) confirmed that they had the funds so they could hold this training with their respective funds. SaciWATERs was required only to help in the coordination. Thus this training was organised by the three Partner Insitutes (BUET, CWRand PGIA) with the funds that they had. The fourth partner institute, NEC, was not included in this training as NEC does not have SAWA Fellows this year. This year’s training did not have any external resource persons, the faculties and Research Coordinators were the resource persons. The CB Project Director, Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich, also participated in the training programme as a research person.
The programme covered both theoretical and practical aspects of the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools. It also covered SPQR and questionnaire survey. Some of the PRA tools covered included Social and Resource mapping, Pair-wise and matrix ranking, Time line diagram, Mobility map, Daily routine diagram, seasonal calendar etc. The training also included field visits and discussions with farmers. Participants, divided into groups, were asked to identify a research problem, based on their field visit, and submit a research proposal. Subsequently, the facilitators, helped them study the problem, using research tools and methods discussed in classes. Every group had a faculty member who would guide them individually. Finally, the groups presented the findings of the research.
Water Justice Meeting, 18th to 22nd April, Pune
Pune: A pre-project consultation on Water Justice issues was organised here between 18th and 22nd April, by Wageningen University, SOPPECOM and the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India. The consultation titled, “Exploring Possibilities of research on Water Justice in South Asia”, was held as a prelude to a probable large project on Water Justice, thanks to a grant from the Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (IREF). This meeting explored ideas for building alliances and identifying thematic areas of research and collaboration between South Asia and Latin America. Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich, Executive Director, SaciWATERs, was present in the consultation meeting. Dr. N. K. Ambujam, Director, CWR and Dr. Hari Shrestha, Principal, Nepal Engineering College, were also present in the meeting attended by forty participants.
Furthermore, the consultation explored in detail the empirical, theoretical and methodological development of the topic of water rights and justice, striving to identify core issues of water rights in the region. The workshop also traced probable partnerships in research, capacity building, policy and publication.
India Water Forum (IWF), 13th to 15th April, 2011, New Delhi, India
New Delhi: The First ever India Water Forum (IWF) was organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with several governmental bodies between 13th to 15th April in New Delhi. The forum is to discuss water in the context of climate change pertaining to South Asia. This year’s theme was Water Security and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities.
SaciWATERs was represented by Executive Director, Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Jayati Chourey. Dr. Chanda was one of the 24 panelists for the Indo-German Roundtable on ‘Water, Climate Change and Conflict in South Asia’, that was organised on 14th April. The roundtable featured prominent names from governmental and non-governmental research circles, including Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC and Professor Ramaswamy Iyer, Former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.
The Roundtable was meant to be a starting point for increased cooperation within the region, and to explore the possibility of engagement between Germany and South Asia on water conflict issues. Dr. Chanda shared experiences of successful collaboration from the Crossing Boundaries (CB) project. “By means of facilitating faculty and student exchanges, have helped people in the region, understand that they shared many similar problems related to water and climate change. “ Dr. Chanda’s narratives and learnings from the CB project, was appreciated by many participants, who saw it as a testament of the fact, that many people from the region wanted cooperation in environmental issues, but that the reluctance to cooperate must be taken up initially, at the governmental level.
