USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending December 21, 2007

USAID Signs Sponsorship Agreement with APEC Energy Working Group. USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia has signed a sponsorship agreement with the APEC Energy Working Group that will strengthen an important regional platform for energy efficiency in Asia.  Under the agreement, USAID’s Environmental Cooperation-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program (ECO-Asia CDCP) will provide updated information on energy-efficiency standards and guidelines for posting in the APEC Energy Standards Information System (APEC-ESIS, www.apec-esis.org).  APEC ESIS is a widely used web-based database that covers standards for energy-using appliances and equipment.  It is continuously updated by contributing economies and now covers more than 50 economies worldwide.  During 2008, the ECO-Asia CDCP team will provide updates on technical standards and specifications being used for energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and also initiate a content-sharing agreement between the APEC ESIS site and ECO-Asia CDCP’s clean energy knowledge portal (www.cleanenergyasia.net), which will be launched in early 2008.

Regional Partners Define Priorities for Further Development and Sustainability of Tsunami Warning System. The Governments of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, and India joined United Nations and U.S. Government officials in a regional forum to define priorities for future development and sustainability of the regional Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS).  The region has made impressive progress on the regional system with significant contributions from the U.S., as reported through an UN-led assessment of the response to the 8.4 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that occurred on September 12, 2007.  According to that assessment, installation or upgrades to seismic and sea-level monitoring stations have greatly enhanced hazard detection, disaster management institutions and coordination systems are stronger, warnings are more effectively disseminated, and communities are better prepared to respond to tsunami warnings.  To ensure the sustainability of warning systems and the preparedness of coastal communities, government partners committed to maintaining equipment and continue building national and local capacities.  Similarly, many of the tools and methods introduced through the US IOTWS Program are being incorporated into ongoing capacity building activities of national and regional organizations such as the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and the Asian Institute of Technology.  The five U.S. government agencies participating in the US IOTWS Program – National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Geological Survey (USGS), US Forest Service (USFS), and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) – will continue to provide technical support to partners on selected activities in working towards the end-to-end system.

Vietnam-Malaysia Water Utility Twinning Works to Improve Water Service Delivery in Vietnam. As part of the cooperative, or “twinning” arrangement between Vietnam and Malaysia on improving water service delivery in Bac Ninh, Vietnam, on December 11-14, 2007, USAID’s Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia) Water and Sanitation program and Ranhill Utilities Berhad of Malaysia conducted the final non-revenue water management workshop with the Bac Ninh Water Supply and Sewerage Company (BNWSSC).  Combining classroom and on-the-job training sessions, the workshop focused on the design, establishment and operations of district metering areas (DMAs) as a tool to manage non-revenue water.  The workshop included an overview of DMAs, best practices to prepare DMAs to reduce water losses, and critical requirements for ensuring DMAs are maintained and used effectively for addressing non-revenue water.  From the workshop results, BNWSSC will evaluate how it can best monitor current DMAs, and gather information from DMAs to locate major sources of non-revenue water.

Asian and U.S. Universities Formalize Agreement for New International Tsunami Training Institute. On Friday, December 21, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and University of Washington (UW) in Seattle made official their partnership to establish the first International Tsunami Training Institute (ITTI) through a signing ceremony at AIT near Bangkok.  This agreement serves as the culmination of efforts by USAID and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a permanent, sustainable training platform in support of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS) and tsunami warning systems in other regions around the world.  Started under the USAID-funded US IOTWS Program, the ITTI will provide certificate training to practitioners working across the entire “end-to-end” of tsunami warning systems in their respective countries.  The next certificate training will be held jointly by the two university partners at AIT campus in March 2008.