 Water Legislation and Compliance Survey
INECE, Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) are sponsoring an international survey on the compliance and enforcement of water quality and water resource management laws at the national level.
To recieve the survey link and password, please email inece@inece.org. We will be conducting this survey during the month of November; the survey will end on Friday, November 30, 2007.
African Water Facility supports Monitoring and Evaluation coordination in the African Water Sector
The African Water Facility (AWF) organized a regional consultative meeting on 21-22 September 2006 in Tunis, under the auspices of the African Ministers’ Council on Water and with the cooperation of the African Development Bank to share experiences and build partnership to support African countries in water sector monitoring and evaluation. The meeting provided opportunities to enhance synergy in water sector monitoring & evaluation through sharing information, networking and coordinating activities.
WBCSD unveils its Water Scenarios Project
In 2004, a group of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) member companies set about helping business to understand why they should be thinking more about water. The result, a series of scenarios entitled Business in the World of Water - WBCSD Water Scenarios to 2025, looks at possible future roles for business in relation to the growing issue of water in the world.
New Russian Water Code Signed into Law
In June, President Putin signed into law the country's Water Code, which will come into force on 1 January 2007. Some elements of the new code are:
- all water resources except self-contained bodies of water, on federal,
regional or private land, are federal property;
- self-contained bodies of water larger than 3,000 square meters or located within 1 kilometre of a settlement cannot be privatised;
- a simplified procedure for acquiring "special" water use rights, which are based on an agreement between private parties as opposed to "specific" rights based on government regulations;
- a provision for water user fees to be paid to the federal government.
From IRC Source.
INECE Presents Water Governance Capacity Building Program at 4th World Water Forum
 NECE presented
a capacity building program on "Compliance and Enforcement and Legal Aspects of Good Water Governance" on 17-18 March 2006 as part of the Institute@WWF4. The capacity building program introduced participants to environmental compliance and enforcement aspects of good water governance, including developing enforceable requirements, ensuring compliance with those requirements through mandatory and incentive programs, the role of the public, conducting inspections, and creating an atmosphere of deterrence.
Click here for a flyer on logistics and the topics of the training course.  For full coverage of events at the 4th World Water Forum, visit IISD Linkages.
Recent Water Pollution Case in China Dubbed "Legal Landmark" by Financial Times
The Financial Times reports that "A Chinese water company has won $285,000 ( €241,000, £166,000) in compensation from two companies and an irrigation bureau blamed for one of the worst incidents of pollution to blacken the water of the fabled Yellow River. The compensation payment reflected efforts to use the legal system as well as bureaucratic controls to reduce pollution but it also highlighted the environmental pressures on the waterway considered the cradle of Chinese civilization." ...Continue Article (Financial Times).
Prosecuting Water License Violations: A New South Wales Example
The recent case of Murray Irrigation
Limited v ICW Pty Ltd and Meares Nominees Pty Ltd (NSWLEC 304) emphasizes the need to actively ensure compliance with allocated water requirements. In this case, which occurred in water-stressed Australia, the user was fined for interfering with the water meter, which affected the record of how much water was being used or taken by the licensee.
Policing Water Quality in California
Nearly a year after water quality enforcers walloped Hilmar Cheese Co. with a $4 million fine for exceeding state pollution limits, the giant manufacturer continues to exceed those limits. Rather than escalate enforcement, however, some say the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's staff has retreated in the face of a legal and public relations counterattack by the mass producer of cheese. Such a rollback, critics and other regulators argue, illustrates a systemic problem within several regional water quality control boards, where the dominant culture is to coax businesses into compliance rather than penalize them. ...Continue article (Sacramento Bee)
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