USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending July 11, 2008

USAID Fosters “Twinning” on Sanitation between King County, Washington and Thailand. Wastewater operations experts from King County in Seattle, Washington visited the treatment plant in Krabi, Thailand on July 2-4, 2008, to help improve the effectiveness of the Wastewater Management Authority of Thailand’s (WMA) operation and maintenance procedures. The experts conducted a thorough assessment of the conditions and operations at the Krabi plant, and began drafting a toolkit supporting development of an operations manual for the plant. Later in July, WMA Board members will travel to King County to learn about their practices for application in Krabi and other systems throughout Thailand. King County is recognized as one of the most progressive counties in environmental operations in the U.S. The experiences gained from this twinning arrangement and the resulting toolkit will allow WMA to improve operations throughout their network of treatment plants. The USAID ECO-Asia Water and Sanitation program facilitates the WMA-King County twinning arrangement.

“Twinning” Partnership to Improve Water Quality Management in Thailand Supported by USAID. From July 7-11, two experts from Malaysia’s Ranhill Utilities Berhad conducted a preliminary assessment of the Nakorn Nayok Province water treatment plant operated by the Provincial Waterworks Authority of Thailand (PWA).  In a twinning partnership facilitated by  USAID’s ECO-Asia Water and Sanitation program, Ranhill and PWA have agreed to collaborate in strengthening water quality management and water treatment operations at the plant, which currently faces water quality issues.  As a first step, Ranhill experts reviewed Nakorn Nayok’s treatment and water sampling procedures, and focused initial recommendations on optimizing pre-treatment of raw water entering the plant and improving water quality testing. Based on the assessment, the partners will jointly develop a work plan to improve PWA’s capacity in managing water quality and optimizing treatment operations in Nakorn Nayok, which will serve as a model for other PWA waterworks.  

Philippine Local Governments Commit to Addressing Sanitation Challenges. During the Philippines’ 2nd National Sanitation Summit on July 9-10, 2008 in Manila, Philippines, local governments worked together to address sanitation challenges by removing institutional barriers.   Participants committed to developing water safety plans, septage management plans and drinking water quality management committees.  At the summit, over 200 participants from water service providers, local and national government agencies, civil society and other experts discussed the linkage between recent outbreaks of water-borne diseases and the need for water utilities to develop water safety plans and to provide sanitation services to prevent future outbreaks.  USAID’s ECO-Asia Water and Sanitation Program helped organize to the summit, and supported a continuing twinning arrangement between government counterparts from Indonesia and the Philippines focused on promotion campaigns, septage management.  Indonesia will host the second Indonesian Sanitation Summit later in 2008.  

USAID to Benchmark Institutional Capacity of Environmental Enforcement Agencies in Asia. On July 11, 2008, the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) launched a new initiative to survey and evaluate the institutional capacity of environment agencies in selected Asian countries to establish “benchmarks” for effective, appropriately resourced environmental compliance and enforcement programs. The survey results will support decision-makers in addressing agency capacity challenges, and help influence funding policies and priorities to strengthen rule of law and the environment. USAID provides principal funding support for AECEN.

ASEAN Appoints Senior Staff to Help Coordinate Wildlife Crime Response. The ASEAN Secretariat has appointed two ASEAN nationals, Dr. Chumpon Suckseam of Thailand and Ms. Aschta Boestani of Indonesia, to the Program Coordination Unit for the region's Wildlife Enforcement Network. Dr. Suckseam brings extensive experience in forest conservation and management, while Ms. Boestani has past experience in primate conservation and qualifications in natural resource management. Their skills and experience will further the development of ASEAN-WEN, the world's largest wildlife law enforcement network, which helps to protect Southeast Asia's biodiversity with support from USAID and State.