Sustainable Water Management in Cities.

Sustainable Water Management in Cities: Engaging stakeholders for effective change and action. 13-17 December 2010. Zaragoza, Spain

Speakers

 A

Alastair Sutherland, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

Alberto Tejada-Guibert, Director a.i. Division of Water Sciences, UNESCO

Alberto Tejada-GuibertJosé Alberto Tejada-Guibert, Director a.i. of the Division of Water Sciences of UNESCO since September 2009, was previously Deputy Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO. He joined the Organization in 1996. His major specializations are on surface water hydrology and water resources systems analysis and planning. He was in charge for a few years of the urban water management programme of IHP, among other activities. He obtained his Civil Engineer Diploma (Hydraulics) from the National Engineering University of Lima, Peru in 1970. Thereafter, Stanford University awarded him a M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering/Engineering-Economic Planning Programme, and the IHE of Delft, Netherlands granted him a Diploma in Hydrological Engineering (with distinction). At Cornell University he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Water Resource Systems with a minor in Economics; his doctoral research dealt with the application of stochastic dynamic programming to the operation optimization of multireservoir systems. In the early to mid 70's he worked for the Peruvian National Rural Water Supply Plan (Ministry of Health) and for the Executive Directorate of Project Olmos (Ministry of Agriculture), a major irrigation/hydropower project on the northern Peruvian coast, attaining the post of Head, Planning Office. In the period 1976-1978 he was the Water Resources Systems specialist in the feasibility study of the Puyango-Tumbes Project, a binational Peru-Ecuador multipurpose project. As a partner in a consulting firm in Peru for eight years (1978-86), he was Technical Manager and Head, Systems and Hydrology. During the period 1980-83 he was Visiting Professor at the Graduate Programme of the National Agricultural University, Lima. In 1985-1986 he acted as Adviser to the Peruvian Electricity Master Plan. He entered the UN system in 1990, working from 1990 to 1995 as Technical Assistance Expert in the Water Master Plan of Yemen and in the strengthening the national Hydrology Service of Bangladesh. In addition to producing well over 100 technical reports, he has published in several specialized journals and in proceedings. He was co-author and editor of the UNESCO-IHP book "Frontiers in urban water management: Deadlock or hope" published in 2001 by IWA Publishing.

Alison Duffy, Research Project Officer, Urban Water Technology Centre, Abertay University Dundee Scotland

Alison DuffyAlison Duffy is currently a key player in Work Package One of the SWITCH Project – Urban Water Paradigm Shift. Alongside Professor Jefferies, she is responsible for the 'SWITCH Transitioning Manual' which presents key sustainable transitioning 'steps' for facilitating a SWITCH to integrated urban water management (IUWM) practices that better fit the concept of 'city of the future'. Alison entered academia in 2000 where her key research focus is IUWM issues. Alison also currently supervises two knowledge transfer projects with the Scottish Water Utility. These projects will ensure the roll out of a wide range of knowledge including legal, financial, management and technical issues related to the adoption of public sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) within the business. Prior to this, Alison has completed several projects which have informed national guidance policies and current best practice in the industry. Alison's portfolio includes: the delivery of ground-breaking evidence for the financial viability of SUDS as an alternative to conventional surface water drainage; the development of spatial plans for future integration of SUDS into the local community and the creation of a communication document 'Water Vision' aimed at raising awareness of water related issues and providing cost effective solutions in Renfrewshire, Scotland; secondment to the Environment Agency to disseminate SUDS best practice to staff and professionals in the field; technical review of the Glasgow Strategic Drainage plan; development of proforma for the inspection and monitoring of SUDS, co-design and delivery of several online and part-time training courses in IUWM. Alison began her career as an analytical chemist with the Scottish Water Utility.

 B

Barbara Anton, Project Coordinator, Water, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, European Secretariat

Barbara AntonBarbara Anton has been working with the ICLEI European Secretariat since 1995 and became leader of its water team at the beginning of 2006. Since then she has been responsible for the implementation of several international projects on water and sanitation. She has also contributed to the production of training and guidance materials on sustainable urban water management and delivered training on this subject in- and outside of Europe. Besides her training activities, she has been involved in research on issues of governance, participation and institutional change in water management. Finally, she has helped promote capacity-building for local governments in the water sector among national governments and global organisations in a variety of political contexts. Barbara's original educational background is in pedagogics. She has also been trained as an EU consultant specialising on European business and policy issues.

Bert Diphoorn, Director of the Human Settlements Financing Division and Chief of the Water, Sanitation and Infrastructure Branch, UN-HABITAT

Bert DiphoornMr. Diphoorn has over twenty years of experience in operational management and the provision of technical assistance and policy advice in Africa, Asia and Europe in the area of water and sanitation. He has strong project design and implementation capabilities as well as a track record in policy formulation. He is currently the Director of the Human Settlements Financing Division and Chief of the Water, Sanitation and Infrastructure Branch at UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, Kenya. As a Director, Mr. Diphoorn is responsible for leading the Human Settlements Financing Division in formulating its periodic work programmes and implementation strategy – in support of UN-HABITAT's Strategic Framework, and in achieving the overall objective, viz., to increase pro-poor investment in slum upgrading, water and sanitation, housing and associated infrastructure including transport and energy, by attracting domestic capital and international support through innovative collaborations with international, regional and national financial institutions. Prior to his work at UN-HABITAT, Mr. Diphoorn was seconded in October 2003 by the Dutch Government to the African Development Bank (AfDB) as Senior Adviser to the Vice President, Policy, Planning and Research. At the Bank, he was tasked with the establishment of the African Water Facility, implementation of the AfDB/Netherlands water partnership program, and coordination of the African input in the Fourth World Water Forum. Mr. Diphoorn has also worked as Head of the Water Support Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for the overall approaches to water resources within Netherlands Overseas Development Assistance. He was responsible for the organisation of the Second World Water Forum in the Hague (2000) and the Water Dome during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Bertha Darteh, Facilitator, SWITCH Accra Learning Alliance

Bertha DartehBertha Darteh works with the Civil Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana as a SWITCH Accra Learning Alliance Facilitator. She has been in this position since 2007 following the completion of her Master's programme in Civil Engineering at the same University. Her career experiences cover the following areas: technical audit for civil engineering projects, construction supervision, project management, teaching/training and research in water and sanitation. Her current work as a facilitator shows her versatility as a trans-disciplinary person. Her work as part of the project includes coordinating learning alliance activities and undertaking an institutional mapping and a Resource Infrastructure Demand and Access study which has significantly improved available information on water and sanitation in Accra. She has represented the learning alliance at major international events and is working with stakeholders in Accra to develop strategic directions for Integrated Urban water Management plans in the city. She is finishing up her Phd research on learning alliances and innovation in water management. She is the National Organiser for the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize in Ghana and has also served on the organizing committee for the Ghana Water Forum.

 C

Carol Howe, SWITCH Project Manager, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education

Carol HoweCarol was appointed as the SWITCH Project Manager in April 2006. Her professional career has included management, research, consulting, construction and operational roles. Before joining SWITCH, Carol was Director of Australia's "Future Cities" National research programme, a Board Member of the Cooperate Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment and Strategic Planning Manager for Sydney Water. In California, she was a Principal Planner with MWH Consulting focussed on IWRM and anadramous fish restoration. Her academic background is in environmental science and agriculture and she started her career as a wastewater treatment plant operator and biosolids manager after receiving her BS degree from Penn State University. She is an editor for IWA's "Journal of Water and Climate Change" and Springer's "Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology".

Colin Green, Professor of Water Economics, Middlesex University, United Kingdom

Colin GreenColin Green is Professor of Water Economics at the Middlesex University, United Kingdom. Latterly, he acted as a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee on issues of water and flooding for their recent inquiries into the flooding of 2007, the water industry price round, and the government's draft floods and water management bill. He is also a member of the Core International Expert Group for the Hazard and Risk Science Base that has been established at Beijing Normal University under the Chinese Government's '111' programme to establish 100 centres of research excellence. He has advised a number of international agencies, including the World Commission on Dams and the World Meteorological Organisation, and acted as a consultant to the World Bank on the cost-benefit analysis of flood risk management projects. His 'Handbook of Water Economics' was published in 2003 by John Wiley and in a Chinese translation by WaterPower Press in 2004. He was elected to the International Academy of Water in 2000 and is on the editorial advisory board of journals in Brazil, China and India.

Cristóbal Punina, Vice-minister of Water, Ecuador

 D

David Coates, Environmental Affairs Officer, Inland Waters, Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

David CoatesDavid Coates graduated in biology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and also obtained a Masters Degree from the same university in tropical marine ecology. In the late 1970's he worked on environmental management problems in irrigation schemes in the Nile Basin, Sudan. In 1980 he went to Papua New Guinea where he worked on a wide range of issues but particularly on large river fisheries development. He earned his PhD in 1986 at the Open University, UK, on applied biology of tropical freshwater fish faunas with focus on Africa and Australia. Joining the field programme of FAO for 11 years he concentrated mainly on the management and development of large river fishery resources, including food-security, sustainability and environmental issues. Working with the fisheries programme of the Mekong River Commission he dealt with water resource management aspects of fisheries in the region. And further to this he joined a project for mainstreaming biodiversity and environmental considerations into the fisheries, agriculture and water resources sectors in the lower Ganges Basin. Dr. Coates joined the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, based in Montreal, in August 2003.

 E

Emmanuel Chinyamakobvu, Environmentalist, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Emmanuel ChinyamakobvuDr. Emmanuel Chinyamakobvu is an Environmentalist with the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) based in Bonn, Germany. He has broad experience in programme implementation and monitoring and policy development in environmental management and rural development allied with experience in participatory natural resources management and poverty alleviation. His current position with the Secretariat involves building partnership between countries and their development partners (donors) for the development of appropriate mechanisms and systems for the sustainable management of natural resources, employment creation, income generation and accumulation of wealth by participants in the programmes as well as mapping of socioeconomic opportunities in other development projects and employment possibilities in the context of implementing the UNCCD. During his tenure with the UNCCD Secretariat, he has successfully facilitated the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification by country Parties, focusing on rehabilitating, protecting and conserving degraded lands and mitigating the effects of drought, and emphasizing on integrated rural community development and poverty alleviation and creation of sustainable livelihoods that take into account environmentally sound and sustainable management of the natural resources, particularly in eastern and southern Africa. Being exposed to the facilitating role of the Secretariat, Emmanuel has negotiating skills and abilities to work with diverse groups and has extensive experiences in handling bilateral and multilateral negotiations between countries, intergovernmental and international institutions and organizations. Before joining the UNCCD Secretariat, Dr Chinyamakobvu was a lecturer with the Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe. He later joined the Department of Natural Resources where he practiced and gained wide experience in environmental management and rural development in Zimbabwe. During his tenure, he represented and provided leadership and advice to the Government of Zimbabwe, in the UNCCD negotiation processes.

Evidalia Fernández Fernández, President of the Small Tanners Association, Villapinzón, Colombia

Evidalia Fernández FernándezEvidalia is president of the Small Tanners Association of Villapinzón (ACURTIR), Colombia, since 2004.She has been working in conflict resolution and on issues related to waste management from tanneries for more than twenty years. She has always been passionate about finding sustainable solutions to address conflicts and protect the environment.


 G

Gunther Merzthal, Regional Coordinator on urban agriculture and forestry, IPES Promoción del Desarrollo Sostenible, Coordinator of the SWITCH Project in Perú

Gunther MerzthalMr. Merzthal is coordinator and an active member of multidisciplinary teams working on urban management issues, including urban agriculture, solid waste management, wastewater management, VIH/AIDS and participative governance issues. He also provides technical advisory services to local governments, NGOs and city community organizations of Latin America and the Caribbean for the development of participative processes, diagnosis, strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of development projects in these areas. Mr. Merzthal has a wide experience in designing, planning and implementing knowledge management and information strategies at regional level. He has worked for different UN programmes, including the Urban Management Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a joint undertaking of UN-Habitat, UNDP and the World Bank, and for regional international organizations. He has also collaborated with various international and regional organizations and networks and with NGOs in different countries of the LAC region. As coordinator of the SWITCH project, he has lead the multidisciplinary research team in charge of implementing case studies of experiences in wastewater treatment and wastewater reuse for irrigation in agriculture and green zones in cities and periurban areas. This team has also been in charge of analysing the legal and normative framework related to wastewater use. Mr. Merzthal has also actively participated in the formulation of national policy guidelines for the promotion of wastewater use; these guidelines have been approved by the Ministry of Building and Sanitation in November 2010.

 J

Javier Celma, Director of the Environment and Sustainability Agency, Zaragoza City Council

Javier CelmaJavier Celma is industrial technical engineer by the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, he holds a diploma in "Supervision of radioactive facilities" by the Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, he is also graduated in Energy and Environment by the International University Menéndez Pelayo, holds a diploma in "Purification and treatment of wastewater" by the Polytechnic University of Madrid, a diploma in Environmental Engineering by the Industrial Organization School (E.O.I.) of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Spain and a Master's degree in "Management in public administrations" by ESADE. Mr. Celma has worked for La Montañesa S.A. as deputy director of maintenance and for General Motors Spain as Supervising Engineer in the areas of energy and water treatment. In 1983, he was appointed as chief of service of the Environment Unit of the Zaragoza City Council. From 1993 to 1996, he was director general of water at the Government of Aragon, from 1996 to 2003 he was head of the Department of Environment of the Municipality of Zaragoza, from 2003 to 2007 he was director of the Office of Local Agenda 21 at the Zaragoza City Council. The Agency of the Environment and Sustainability was created in 2007 and he is, since then, his director. He is also member, since 1998, of the Basin Board of the Ebro River Basin Authority and member of the board of directors of the Water Institute of Aragon. Since 2001, he is also member of the experts committee on European indicators of the European Union. He has participated in the preparation of several publications and articles in technical magazines about environmental issues.

Jens Berggren, Director World Water Week, Stockholm International Water Institute

Jens BerggrenJens Berggren was appointed Director for the Stockholm World Water Week in July 2010. Prior to his appointment Mr. Berggren served as Special Advisor in the Secretariat for the Commission for Climate Change and Development at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs with a special focus on Development Policy within the fields of Environment and Climate Change. Jens has also worked as a Policy Specialist, Programme manager and Advisor, predominantly on water issues, at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) both at headquarters in Sweden and in Swedish embassies abroad. Jens served as the first manager of the secretariat of the Water Integrity Network at Transparency International in Berlin. He holds a M.Sc. in Agronomy and a M.Sc. in Technology from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Jerónimo Blasco Jáuregui, Councilor of Culture, Environment, Civil participation and Major Projects, Zaragoza City Council

Jerónimo Blasco JáureguiJerónimo Blasco graduated in Law and has a diploma in Land Management by the University of Valencia and the FUNDICOT Foundation; he also holds a Master's degree in European Communities and Community Law by the European University Centre of Nancy, France. Since 1985, he is a Lawyer of the Court of Aragon. From 1986 to 1990, he worked at the Committee on Regional Policy and Land Management of the European Parliament. From 1993 to 1995, he was Director General of Urbanism and Land Management at the Government of Aragon and, from the periods 1979-1982 and 2000-2003, City Councillor at the Zaragoza City Council. Mr. Blasco has been founder and first president of the Foundation "Ecology and Development" and is author of several publications on regional policy and land management. From 2003 to 2005, he was director of the candidacy of Zaragoza to host Expo 2008 and, since the city was selected, he was appointed as Director General of Operations and Contents of Expo Zaragoza 2008. In 2007, he was appointed as Councillor of Culture, Infrastructure and Major Projects of the Municipality of Zaragoza and, since June 2010, he is Councillor of Culture, Environment, Civil participation and Major Projects.

John Butterworth, Senior Programme Officer, IRC – International Water and Sanitation Centre

John ButterworthJohn Butterworth is a Senior Programme Officer working at the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in The Hague, the Netherlands. His current thematic areas of work are focused on institutional issues, improving access to water and sanitation services in developing countries through action research, capacity building and knowledge management activities in Transparency and Accountability, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), and alternative approaches to learning and research. John has coordinated the development of a stakeholder engagement approach for the SWITCH urban water project focusing on linking research providers and users in the context of urban water management in more than 10 cities around the world.

Josefina Maestu, Coordinator, UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), Director, United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015

Josefina MaestuJosefina Maestu has been appointed as Director of the programme in September 2009. Prior to her appointment Ms. Maestu served as senior advisor to the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs. Recently she has represented Spain in the Environmental Committee of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development, and backstopped the Spanish EU Presidency. With an academic background in economics and planning, her extended professional career in the field of water, international relations, national civil servant positions and international advisor consultancies. She has coordinated the preparation of the economic analysis of River Basin Management Plans in implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the economic evaluation of infrastructure investment projects and programs and European Funded Programs. Further on, for several years, she was Secretary-General of the Mediterranean Water Network, and has been technical adviser to the European Commission and UN system organizations including the World Bank.

Juan Alberto Belloch, Mayor of Zaragoza, Spain

Juan Alberto BellochMr. Juan Alberto Belloch graduated in law from the University of Barcelona who served as Minister of Justice from 1993 to 1994 and Minister of Home Affairs from 1994 to 1996. He founded the "Judges for Democracy" Association in which he participated actively until 1990 as member of the Secretariat for Associative Relations and Spokesperson of the Association. In 1999 he presented his candidacy to the Mayoralty of Zaragoza, and proposed making a bid for the International Exhibition 2008 in Zaragoza, in commemoration of the bicentenary of the Siege of Zaragoza. In 2003 he was elected Mayor of Zaragoza, and renewed his mandate in 2007. Expo 2008 transformed the city and consolidated it as one of the most dynamic medium-sized cities in Southern Europe. It also provided a momentum to the city's candidacies for European Capital of Culture 2016 and the Winter Olympics 2022.

Juan Felipe Hunt, International Labor Organization

 K

Kala Vairavamoorthy, Director of the School of Global Sustainability, University of South Florida, United States, Scientific Director of SWITCH

Kala VairavamoorthyProf. Kala Vairavamoorthy is the founding director of the School of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida in Tampa, USA. The school was launched in the fall of 2010 and provides integrated and interdisciplinary research, scholarship and teaching in the area of sustainability with a strong focus on resilient cities. He is also Professor of Sustainable Urban Water Infrastructure Systems at UNESCO-IHE's Institute of Water Education in Delft, Netherlands. Prior to moving to Florida, he was Chair Professor of Water Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. Prof Vairavamoorthy has a PhD and MSc in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from Imperial College, University of London. He is also a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK). Prof. Vairavamoorthy is a specialist in urban water systems. His main research areas are in the development of new techniques for the flexible design of urban water systems, the application of optimisation techniques and the development of risk assessment approach for the design of sustainable urban water systems operating in the 'city of the future'. He is the Director of SWITCH, a €25M EU research project for Sustainable Urban Water Management, which is one of the largest EU research projects in the area of water. He has a strong international profile working closely with UNESCO, UN-Habitat and IWA. He Co-Chairs IWA's 'Cities of the Future' programmes and jointly coordinates UNESCO's Urban Water Programme.

 L

Linda M. Whiteford, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Strategic Initiatives, University of South Florida, United States

Linda WhitefordLinda Whiteford is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the Provost at the University of South Florida. Dr. Whiteford has her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology, and master's degrees in both Anthropology and Public Health. She is an internationally recognized researcher, lecturer, and consultant; a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on water-washed and water-borne diseases such as dengue fever and cholera, and also on global reproductive health, disaster mitigation and recovery. She has consulted for the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and advises on global health care policy. She has received research funding from the National Science Foundation. Notable recent publications include: Global Health in Times of Violence, Barbara Rylko-Bauer, Linda Whiteford, and Paul Farmer (editors), (2009); Primary Health Care in Cuba: The Other Revolution. Linda M Whiteford and Laurence Branch, (2008); Anthropological Ethics for Research and Practice, (with Robert T. Trotter, II) (2008).The Medical Anthropology of Water, in Blackwell Medical Anthropology Companion, with Cecilia Vindrola Pardos; Reproductive Rights in No Woman's Land: Politics and Humanitarian Assistance, with Aimee Eden, in Reproduction, Globalization and the State, (2010); Failure to Protect, Failure to Provide: Refugee Reproductive Rights, in Global Health in Times of Violence (2009). Growing up in Colombia, Mexico and Spain (as well as the United States) she has always been engaged in social justice, equity, and human equality issues.

 M

Magda Vânia Corrêa Carmona, Engineer, Department of Drainage and Stormwater Management, Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil

Magda Vânia Corrêa CarmonaMagda works as an engineer at the Department of Drainage and Stormwater Management of the Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil, since September 1993. Since then, she works on the management, planning, projects and implementation side of the stormwater drainage system of the city of Porto Alegre. Prior to this, from 1977 to 1993, she worked in private consulting companies in different areas including dam projects, irrigation, highways, urbanisation and basic sanitation. She currently works in the area of hydrological studies, hydraulics and environment. Her academical background is in civil engineering by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; she also has a Master's degree in Water Resources Engineering and Environmental Sanitation from the Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas.

Marc Soutter, Senior Scientist/CEO, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)/Ipogee Consult

Marc SoutterMarc Soutter works as a researcher and lecturer at the Laboratory of Ecohydrology (formerly Hydrology and Land Management Laboratory) of EPFL since 2000. He has also been a lecturer at the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2ie) in Ouagadougou for the last 15 years. With a background in environmental engineering, he did research and/or taught successively in the fields of soil physics, pesticide contamination of groundwater, land improvement, irrigation and land drainage, hydrology and water resources management, integrated land and resources management and planning, collaborative geo-information systems, and so on. Currently his main research interests focus on the use of information technologies to provide innovative approaches to address multi-stakeholder, multi-purpose, multi-thematic issues in relation with integrated natural resource management and land and urban planning. Since 2007, Marc is also running a small SME, Ipogee Consult, meant to further support and develop research outcomes.

Miguel Iturbe, Director of the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón

Miguel IturbeMiguel Iturbe is director of the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón since 2008. Prior to this, he was deputy director of this newspaper from 2001 to 2008, he served successively as editor in chief, deputy director and director of the newspaper Diari de Tarragona from 1997 to 2001, he was information services officer at Europa FM, Madrid, from 1996 to 1997, communications and press chief at Sport Gestión, Bilbao, from 1995 to 1996, and editor in economy at the ABC newspaper in Valladolid from 1992 to 1995. Mr. Iturbe has a Master's degree in journalism by the University of Navarra.

Mohan Peck, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

Mohan PeckMohan Peck is a senior sustainable development officer at the United Nations in New York. For the past year he has been leading the work programme on sustainable cities. In that capacity he collaborated closely with the 2010 Shanghai Expo on Better City, Better Life. He is now producing a training manual for urban managers that will be promulgated through a global capacity building programme beginning in 2011. Prior to taking up his current assignment, Mr. Peck provided leadership to the UN's Marrakech Process on sustainable consumption and production. This is a multi-stakeholder, international effort designed to support governments in their efforts to green their economies, encourage businesses to develop greener business models, and help consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles with smaller carbon footprints. Prior to that Mr. Peck spent most of his career at the United Nations developing energy end-use efficiency projects in over 20 developing countries.

Mónica Sanz, Institute of Environmental Studies (IDEA), National University of Colombia

Monica SanzMónica Sanz is from Colombia. She has a Master of Science in Biology by the University of Los Andes, Bogotá, a D.E.A by the University of Orleans, France, in 'Land use planning, development and environment', and is currently working on a PhD on 'Sustainable Water Management and Small Enterprises in Colombia: An Approach to Conflict Resolution' at the UNESCO-IHE Institute. She also has postgraduate courses in Negotiation and in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution by the University of Los Andes, Colombia. As a biologist, Mónica is interested in multidisciplinary approaches for coping with today's environmental challenges. She has been responsible of a research project on cleaner production for a tanner's community in Colombia. She is currently leading the SWITCH project at the Institute of Environmental Studies (IDEA) of the National University of Colombia.

Monika Dziegielewska-Geitz, University of Lodz, Poland, SWITCH facilitator for the case of Lodz, Poland

Monika Dzięgielewska-GeitzMs. Dziegielewska-Geitz is, since 2005, facilitator, consultant and event organizer in the areas of restoration and creative economy; she also is facilitator and multistakeholder platforms researcher in the EU "SWITCH – Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow's Cities' Health" project, and specifically for the Lodz Learning Alliance. Monika is author of articles and papers on Learning Alliances and Multi-Stakeholder Platforms and EKOROB LIFE+ Multi-Stakeholder Platform facilitator at the International Institute of the Polish Academy of Science – European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology under the auspices of UNESCO in Lodz. She also is President of the ReACT Foundation, which among others facilitates restorative and creative development. Owner and director of SLC Consulting – a consultancy in restorative and creative development, Monika has a M.A. in Anglo-Irish Literature and TEFL and a M.A. research by the Trinity College of Dublin, Ireland. In 2005, she completed an international intensive training in Nonviolent Communication with Marshall Rosenberg. Initiator and organizer of events such as the "Vision Lodz 2023" initiative – series of conferences on integrated revitalization and creative redevelopment; organizer of workshops, concerts, and exhibitions; Monika has also been Future City Gamesmaster, organizer of the Future City Game in Lodz and is member of the Future Cities Forum Advisory Board. Monika is Laureate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Netherlands Award for development of relations between the Netherlands and Poland in the fields of revitalization and creativity "Space To Take Place".

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Nadia Abdou, Chairperson of Alexandria Water Company

Nadia AbdouEngineer Nadia Abdou is the chairperson of Alexandria Water Company (AWCO), Arab Countries Water Utilities Association and National Council of Women in Alexandria. She has a deep experience in water industry different fields including construction, operation, management of water plants, laboratories and accurate researches. Among the most prominent features of her achievements is that Alexandria Water Company mainly depends on its own resources without being provided by any governmental subsidy. It should be mentioned that Alexandria Water Company has been chosen by the regulatory body for water and wastewater as the first company in the field of operating the central laboratories. During her work as a chairperson of AWCO, Alexandria Water Company has got 5 ISO certificates for the east, central and west of Alexandria, the training centre and the laboratories. Eng. Nadia Abdou is a member in the General Assembly of World Water Council, IME in France since L987, AWWA in USA and DWA in Germany. In addition, she is the first Arab woman nominated for the Award of lnternational Fund for African and Muslim Woman.

Nilo Nascimento, Minas Gerais Federal University, Brazil.

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Peter Rogers, Professor, University of Harvard

Peter RogersPeter Rogers has served as Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and Professor of City and Regional Planning at Harvard University, since 1974; member of the Center for Population Studies, Harvard University, from 1966 to 1996; and member of the Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE), since 2000. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Professor Rogers has a wide range of research interests, including the consequences of population on natural resources development; improved methods for managing natural resources and the environment; the development of robust indices of environmental quality and sustainable development; conflict resolution in international river basins; the impacts of global change on water resources; and transportation and environment with an emphasis on Asian cities. He has carried out extensive field and model studies on population, water and energy resources, and environmental problems in Costa Rica, Pakistan, India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and to a lesser extent, in 25 other countries. He is co-author with Susan Leal of a book entitled Running Out of Water, published by Palgrave/Macmillan in August 2010. Recent books include An Introduction to Sustainable Development (with K. F. Jalal and J. A. Boyd), Earthscan, 2008, and Water Crisis: Myth or Reality (with M. R. Llamas and L. Martinez-Contina), Taylor & Francis, 2006. Professor Rogers is Senior Advisor to the Global Water Partnership; recipient of Guggenheim, Twentieth Century, Wenner-Gren, and Maass-White Fellowships, and the Warren A. Hall Medal of the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR); member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); life member of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers; and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Most recently, he received the 2010 Julian Hinds Award from the Environmental Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Piers Cross, Senior Advisor in Water and Sanitation

Piers CrossOver a 30 years career working in water supply and sanitation, Piers Cross has become a leading international spokesperson/strategist on water and sanitation issues. Piers, a South African with a background in social anthropology and public health, worked for the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program for over 20 years, rising to Global Program Manager, but also worked as Principle Regional Team Leader in both South Asia and Africa. He was founding CEO of the Mvula Trust which, in the Mandela years (1990s), helped South Africa rapidly scale up rural water and sanitation delivery. Piers now advises and works with many of the world's leading water and sanitation agencies, including the World Bank, the Water and Sanitation Program, UNICEF, UN-HABITAT, the Global Water Partnership, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, the EU Water Initiative, UNDP and many donor agencies, governments and NGOs. He co-founded the regional sanitation conferences (such as AfricaSan), and AfricaSan Awards, co-founded the Water Integrity Network, worked as global coordinator of the International Training Network for Water and Waste, chaired the Rural Water Supply Network, is a Board Member of the Water Research Commission in South Africa, and recently has been a leading voice in launching the Sanitation and Water for All alliance. Piers has a strong record as a fund-raiser, promoter of innovation, sector activist and communicator. He has worked in 36 developing countries and authored or instigated over 50 publications.

Pireh Otieno, National Project Officer, Water for African Cities Programme, UN-HABITAT

Pireh OtienoMr. Otieno holds a Master of Arts Degree in International Studies from the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at The University of Nairobi, Kenya. He has over ten years experience and expertise in formulating and implementing strategies for effective involvement of local stakeholders in planning, management and monitoring and evaluation of water and sanitation programme activities. He has worked for the past 8 years with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, as a National Project Officer in the Water for African Cities Programme covering seven African cities and currently as a Programme Officer in the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative. He is responsible for pro-poor governance issues, including the participation of the urban poor in the formulation, implementation, management and monitoring of project activities. Using the experience of the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative, Mr. Otieno has produced a toolkit for stakeholder engagement and local partnership building entitled "Step-by-Step Guide on How to Set Up and Manage a Town-Level Multistakeholder Forum". The methodology can also be used to establish citywide stakeholder platforms for improving municipal governance.

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Ramón Barberán, Professor in Applied Economics, University of Zaragoza

Ramon BarberanRamón Barberán is PhD in Economics. He currently works as professor in Applied Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Zaragoza. Mr. Barberán is member of the University Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences of Aragon, Spain. His educational and research activities focus on Applied Economics and Environmental Economics. Mr. Barberán is specialized in the economic evaluation of public interventions in the economy. One of his major research interests is the economic analysis of public projects and policies related to water use and management in urban areas, for which he regularly collaborates with the Zaragoza City Council. He is author of different publications related to the determinants of water consumption at household level, to the cost of supplying water in urban areas and to the establishment of rates for water supply.

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Senyo Theodore Amengor, Chief Operations Officer, Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd./Ghana Water Company Ltd.

Senyo Theodore AmengorSenyo Theodore Amengor has been appointed the Chief Operations Officer in June 2010. Prior to his appointment he served as the General Manager (Projects) in the same company. He has for the past three years been the City Manager for the UN-HABITAT Water for African Cities programme (Accra City Project). Mr. Amengor has over thirty years of experience in the water sector. With an academic background as a Civil Engineer and later specializing in Sanitary Engineering at the Masters level, his professional carrier in water supply covered seven out of the ten geo-political regions of Ghana. He was Regional Director of Volta, Brong Ahafo, Tema and Accra West regions of the Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) before the management contract between GWCL and the Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd. in July 2005. Earlier on he was in charge of water supply operations for Ashanti and Central regions. During the early years of his carrier he was Project Engineer and worked on several water projects including the design and supervision work of the Improvement and Stabilization of Water Supply systems in Northern Ghana, a project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Mr. Amengor also holds an Executive Master in Business Administration degree from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, and was for a period a member of the board of directors of Ghana Water Company Ltd.

Sônia Knauer, Water Resources Manager, Municipal Secretary of Environment, Belo Horizonte

Sônia KnauerSônia Knauer is a geologist who has specialized in environmental management of precarious settlements and in environmental management of risk areas. She currently works as a Water Resources Manager at the Belo Horizonte's Municipal Secretary of Environment, where she evaluates projects in protected areas, coordinates visits, supervises the production of maps and reports, and works on water quality analysis and on health and sanitation indicators. She is part of the Ribeirão do Onça Basin Committee, and has helped in developing two editions of the Municipal Environmental Sanitation Plan. She has also participated in the analysis of the water and sewage concession of Belo Horizonte and of the alternatives the Municipality would have if operating these services. She is the facilitator of the SWITCH Learning Alliances project in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Stephen Kabuye, Mayor of Entebbe, Uganda

Stephen KabuyeMr. Kabuye holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration; he also has several on-the-job certificates on Urban and Local Government Management and related areas. Mr. Kabuye is a public sector management specialist who has served at the helm of Uganda's Decentralization process as Mayor of Entebbe. With 16 years experience as Mayor of Entebbe, Stephen Kabuye has supported various city development programmes both locally in Uganda, regionally in East Africa and internationally in Africa and beyond. Mr. Kabuye is the current Chairman of Urban Authorities Association of Uganda (UAAU), an association which brings together all cities and towns of Uganda, and member on various national bodies i.e. National Water and Sewerage Corporation, the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre. He also served as a Commissioner Local Government Finance Commission, Uganda, from 1999 to 2003, and is the Founding Chairman and Honorary President of the Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC). He is also the Vice-president for Local Authorities Confronting Disasters and Emergencies (LACDE), whose headquarters are in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the immediate past Vice-president of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). On 21st June 2000, Stephen Kabuye was commissioned by the Governor and Secretary of Arkansas, USA, to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador to the people of other states in the USA and in other nations.

Susan Leal, Senior Fellow, Advanced Leadership Initiative, Harvard University

Susan LealSusan Leal is a water utility expert and author. She specializes in identifying realistic and creative solutions to the water and wastewater challenges. Susan speaks regularly about our most pressing water issues and has appeared on regional NPR stations around the United States. She is currently a Senior Fellow of Harvard University. As part of her fellowship, she co-authored Running Out of Water, takes a positive approach to the looming water crisis. Her book is not a doom and gloom book; instead, it features case studies to improve water security. For several years, Susan ran the San Francisco Bay Area regional water and power utility providing water to 2.5 million people. She led the charge for a dramatic upgrade of the utility's seismically unsafe water system and San Francisco's outdated wastewater system. She is an Associate of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a member of the advisory board of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley.

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Thomas Van Waeyenberge, Programme Manager for Institutional, Press and NGO relations, AquaFed

Timeyin Uwejamomere, Senior Policy Analyst, Urban issues, WaterAid

Timeyin UwejamomereTimeyin Uwejamomere is the Senior Policy Analyst - Urban at WaterAid. He established WaterAid in Nigeria's Policy Department in 2003 as Head of Advocacy and Communication before moving to his current role in London. He recently managed a process to develop a toolkit on civil society engagement in urban water and sanitation sector and utility reforms. His research interests include pro-poor urban policy development, improving urban data monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of investments in targeting the poor. Timeyin worked as a journalist, for over a decade, specializing in the environment and sustainable development issues. A member of the Town Planners Registration Council in Nigeria, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Lagos Mainland Local Planning Authority (LPA) between 1999 and 2003. He has served as a town planning and communication consultant to various international organisations and national government agencies.

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