USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending April 5, 2008

USAID Partners with Leading Malaysian Wastewater Utility to Strengthen Capacity of Regional Counterparts
The USAID ECO-Asia program and Indah Water Konsortium (IWK), a leading wastewater service provider managing over 8,000 wastewater facilities throughout Malaysia, signed a Letter of Intent to cooperate on regional capacity building at the Asia Water 2008 event in Kuala Lumpur on April 2, 2008.  IWK will strengthen the capacity of counterpart utilities in the region by sharing its expertise through utility-to-utility “twinning” arrangements that utilize IWK’s world class training center.  In partnership with ECO-Asia, IWK will also develop practical toolkits to improve the wastewater service delivery and septage management capabilities of partner utilities. In his speech opening the Asia Water Event, IWK CEO, Suhaimi Kamaralzaman said his company is eager to work with USAID in practitioner-to-practitioner exchanges of best practices with cities and wastewater utilities in other Asian countries.

USAID Initiates Water and Sanitation “Twinning” Arrangement between Phnom Penh and Iloilo, Philippines
The USAID ECO-Asia program established a city-to-city “twinning” arrangement between Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Iloilo, Philippines to facilitate the exchange of experience on promoting sustainable sanitation solutions in Phnom Penh during a visit by a senior delegation to Iloilo on April 2-4, 2008. The Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh and the Mayor of Iloilo signed a Letter of Intent initiating the twinning arrangement, which will focus on piloting a sanitation promotion campaign in Phnom Penh based on successful efforts in Iloilo. As part of the partnership, Iloilo officials will travel toPhnom Penh to help their Cambodian peers to develop focused and effective promotion approaches and materials based on comprehensive consumer research. Phnom Penh and Iloilo are both member cities in the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities Initiative, which USAID supports through regional activities and city pilot projects. Through participatory planning, ECO-Asia has assisted Phnom Penh in developing a strategy for improving water supply and sanitation, and promoting hygiene in one municipal district.