WB WW − 2

Just to say that all the presentations made at the World Bank Water Week are now online here (select a link on the right, not left!), including José Carlos Melo’s and mine (which was on health risks in urban agriculture). There are also some interesting presentations on Climate Resilience of Infrastructure Investments (see also Climate Change more generally).

World Bank Water Week 2009

Last week I was in Washington, DC at the World Bank Water Week. I went to the sessions on urban agriculture and WatSan services for the urban poor. The latter was especially excellent (organized by Martin Gambrill, a Leeds PhD graduate) since a presentation on condominial systems was given by the truly illustrious José Carlos Melo who developed condominial sewerage in the early 1980s in Natal in northeast Brazil. The event served as the launch outside of Brazil of his new book Sistema Condominial: Uma Resposta ao Desafio da Universalização do Saneamento (in English: The Condominial System: A Response to the Challenge of Universal Access to Environmental Sanitation − “saneamento” means more than just sanitation; it encompasses water supply, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management). The book is available in Portuguese as a zip file here; an English translation is being prepared by the World Bank. Zé Carlos is the author of The Experience of Condominial Water and Sewerage Systems in Brazil which was published by WSP in 2005.

All the presentations made at the WB Water Week will be available on the World Bank Water Week website in a couple of weeks. The presentations made at Water Weeks 2001−2007 are available here.

Oh, I nearly forgot: not a mention of EcoSan all week!