A World of - UNESCOunesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001307/130716e.pdfA World of IN FOCUS 2 The...

A World of

IN FOCUS

2 The International Year of Freshwater

NEWS

6 SESAME breaks new ground

7 E-learning comes to India’s blind

8 Avicenna virtual campusprepares for first intake

8 The OCEANS programme chartsnew seas

9 A life devoted to popularizingenvironmental science

10 Parliamentarians call forinternational forum on S&Tpolicy

10 Scientists to debate virtues of aEuropean Research Council

INTERVIEW

11 New ICTP Director Katepalli R.Sreenivasan vows to promoteglobal scientific excellence

HORIZONS

13 Journey to the highest lake inthe world

16 The pastoralists of Wadi Allaqi

IN BRIEF

20 Diary

20 New releases

20 Governing bodies

Water for a thirsty planet s Mikhail Gorbatchev put it, ‘Just as we are moved by water, we must now movein order to save it.’Water is intrinsic to our lives and to the ecosystems upon which

we all depend. Every day, natural disasters such as floods and droughts, and human-made disasters such as pollution, are damaging this resource and claiming human healthand life.

As the world population grows, so too is pressure growing on our rivers, lakes andgroundwater aquifers. In many parts of the world, competition is increasing betweenusers fighting for their share of clean, usable water. Are agricultural demands moreimportant than using water for energy production? Are demands of urban populationsmore important than rural needs? Should we allow the natural environment to sufferthrough changing river flows or tolerating pollution? All water uses are interlinked, soonly an integrated approach to water management will work.

Upstream users affect the quantity and quality of waters available to downstream users;and users along the course of a shared river or aquifer must agree on realistic andsustainable use of the resource if conflict is to be avoided. ‘If you are looking for reasonsto fight’, Uri Shamir has said, ‘water can provide you with one. But if you seek peace,water makes a good bridge for co-operation.’The examples in the present issue of LakeTiticaca and the Columbia River show how water sharing can work.

In 2000, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, announced thecreation of the United Nations system-wide World Water Assessment Programmecomposed of 23 agencies and convention secretariats, and hosted by UNESCO. Theprimary product of this Programme is the World Water Development Report, the firstedition of which is to be launched on 22 March at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto(Japan).

Another key event later in the Year will be the Pan-African Conference on WaterResources Management in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), co-organized by UNESCO’sInternational Hydrological Programme.

The International Year of Freshwater is a year of opportunity, a Year in which we, asindividuals, communities, countries and as a ‘global village’ must come to understandthe urgency of protecting and reviving our life-sustaining water resources.

W. ErdelenAssistant Director-General for Natural Sciences

The International Yearof Freshwater, p. 2The International Yearof Freshwater, p. 2

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Natural SciencesQuarterly Newsletter

Vol. 1, No. 3

April–June 2003

CONTENTS EDITORIAL

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‘A global water crisis isthreatening the security,stability and environmentalsustainability of all nations,particularly those in the

developing world’ warnsGordon Young, Co-ordinator

of the World Water AssessmentProgramme which will be

producing a World Water DevelopmentReport every three years as part of a

collective on-going assessment of water resourcesby the United Nations. ‘The International Year of Freshwater willstrive to alert people to this crisis’.

The first Report, to be launched on World Water Day on22 March, provides comprehensive evaluation and monitoringof the planet’s hydrological resources. It includes, for example,the first global map of groundwater resources, recentlyproduced by UNESCO, the International Association ofHydrogeologists and the Commission for the Geological Mapof the World.

“Groundwater is going to be increasingly important in thefuture’, says Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Director of UNESCO’sInternational Hydrological Programme (IHP).

‘More than one billion people lack access to safe drinkingwater and more than 2.4 billion are without adequate sanitation.At the World Summit on Sustainable Development inJohannesburg in September, governments pledged to reducethe proportion by half by 2015. To meet this goal, we mustbetter assess and manage groundwater supplies, which offertremendous potential but are nevertheless extremely vulnerableto pollution and over-use’.

‘There is also an ethical issue’, says Szollosi-Nagy. ‘At theSummit, we stressed that access to water should be recognizedas a basic human right. For UNESCO, water is not just acommodity but a common public good. It is, however, essentialto recover the costs of providing people with water in order tomanage the demand. At the core of any discussion onprivatization, there should be a firm legal recognition that theresource is a common public good.’

The IHP strives to provide the scientific studies, policyadvice and training required for better management of nationaland international water supplies. This covers a wide array ofissues stretching from the ethical use of fossil water (which canbe thousands and even millions of years old) to flood control.

One example of this interaction is HELP1, a jointUNESCO/WMO programme launched in 2000 which isforming a global network of catchments to improve tiesbetween hydrology and the needs of society. ‘Real people, realcatchments, real answers’ is the programme’s motto. Scientists,managers and policy experts come together at HELPcatchments to solve local water-related problems (touching onfood security, human health, environment, etc.) and therebycombat poverty. One example of a HELP catchment is theThukela river basin in South Africa, where balancing theallocation of water between user groups is a key issue2.

We’re slipping backwards

‘Ten years ago, we were in a better position to monitorhydrological conditions than today,’ says Szollosi-Nagy.‘Many governments reduced monitoring and researchbudgets. But this short-term approach ends up costing themmore, as is so clearly seen with the catastrophic floodingevents in Europe last year, for example. There is considerablespeculation that the floods were related to climate change. Itis too soon to confirm this. However, there is no denying thatanthropogenic factors aggravated the situation. To begin with,better monitoring means better predictions. In addition, thereis a lack of infrastructure to deal with periodic floods.

The situation is even worse in developing countries. In 20years, Africa will lose half of its reservoir capacity to

IN FOCUS

People living in favelas near the river in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Each year around the world, more than 700 million tons ofhuman waste are disposed of into waterways. A further500 million tons of industrial waste pollute the world's water

2 A World of SCIENCE, Vol. 1, No. 3, April–June 2003

The International Year of FreshwaterIt is no co-incidence that the first World Water Development Report is beingpublished by the United Nations during the International Year of Freshwater,which kicked off in January.

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sedimentation. Silt from the rivers is accumulating atdramatic rates and this is exacerbated by erosion resultingfrom deforestation and poor land management. If the currentrates continue, many of the major reservoirs will be so siltedup that they won’t be able to operate properly, provokingmajor cuts in electricity, irrigation and drinking watersupplies,’ warns Szollosi-Nagy, referring to an IHP databasethat is tracking sedimentation flows in rivers around theworld.

Learning to share resources

There are over 260 transboundary basins around the world.In 2001, UNESCO and the NGO Green Cross International,founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, launched a major project onwater diplomacy, entitled From Potential Water Conflicts toCo-operation Potential, within the larger framework of theWorld Water Assessment Programme. Initially, the projectfocused on developing innovative approaches to resolvebrewing conflicts on five international river basins: Okavango,Volta, La Plata, Jordan and Incomati.

Although shared water resources are a potential source ofconflict, they can also provide a solid basis for co-operation.Lake Titicaca is a positive example (see p. 13), as is theColumbia River system shared by the USA and Canada3.

The Columbia River system drains over 670,000 km2 inwestern North America. It descends 810 m over less than 2000km, which places it among the world’s leading potential sourcesof hydroelectric power. On two of the Columbia River’s majortributaries, Canada and the USA are both upstream anddownstream parties. Two treaties and a joint commissionregulate the River’s shared management.

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Women carrying water in Antigua (Guatemala). Only 0.26% ofthe world's freshwater is stored in lakes and rivers. Theremainder exists in the form of groundwater (30%) and iceand snow

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1. Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy2. [email protected]. [email protected]

The IHP and regional co-operation

UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP)was established in 1974. It is an intergovernmentalprogramme, so UNESCO’s Member States play a key rolein shaping each phase. The current sixth phase, whichwinds up in 2007, is devoted to the theme of ‘WaterInteractions: Systems at Risk and Social Challenges’.

Regional co-operation is an important aspect of theIHP’s global programme. UNESCO staff work closely withsome 163 National Committees and Focal Points.

The IHP has a network of regional and internationalcentres operating under the auspices of UNESCO. Theseare a cornerstone of UNESCO’s strategy to improvescientific understanding of the water cycle and waterresources management:

• Regional Centre on Urban Water Management(Tehran, Iran), formally established in February 2002

• Regional Centre for Training and Water Studies ofArid and Semi-arid Water Studies of Arid andSemiarid Zones (Cairo, Egypt), formally established inDecember 2001

• UNESCO–IHE Institute for Water Education (Delft,Netherlands), formally established in 2003.

The Water Centre for Arid and Semi-arid Regions ofLatin America and the Caribbean (La Serena, Chile) is tostart up in 2003 with Flemish funding. Other centres in thepipeline are:

• Regional Centre for the Management of SharedGroundwater Resources (Tripoli, Libya), under theauspices of UNESCO and WMO

• Regional Center on Urban Water Management forLatin America and the Caribbean (Bogota, Colombia)

• Regional Centre for Ecohydrology (Warsaw, Poland)• Regional Centre on Drought for Sub-Saharan Africa

(site yet to be identified) • International Groundwater Resources Assessment

Centre (site yet to be identified).

The IHP and the new UNESCO–IHE Institute for WaterEducation are planning a strategic meeting in July 2003 onWater-related Education and Human Capacity-building. A‘Type 2’ initiative endorsed at the Johannesburg Summitby the name of GOUTTE of Water (goutte being the Frenchnoun for "drop’) will be launched officially in Delft. Theexpanded acronym stands for the Global Observatory ofUnits for Teaching, Training and Ethics of Water. Based onenvironmental ethics, peace-building and the promotionof excellence, GOUTTE of Water will stimulate education,training, research and innovation through collaborationand exchange programmes. Partners include the Suezgroup and AMGA, a company which supplies water to theItalian city of Genova.

For further information, contact:[email protected] or (for the Delft centre): [email protected], or go to: www.unesco.org/water/ihp

Through the new project, the UNESCO–IHE Institute forWater Education will be providing training in various aspects ofshared water management, including institutionalarrangements. As a starting point, UNESCO is using aninventory of existing transboundary basins, including theColumbia River, to identify what works and what doesn’t inshared basin management.

Over 95% of the Earth’s useable freshwater is stored asgroundwater. Human dependency on aquifers is intensifying.The pressures of the modern world have led scientists toaugment groundwater resources through artificial recharge. Athree-year study in this area was launched in July 2002. Basedin India and Nepal, the study is being led by the BritishGeological Survey, in collaboration with government agencies,NGOs, universities and the IHP, and with funding from the UKDepartment for International Development.

Between now and 2007, the IHP will be establishingguidelines for managing transboundary aquifer resources andshared river basins within its Internationally Shared AquiferResources Management (ISARM) programme. A guidingprinciple will be for surface water and groundwater to beconsidered as interdependent systems rather than managedseparately. A Type 2 partnership, ISARM was launched byUNESCO, the International Association of Hydrogeologistsand others at the Johannesburg Summit. At a meeting next Junein Peru, the partners will launch an inventory of transboundaryaquifers in the Americas, in collaboration with the Organizationof American States.

One example of a shared transboundary aquifer is theKalahari/Karoo multi-layered aquifer shared by Botswana,Namibia and South Africa (predominantly used in Namibia).The aquifer is all the more treasured in that it providesfreshwater in a very arid environment. The water is used bylocal communities of Botswana and South Africa for drinkingand for watering stock. In Namibia, it is being used increasinglyfor irrigation. The major issue for all three countries is to obtaina proper understanding of the aquifer – where is the major


IN FOCUS

A community chips in to improve its water supply

In 1999, the coastal village of Maileppet suffered fromseasonal outbreaks of diseases due to the contaminationof its water. It was one of several villages on the island ofSiberut (Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra) to be studiedwithin the preparatory phase of a UNESCO project onwater use. Maileppet was chosen for the project’s pilotphase, which consisted of building a water supply systemin the village with financial support from the RoyalNetherlands Embassy in Jakarta.

The participatory ‘bottom-up’ approach of the projectmeant that all community members were directlyinvolved in designing and building the water supplysystem and in developing specific regulations for soundwater management and for the maintenance of the wholeinfrastructure. After the installation of a gravity-typewater supply system in June 2000, more than 700 peoplecould rely on easy access to clean water.

This project represents an important example ofcommunity-based water management in an indigenoussetting. It was implemented in collaboration with theIndonesian Institute of Sciences and a local anthropologist.

Home to 60% of the world population, coastal areas,including small islands, are among the most denselypopulated regions on Earth. These areas are subject toextraordinarily intensive use by industry, commerce,agriculture, aquaculture and tourism. This causes multipleproblems: conflict between different uses of coastal landand waters, overexploitation of resources, discharge ofwastes and effluents, increasing risks of storm surgedisasters and heightening stress caused by sea-levelchange and coastal population growth.

UNESCO is co-ordinating the session on WaterManagement in Coastal Zones and Small Islands at theWorld Water Forum. The Type 2 partnership on IsotopeTechniques for Sustainable Water Resources and CoastalZone Management, launched by UNESCO, IAEA and otherpartners at the World Summit on SustainableDevelopment, will be presented during the session.

For further information in Jakarta: [email protected] (on the Forum session): [email protected]

A local man fixes the tap onto the water tank

Tienfala village, Mali. A child born in the developed worldconsumes 30–50 times as much water as a child in thedeveloping world

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recharge area located, for example, and would the aquifer beable to sustain large irrigation schemes? – so that it can beeffectively assessed, monitored and managed jointly to avoidconflict between irrigation and sustainability. It is ultimatelyplanned to develop a ‘groundwater treaty’4.

Where do we go from here?

An important output from the World Water Development Reportwill be the production of indicators of water-related stress. Thesewill provide a simple yet effective means of comparing differentcountries and regions of the world. One of the ‘end-products’ ofthe World Water Assessment Programme, the indicators willeventually provide the basis for recommendations.

This first Report emphasizes that wise governance can onlycome about when the knowledge base is secure. It also

demonstrates that,while education,indigenous knowledgeand scientific technologiescan each exist in isolation,there is an increasing focuson finding integrated solutionsto water problems, solutions thattake into account all aspects ofknowledge, both traditional andscientific, taking from one to enrich theother. The San Bushmen of the KalahariDesert in South Africa, for example, relyon age-old techniques to find water. Atselected sip-wells, they compact sandaround a straw fitted with grass filters ateither end. When water hasaccumulated, theysuck it outthrough the

55A World of SCIENCE, Vol. 1, No. 3, April–June 2003

4. [email protected] and [email protected]

An early warning system for Africa’s polluted urban aquifers Half of the world’s predicted population of 6.5 billion will live in towns or cities by 2010 and the bulk of population growthwill be concentrated in the developing world. In Africa, urban growth rates are accentuated by the problems of severe climaticconditions, desertification and poverty, which affect many areas of the continent and cause migration of rural populationstowards big towns. As a major source of water in many African cities, urban aquifers will need to meet the growing demandfor water. But they will also have to cope with increasing sources of urban pollution, such as organic chemicals, pesticides,nitrates, heavy metals and waterborne pathogens.

As UNESCO programme specialist Emmanuel Naah points out, ‘It is economically impractical and may sometimes even betechnically impossible to clean up urban aquifers once they become polluted over a large area. Consequently, in the long-term,polluted urban groundwater will either be abandoned, leading to acute water shortages, or require complex and expensivetreatment systems to avoid placing public health in jeopardy.’

An IHP project launched from UNESCO’s Nairobi Office in 2002 will assess the impacts of pollution on aquifers in 10 Africancities: Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Dakar (Senegal), Cotonou (Benin), Accra (Ghana), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Bamako (Mali),Niamey (Niger), Lusaka (Zambia), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Mombasa (Kenya). The project will assess the damage causedby the uncontrolled groundwater development and indiscriminate waste disposal which have accompanied urban expansionand resulted in growing water scarcity and deteriorating water quality.

‘The idea is to provide a robust system of monitoring’, Naah explains, ‘to give legislators and water managers early warningso that they can take timely action against pollution.’

For further information, contact: [email protected]

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Only metres from a well in a residential part of Niamey,children and goats clamber over dumped household andhuman waste

A pond used as a dumping ground for household waste anddiscarded machinery, Niamey

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straw and store it in ostrich eggs which are then sealed forlater retrieval.

Water management is most effective, the Report reveals,when it involves all members of a community. Although,traditionally, women have been excluded from watermanagement policy and project implementation,experience shows that their participation, and evenleadership, is beneficial. One illustration of this is Limaï,Cameroon, where women raised the necessary investmentfunds to improve their village’s domestic water supply bycultivating a communal field. Once the project wasinstigated, the village men were invited to participate.

Ultimately, the goal of the International Year ofFreshwater is to bring home to each and every one of usthat we all have a part to play in averting the looming worldwater crisis.

Amy Otchet5, Eliza Bennett6 and Alice Aureli7

At a ground-breaking ceremony on 6 January, UNESCODirector-General Koïchiro Matsuura announced theofficial launch of the International Centre for Synchrotronlight for Experimental Science and Applications in the MiddleEast (SESAME). The ceremony celebrated the acceptanceof SESAME’s statutes by the seven founding members.

His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan laid the cornerstonefor the building at Al-Balqa’Applied University, the future site ofSESAME, in the presence of Matsuura and other UNESCOofficials, members of the Jordan Cabinet, the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applicationof the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), WernerBurkart, and other dignitaries.

SESAME in an independent centre created under theauspices of UNESCO in much the same way that UNESCOassisted in the creation of the European Organization forNuclear Research (CERN) 50 years ago. SESAME's foundingmembers are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, PalestinianAutonomous Territories and Turkey. They now form theSESAME Council which, among other responsibilities, willprovide the annual operating budget. Kuwait is an Observer.Other countries are expected to joint soon. Libya has alreadyasked to become an Observer. Several countries outside theMiddle East that were Observers to the Interim Council are alsoexpected to reconfirm their Observer status in the new Council,among them Armenia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,Russia, the UK and USA.

The SESAME Council replaces the International InterimCouncil that has met nine times since being formed in 1999.Herwig Schopper, former Director-General of CERN, has beenelected to continue as President of the Council with KhaledToukan, Minister of Education of Jordan, and Dincer Ulku ofHacettepe University in Turkey continuing as Vice-Presidents.

The Government of Jordan is providing the site and hasagreed to fund the construction of the building, estimated at

Koïchiro Matsuura unveils the commemorative plaque toapplause from HM King Abdullah II of Jordan

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5. UNESCO Office of Public Information6. WWAP7. IHP specialist

UNESCO rolls out red carpet for Year

To promote the International Year of Freshwater,UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura hasappointed HRH Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, ofSaudi Arabia, as the Organization’s Special Envoy forWater.

HRH Prince Talal’s commitment to humanitarian causesand development have won him international acclaim.He has been a relentless champion of democracy, humanrights and particularly the rights of girls and women (hefounded the first private girls’ school in Riyadh), whileholding ministerial positions in the Saudi government.

Today, he is president of AGFUND–Development, theArab Gulf Programme for United Nations developmentOrganizations, which is tackling the issue of waterscarcity through its network of affiliated institutions.AGFUND has so far contributed to 27 water projectsworth US$30 million.

As UNESCO Special Envoy for Water during 2003, HRHPrince Talal is drawing the attention of heads of states,specialists, civil society and youth to the looming worldwater crisis. Everywhere he travels, whether to majorinternational conferences like the 3rd World Water Forumin March or to smaller gatherings with community-basedorganizations, he is emphasizing the need to act. Some2.7 billion people will face serious water shortages by2025 if consumption patterns and inefficient use gounchanged.

For further information on the Year, contact:[email protected] or go to: www.wateryear2003.org

IN FOCUS


US$6–8 million. It will house the upgraded BESSY I lightsource donated by Germany. The upgraded ring will be in the2–2.5 GeV range. The building has been designed (see figure)by civil engineers from Al-Balqa’ Applied University on thebasis of the ANKA synchrotron radiation facility at theKarlsruhe Research Centre. With the bidding process now over,construction is due to begin soon.

Six scientific and technical workshops and courses have beenheld in the Middle East on topics relating to the project and 30scientists and engineers from the Middle East have spent up totwo years working at synchrotron radiation laboratories inEurope and the USA. Financial support for these activities hascome from Members of the International Interim Council,UNESCO, synchrotron radiation laboratories in Europe and theUSA, IAEA, International Centre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP), US Department of Energy, Japanese Society for thePromotion of Science and other sources.

The SESAME staff currently consists of a Technical Directorand Administrative Director. Other appointments are inprogress. Four Advisory Committees (Technical, Scientific,Beam Lines, and Training) report to the SESAME Council.

For further information, go to: www.sesame.org.jo

E-learning comes to India’sblind The first e-learning centre for the blind in India opened itsdoors on 22 November at the National Council of EducationResearch and Training in New Delhi, India.The centre is thefirst in a series of institutions which will ultimately bringdistance learning to more than 2 million blind children.

Ten Braille terminals have been installed in the centre andconnected to the ten work-stations on the Local Area Network.A ZOOM text software and Braille printer complete the

equipment. The project officer, Mohamed Miloudi, UNESCOexpert in distance education, spent 22 and 23 Novembertraining staff at the center, technicians, educators and personsworking with visually impaired children how to use theSAID–SYSTEM and WebSAID (which use Windows andInternet respectively). The technologies were also demonstratedto the representatives of each of India’s states and to variousorganizations, such as the National Institute for the VisuallyHandicapped and Indian Association for Special Educationand Rehabilitation. UNESCO New Delhi has contributedUS$115,000 in project costs to the Indian Government.

The Asia–Pacific region has by far the largest number ofchildren with special education needs worldwide. Poverty,accident and malnutrition are some of the causes. Owing to thelarge numbers, the region has been slow in providing qualityeducation to all children and young persons with special needs.

One in five Indians are school-age children. And one in tenof these 200 million children has special needs. It is estimatedthat there are more than 2 million blind children in India. It isthus crucial for the country’s socio-economic development tointroduce more efficient educational and training methods.

One of the obstacles delaying introduction of Brailletechnology into India until now has been the cost of thetechnology. By designing a low-cost technology that can bemanufactured within India, Miloudi has overcome that. The newtechnology gives the blind access to computer software andhardware developed especially for their needs, such as the tactilescreen which fixes onto the PC and uses the standard keyboard.The system also repeats aloud each letter typed on computersequipped with speakers. Besides bringing knowledge to theirfingertips, the new technology enables the visually impaired tocommunicate via e-mail to correspondents around the world.

The next step of the Indian project, launched in November2001, will be to set up an open virtual library containing thecourses. Existing educational courses will be adapted andmade accessible to the visually impaired, in addition to newcourses produced for the Indian market. All will be freelyaccessible on-line.

A blind student familiarizing himself with the Braille terminal(his left hand is touching the tactile screen)

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‘If all goes well, we should see a centre of this type in everyIndian state within a few years and a special terminal for theblind installed in every cyber café across the country’, saysMiloudi. ‘The idea is also to replicate the Indian experience inother countries of Asia and the Pacific’.

Since 1996, UNESCO has implemented other projectsusing Braille technologies in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabiaand, most recently, Qatar. The Noor Institute project in Qataris co-funded by AGFUND and the Commercial Bank of Qatarand was inaugurated by UNESCO’s Director-General,Koïchiro Matsuura, on 2 January 2002.

For further information, contact: [email protected] or: [email protected]

Avicenna virtual campusprepares for first intake

On 9 January, the operational stage of the MediterraneanAvicenna campus was launched at a meeting involvingMohamed Miloudi of UNESCO’s Division of Science Policyand Analysis and the ‘work-package leaders’: the OpenUniversity (UK), Universidad Nacional de Educación aDistancia (UNED) in Spain and, in France, theConservatoire national des arts et metiers (CNAM), Centrenational d’enseignement à distance (CNED) and Universitéeuro-méditerrannée sans murs (UM).

Named after Ibn Sina (981–1037 AD), the most famous physician,philosopher, encyclopedist, mathematician and astronomer ofhis time, the Avicenna virtual campus involves 15 countries ofWestern Europe and North Africa. UNESCO is principal co-ordinator of the programme, to which the European Commissioncontributes €3.7 million through its EUMEDIS8 programme.

Avicenna comes at a time when the traditional universitysystem in the South can no longer cope with the demand fortertiary education. Strong demographic growth, coupled witheconomic constraints, has led governments in North Africa andelsewhere to limit enrolment in public universities by quotasystems and other means. Only some of the overflow is beingabsorbed by foreign and private universities.

The first operational stage will consist of staff training inadministration and distance teaching methods. Knowledgeofficers from the participating centres will be trained in how tointeract with the media engineers and professors, while tutorswill be shown how to interact with students for a given course.The training will be kicked off by a session run by the CNEDand international experts in e-learning on 17 March for thedirectors of all the Avicenna centres. This will be followed bytraining of the centres’ technical and educational experts,including a session on 30 June organized by the CNED.

At a second stage, existing course materials in scientific andengineering disciplines will be adapted to distance teaching,5% of which will be adapted for blind students. Each centre willthen use these as a starting point for production of its ownmaterials. ‘Cross-fertilization’ of the different contents madeavailable by participating universities will be encouraged andcredits gained by students from one centre will beacknowledged by other participating universities. The scienceand engineering courses and virtual library will be madeavailable to a first intake of some 3000 students in January2004. Student numbers are projected to rise exponentially.

For further information (in six Mediterranean languages):http://avicenna.unesco.org

The OCEANS programmecharts new seas

The Open Science Conference for the Oceans hosted byUNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission(IOC) at UNESCO headquarters on 7–10 January hasmoved a step closer towards a major international projectwhich should boost interdisciplinary work in oceanographyamong physicists, chemists and biologists around the world.

The conference gathered input from the scientificcommunity to the fledgling Ocean Biogeochemistry andEcosystem Analysis (OCEANS) programme, which is beingdesigned to further understanding of the ocean’s sensitivity toglobal change within the broader Earth System.

Faced with the daunting challenge of global change, thescientific community has resolved to develop Earth SystemScience. This effort attempts, for the first time, to conduct anintegrated study of the Earth as a single functioning systemresponsible for the existence and maintenance of life on Earth.

As part of this effort, the International Geosphere–BiosphereProgramme (IGBP), Scientific Committee on OceanicResearch (SCOR) and UNESCO-IOC are already co-sponsoring the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics project

The Avicenna knowledge centres in 15 countries

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(GLOBEC). After appropriate endorsement from its governingbodies, UNESCO-IOC expects to co-sponsor OCEANS alongwith IGBP and SCOR.

OCEANS will seek to understand the impacts of climate andanthropogenic forcings on the structure, function, diversity andstability of food web dynamics and on elementalbiogeochemical cycles. It will also strive to understand – andpredict – how these linked systems respond to global changebrought about both by natural climate modes, such as the ElNiño–Southern Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation, andby human activities.

Some parts of the ocean are likely to be particularly sensitiveto long-term changes. These ‘hot spots’ often occur in criticaldomains such as regions of upwelling and deep mixing,continental margins, high-latitude areas, the sediment-waterinterface, the mesopelagic layer and intermediate waters. ‘Hotspots’ will be subject to intensive study.

The Open Science Conference for the Oceans was co-sponsored by IGBP, SCOR, the International Council for Science(ICSU), US National Science Foundation and UNESCO-IOC.

In the Conference’s wake, a Science Plan containing animplementation strategy is being drawn up with a view tolaunching OCEANS in 2004.

Further information, go to: www.igbp.kva.se/obe

A life devoted topopularizingenvironmental scienceVenezuelan journalist Marisela Salvatierra is the winnerof UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for the Popularization ofScience 2002. The prize comes in recognition of herremarkable 26-year career in science communication andenvironmental education in Latin America.

Ms Salvatierra receives the sum of £2,000 and a UNESCOAlbert Einstein Silver Medal. As holder of the Ruchi RamSahni Chair, which comprises a token honorarium ofUS$2,000, she will travel to India for a period of two to fourweeks as the guest of the Government of India. The Ruchi RamSahni Chair was introduced by the Government of India in2001 to mark the prize’s 50th anniversary.

During her stay, Ms Salvatierra will interact with the Indianscientific community, young students and the public at large to

convey her personal message in science popularization andestablish ties with India.

‘Science communication opens people’s eyes’, she believes,‘combats the scourge of pseudo-science and democratizes thebenefits of knowledge, since one of the objectives of sciencepopularization is to enable the majority to participatedemocratically in the discoveries of the minority.’

Ms Salvatierra produces and conducts the weekly radioprogramme on environmental analysis, Evolution, and directsthe Foundation on Environmental CommunicationDevelopment (Fundecam).

She is a former Professor of Journalism on Environment andDevelopment, and Environmental Education, at the SocialCommunication School of the Central University of Venezuela.She has been President of the Environmental Commission ofVenezuela’s Scientific Journalism Circle and was responsiblefor environmental issues at the National School of Journalists.She was also a driving force behind the National Programme ofDevelopment and Consolidation of Environmental Journalismin Venezuela, which included the design of an environmentaltraining programme for active journalists.

For ten years, she headed the government programme ofenvironmental analysis. She has also worked as Editor-in-Chiefof the magazine Profauna, as Editor of the technical magazine,Environment, and as the Venezuelan correspondent for theLatin American edition of Environment Watch.

Ms Salvatierra regrets that the production of scientificliterature for children and the general public in her homecountry is modest. ‘There are currently only 45 titles forchildren, 40 for teenagers and 450 for the general public’, shenotes9. Among Salvatierra’s own titles are AtmosphericPollution, The Process of Environmental Deterioration inVenezuela’s History, The Animal Population in Venezuela andWhy do we get flooded? from the series Cuadernos Maraven.

The annual Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Sciencewas created by UNESCO and the Kalinga Foundation Trust inIndia in 1951 to encourage a dialogue between scientists andthe general public. Some six Nobel Prize laureates figureamong past recipients.

Each year, applications for the Kalinga Prizemust reach UNESCO via the candidate’s NationalCommission for UNESCO by 15 May.

For further information, go to:www.unesco.org/science/pao/global.htm;for the list of National Commissions:www.unesco.org/ncp/natcom/

Marisela Salvatierra


8. Euro-Mediterranean Information Society9. Source: National Library of Venezuela


NEWS

Parliamentarians call forinternational forum onS&T policyParliamentarian science committees from 31 countrieshave called for the setting-up of an international forumgrouping parliamentary science committees, the scientificcommunity and representatives of civil society.

The recommendation came on 14 January at the end of a two-day workshop in Helsinki on Science, Technology and Innovation– a Parliamentary Perspective. The three organizers, theParliament of Finland, ISESCO and UNESCO, have been invitedto establish such a forum, in consultation with national, regionaland international parliamentarians. The Helsinki Declarationadopted at the workshop lays out the forum’s objectives. It willserve to foster closer co-operation among policy-makers,parliamentarians, scientists, journalists, the public and privatesectors and civil society at both national and international levels,and support capacity-building by science parliamentarycommittees in emerging democracies. Given that regulation is auniversal necessity, the forum should also stimulate discussion onthe merits of harmonizing the guiding principles regulatingapplications of scientific and technological research.

Speaking from the workshop, Amuriat Oboi Patrick, the chairof a science and technology (S&T) commission set up last yearby the Parliament of Uganda, urged all parliaments in Africancountries to set up S&T committees to increase theeffectiveness with which S&T were integrated into socio-economic development.

SciDev.Net10 reports Patrick as saying that, if suchcommittees were set up across the African continent, they couldestablish a network for sharing knowledge and experience.Although a significant number of countries in Africa –including Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya – do have suchcommittees, many do not. In addition to inadequate investmentin S&T, Patrick identified the problem of limited collaborationand information exchange within and beyond the Africancontinent. ‘Africans need to wake up and work together toensure that, as a continent, they are developing S&T’, he said.

Patrick’s proposals were supported by Mozambique’sMinister for Research and Higher Education, Lídia ArthurBrito, who told SciDev.Net that a forum in which best practicein S&T could be shared was a ‘great idea’.

The January workshop has already offered parliamentariansan opportunity to learn ‘key analytical lessons’ from oneanother’s national and regional experiences. Participants have

heard for example how the Committee for the Future operateswithin the Finnish Parliament or the European ParliamentaryTechnology Assessment Network.

All agreed in Helsinki to focus more on deepeningunderstanding of innovation processes, increasing investmentin science education and in research and development and onstrengthening the conditions for basic research.

For further information: [email protected]

Scientists to debate virtues ofa European ResearchCouncilLife scientists are meeting at UNESCO Headquarters on19 February to share their views on the feasibility ofestablishing a European Research Council (ERC).

The aim would be to encourage European scientific researchto regain some of the ground it has lost to the USA in recentyears, partly as a result of reduced funding. An ERC wouldcomplement the existing European Commission FrameworkProgramme and various National Research Council programmesin support of high-quality basic research at the European level.

The prospect was discussed at a meeting last October inCopenhagen (Denmark) under the Danish presidency of theEuropean Commission and has also been debated by theEuropean Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) andEuropean Science Foundation (ESF). What is missing at thisstage is a clear, co-ordinated scientific perspective on the topic.

The meeting is being organized by the European LifeSciences Forum, a coalition of independent organizations, inconjunction with EMBO, the Federation of EuropeanBiochemical Societies and UNESCO.

Three Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine(Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Germany 1995; John Sulston,UK, 2002; Rolf Zinkernagel, Switzerland, 1996), as well asFrançois Gros of the Pasteur Institute (France), will give theirpersonal opinions at a morning session, followed by an opendiscussion. In the afternoon, there will be panels of prominentlife scientists, national funding agencies, internationalorganizations and representatives of the European Commission.

The outcome will be presented to European CommissionerPhilippe Busquin and a final report will be circulated widely toensure that the scientific community is aware of its conclusions.

For further information, contact: [email protected] or go to: www.elsf.org10. www.scidev.net

11A World of SCIENCE, Vol. 1, No. 3, April–June 2003 11111111111111

What prompted you to apply for the position ofICTP director?

When I was about 12, my family priest taught me a prayerand said I was to recite it 108 times a day: 100 for myselfand eight for the rest of humanity. If I did not find the timefor 108 recitations, I should then do 25 for myself and eightfor humanity. The point is that, no matter how much or howlittle one does for oneself, one should always contribute aconstant amount to humanity. Coming to ICTP andfurthering its causes may be my way of contributing to therest of humanity.

What do you view as ICTP’s greatest strengths?

On the whole, the science done here is very good. In Italy,the scientific institutions in Rome, especially those inphysics and mathematics, may be generally regarded as thenation’s best but, according to the opinions I have gathered,ICTP and the rest of the scientific institutions that comprisethe Trieste System rank very highly in quality. In the world

at large, there are a few other institutions withvisitor programmes similar to those found at

ICTP, for example the Institute of TheoreticalPhysics in Santa Barbara (USA) and theNewton Institute in Cambridge (UK).

Yet ICTP is unique in its mandate,which involves not merely serving theglobal scientific community but alsopaying particular attention to the needsand concerns of scientists from the

developing world. ICTP must attract andretain the best scientific talent that it

possibly can and, at the same time,promote and support world-classscience in the developing world.Excellence is at the heart of whatthe Centre does and that is what I

intend to support duringmy tenure in

Trieste. I should also emphasize that the centre’s excellenceis in no small measure due to the work of its dedicated staff.

ICTP operates under a tripartite agreementbetween the Italian government, UNESCO andIAEA. How do you view the relationship with each?

ICTP’s relationship with the Italian government and theItalian scientific community is very good. I have met a fewgovernment officials, including the Italian ambassador toUNESCO, Francesco Caruso, and they have expressednothing but praise for the Centre’s work. Their interest, Ithink, is driven by two overall concerns. Firstly, they wantto be proud of the Centre and its contributions to science,especially in the developing world. Secondly, I think theywould like ICTP to become better known among the Italiancitizenry. That is something I intend to work on. The Italiangovernment has been generous in its support of ICTP and itis quite reasonable for them to expect that the public knowsas much as possible about the Centre.

ICTP has good working relationships with Trieste’s otherscientific organizations, often sharing their resources andexpertise in ways that make the entire system stronger thanany of its individual components. I support that.

ICTP’s relationship with IAEA is strong and I think theincreased number of joint activities now taking place haveadded value and strength to this partnership. IAEAunderstands the need for academic freedom within ICTP.

As for UNESCO, there is enormous potential to tap interms of the avenue it provides to its member states. I fullyintend to capitalize on this advantage. Conversely, I thinkUNESCO can tap ICTP’s scientific expertise to itsadvantage in a number of ways. There’s a great deal ofcommon ground worth exploring and, if cultivated properly,this could serve the goals of both bodies well. In earlydiscussions with UNESCO, we have agreed to work closelyon several activities.

Could you explain the broad focus of yourresearch and how you plan to pursue it in Trieste?

Broadly speaking, my area of research involves theunderstanding of a wide range of non-linear and

A physicist who has earned an international reputation for his studies of statistical physics and turbulence,Katepalli R. Sreenivasan takes up his duties as Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for TheoreticalPhysics (ICTP ) in March. More than 4000 scientists from the developing world visit ICTP each year to take partin research and training related to high-energy physics, mathematics, condensed matter physics, the physics ofweather and climate and a host of other fields in which physics and mathematics play a major role. Sreenivasanspeaks about his hopes and plans for the institution he is about to lead.

Katepalli R. Sreenivasan For global scientific excellence

INTERVIEW

Katepalli R.Sreenivasan

INTERVIEW


non-equilibrium problems, with a focus on turbulentflows. I was the founding chairman of the AmericanPhysical Society’s Topical Group on Statistical and Non-linear Physics. There are people at ICTP and next door atthe International School for Advanced Studies incondensed matter physics and other fields and I seemyself developing close ties with them. There are alsopeople in Rome, in particular, but also in Milan andPadua, who have conducted world-class research in theseareas and I intend to interact with them.

On an international level, I have worked in India,Australia, the USA and elsewhere, forging closecollaboration with a broad range of people within myfield. Here, too, I plan to maintain my contacts. As aresult, my research at the Centre will not only beconnected to ICTP but also to scientific communities inItaly, Europe and the rest of the world. This approachconforms to the spirit of international science, which isnot confined to one neighbourhood but welcomed inmany places around the world.

What, specifically, has your research onturbulence entailed?

My research includes turbulence in the atmosphere,oceans, aerodynamics, blood vessels and even home-heating systems. The major challenges facing thosestudying turbulence is to understand how properties varyas a control parameter is increased and to relate theseaspects to the governing equations.

One specific problem my colleagues and I have beenworking on recently is thermal convection: studies of themotion of fluid to better understand how thermal energyis transported from one part of a system to another, say,from the centre to the edge of the sun; or from the centreto the surface of the earth; or, more simply, from thebottom to the top of a heated pot of water. Typically, theexperiments consist of a container with fluid (helium at afew degrees Kelvin) that is heated on the bottom. Thefluid on the bottom of the container expands and becomeslighter, causing it to rise to the top. Meanwhile, the fluidat the higher levels of the container, which is colder anddenser, tends to sink to the bottom. This creates acontinuous motion representing a form of turbulence.

The description makes the process sound deceptivelysimple but it is not. For example, small changes inboundary conditions can lead to dramatic changes inbehaviour that are far from easy to understand.

The challenges that ICTP faces today differvastly from those it faced at its inception in1964. How should ICTP respond to these?

If you read some of the speeches that ICTP’s foundingdirector, Abdus Salam, gave during the 1960s and 1970s,you come across passages praising the Soviet Union’s

scientific enterprise and suggesting that other nations,particularly developing nations, carefully examine thoseefforts for guidance in designing their own scientificenterprises. Salam, of course, was not the only personexpressing this opinion. The same argument today wouldcarry less weight. You simply cannot talk about scienceorganizations in the same political and social context inwhich they were debated 30 or 40 years ago.Nevertheless, when ICTP was launched, the Cold Warwas in full tilt and the Centre served as a forum wherefruitful East–West exchanges took place.

Now the scientific community faces challenges thatsometimes have a similar ring: most notably, the inabilityof scientific communities to interact because of politicaland diplomatic circumstances beyond their control. Forexample, scientists working in universities and governmentresearch laboratories in the USA would like to interactwith scientists from Iran at conferences and other events.But such interaction has proven difficult because of thesevered diplomatic relations between the two nations.There is no reason why ICTP could not serve as a bridgebetween the scientific communities in these two nations inmuch the same way that it served as a bridge between Eastand West during the Cold War. ICTP’s function must befirst and foremost to do and develop good physics but inthe process it can serve as a facilitator promoting mutualunderstanding among nations, especially those that areisolated from, and suspicious of, one another. ICTP, afterall, is part of the larger world and simply cannot ignorewhat divides and endangers humanity.

When ICTP was created, the state of science throughoutthe developing world was not advanced. Today thesituation is different. Some countries like the Republic ofKorea have done very well. China and India, for example,have a few scientific institutions that rank among the bestin the world. Yet, the quality of basic science in these samecountries is still far from uniform and has actuallydeclined in some instances. Other countries have doneworse. As a result, today there is no single strategy forpromoting science in the South and ICTP has to devisedifferent innovative policies for different countries.Whether we should target some countries and work morediligently with them may be something to consider. I amnot sure this is the best way to proceed but it is unrealisticto think that one can elevate every country to a high levelof scientific excellence in a short time. We mustunderstand the needs of different countries and devisedifferent strategies. If history is any guide, the Centre canmake a tremendous difference and I look forward to beingpart of this effort.

Interview by Daniel Schaffer11

11. The full interview will appear in ICTP Newsletter N°103:www.ictp.trieste.it


Journey to the highest lake in the worldLake Titicaca is a region of mystery and legend. Originally inhabited by the now-extinct Urus, it has beendominated successively by Aymara warlords, Quechuas of the Inca empire and Spanish conquerors. In the16th century, the advanced Tiahuanacu civilization spread out from its banks to inhabit the entire Andeanregion before mysteriously disappearing.

Today, Lake Titicaca is inhabited by theAymara and Quechua peoples. Despitefour centuries of Spanish colonization,their lifestyle has changed little; it stillrevolves around agriculture, their onlysource of wealth.

Lake Titicaca straddles the border ofBolivia and Peru; it is perched in thehighest plateaux, or Altiplano, of theAndes mountain range. The largest lake inLatin America, Titicaca is also the highestnavigable lake in the world and, accordingto Inca beliefs, the Sacred Lake, origin ofhuman life. It is also the only example ofjoint sharing of a lake in the Americas.

Lake Titicaca is the largest of the fourmajor river basins which make up theTiticaca basin system, the others beingDesaguadero River, Lake Poopó andCoipasa Salt Lake. The three–tieredTiticaca basin system consists of amountain ridge with altitudes of over4200 m, slopes of 4000–4200 m and theAltiplano of 3657–4000 m where we find Lake Titicaca, themost densely populated part of the system. The system’stwo million inhabitants are divided evenly between Boliviaand Peru.

Of the five major rivers running into the lake, four runthrough Peruvian territory. Ramis River to the north is thelargest of these, representing 26% of the tributary basin.

In the basin, summers are usually wet and winters dry. Theclimate is that of a high mountain region with a tropicalhydrological regime. Rainfall varies from as little as 200 mmto 1400 mm a year, with maximum rainfall at the centre of thelake. Logically, the zone around Lake Titicaca is humid; asyou move towards Coipasa Salt Lake, formed by theevaporation of overflow from Lake Poopó, the basin becomesincreasingly arid.

At such a high altitude, there is a lack of vegetation andwater but no lack of sunlight. Despite the very strong solarradiation in the basin, the air temperature varies greatly, froma low of -10°C to a high of 23°C depending on latitude,longitude, altitude and proximity to the lake.

Lake Titicaca is home to over 60 varieties of birds,including the Titicaca flightless guebe. Some 18 varieties ofnative fish species have been identified and as manyamphibians. Perhaps the most famous of these is the giantTiticaca frog discovered by the French oceanographer JacquesCousteau in the 1960s. Measuring 30–45 cm in length, it canweigh up to 5 kg. The frog is found only on the bottom of thelake and is completely blind.

Grinding poverty chases away the young

Poverty is the most critical social problem in the TiticacaBasin system. It forces families to devote all their energy tosurvival and pushes the rural population, especially the young,to migrate to cities where they swell already crowded slums.There is 22% adult illiteracy, although this varies according toarea and is higher for women.

A Bolivian born today can expect to live 62 years,compared to 68 years in Peru (and less in the basin system).Health problems stem from the endemic poverty and, byextension, from poor nutrition and lack of clean water andsanitation. As many as 71% of children suffer from chronic

HORIZONS

Pre-Columbian terraced agriculture lakeside for the production of potatoes andquinoa

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malnutrition in Peru and 84% in Bolivia and there is 14%child mortality. Some health problems are compounded byancient traditions; resistance to child vaccination for examplehas been overcome only by legal enforcement.

A fragile environment

The environment surrounding the lake is fragile, subject toflooding (around Lake Titicaca), drought (in the central andsouthern parts) and, increasingly, to pollution.

Groundwater is scarce and aquifers recharge slowlybecause of the dry conditions. The water of Lake Titicacaand its tributaries is normally saline with salinity increasingdownstream and reaching a peak in the aptly namedCoipasa Salt Lake, where evaporation is high and rainfallonly 200 mm/year.

Mining occupies only 3–4% of the basin population. Itconsumes little water but has contaminated the southern partof the system with heavy metals. Mercury and arsenicconcentrations of 0.4 ppm for example have been found inmackerel captured in Puno Bay. Puno Bay is alsocontaminated by wastewater from the sewers of Puno City inPeru, which has led to eutrophication (i.e. plantdecomposition). The high incidence of gastrointestinaldiseases can be attributed to the deficient disposal of

wastewater from the cities of Juliaca (Peru) and Copacabana(Bolivia), as well as to the agricultural activities and animalhusbandry around the lake.

Water is used essentially for basic needs and foragricultural irrigation. Increasing access to the water supplyalone will not improve local living conditions. Unhealthydrinking water and sewage systems also need to bemodernized and access to sanitation throughout the basinneeds to be raised to well over the current 17.2% of thepopulation. As much as 80% of water for drinking andsanitation returns to the system as sewage.

HORIZONS

THE TITICACA BASIN SYSTEM

Basin areaLake Titicaca............................................................... 56,300 km2

Desaguadero River.................................................... 29,800 km2

Lake Poopó ................................................................ 24,800 km2

Coipasa Salt Lake....................................................... 33,000 km2

Total area ................................................................ 143,900 km2

Lake TiticacaAverage area ............................................................... 8,400 km2

Average height................................................................ 3810 mAverage depth..................................................................... 45 mAverage volume ............................................................. 930 km3

Maximum length............................................................. 176 kmMaximum width................................................................ 70 kmMaximum depth................................................................ 283 m

Desaguadero RiverLength .............................................................................. 398 kmAverage flow ................................................................ 70 m3/secAverage gradient ........................................................ 45 cm/km

Lake PoopóAverage area ................................................................ 3191 km2

Average height................................................................ 3686 m

Coipasa Salt LakeAverage area ................................................................ 2225 km2

Average height................................................................ 3657 m

Source: Binational Autonomous Authority of Lake Titicaca, 2002

At 14° South latitude, the Andes range divides into easternand western ridges. These harbour a closed system of riverswhich all flow into Lake Titicaca

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WATER USE IN AGRICULTURE(in basin system)

Use of system’s water for agriculture .............................. 48%Shared water for agriculture ............................................ 90%Irrigated land as percentage of total productive land .................................................................... 0,43%Water used for irrigation which returnsto system............................................................................. 25%(ie not lost through evaporation or transpiration)



Widespread subsistence agriculture

Agriculture occupies 73% of active Bolivians, compared to59% of Peruvians. In the basin system, yields are generallylow because of limited use of sown seeds, fertilizers andmachinery, coupled with the ravages of drought, floods andfrost. Only 34% of the land is arable and most of the soils haveorganic matter and nitrogen deficiencies.

The Aymaras and Quechuas use ancestral crop-breedingtechnologies that are remarkably efficient; they havedeveloped over the centuries, for example, 50 varieties ofpotato and the high-protein quinoa bean. Minimizing riskmatters more to them than maximizing production.

Land fragmentation and a complex traditional propertysystem which superimposes communal property overindividual holdings makes only small-scale subsistenceagriculture possible. This has repercussions for the sharing ofLake Titicaca, both at the macro (both countries) and micro(basin system) levels.

A Master Plan for joint ownership

In the mid-1950s, the Bolivian and Peruvian governmentsagreed to examine the possibility of a binational managementsystem of Lake Titicaca. The Binational Autonomous

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Members of an Aymara women’s co-operative packingproduce. Women play a major role in the basin communities

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Members of an Aymara men’s co-operative in a greenhousecovered by a plastic roof. The holes in the mud walls serve toventilate the’ hot house’

An Aymara women’s co-operative plants trees to reforest theupper part of the basin and thereby control flooding

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WATER FOR BASIC NEEDS(in basin system)

Bolivia Peru Access to clean drinking water (%) 24 19Access to sewage system (%) 13 20Daily water consumption (in litres) 30 50


Authority of Lake Titicaca was created in four stages: anevaluation of resources, design of a legal framework,identification of a management model and implementation ofa Master Plan. The Plan included a development strategy forirrigation and drainage, a strategy for water regulation of thesystem, an environmental survey and analysis, and aconservation plan.

Since the Binational Authority was created in 1993,information on water resources in the basin system that hadpreviously been scattered among different institutions inBolivia and Peru has been consolidated. The data in theMaster Plan have also since been systematized andstandardized by both countries.

The joint ownership model put in place by the BinationalAuthority applies to the entire Titicaca basin system; itensures integrated management of the water system involvingrisk management, assigning value to water, water resourcesharing, good governance, a firm knowledge base and soundpolicies.

In 2001, the first dam was completed close to theinternational bridge over the Desaguadero River. Although itsprimary purpose is to prevent flooding, or at least protect thesurrounding 6,000–10,000 hectares from floods, the dam alsooffers protection to the vast fish populations and aquaticvegetation. In addition, the dam provides Peru with50,000 hectares of secure irrigation and Bolivia with afurther 15,000 hectares.

Recipes for alleviating poverty

Poverty undermines every effort to prioritize solutions toLake Titicaca’s problems. One way of alleviating povertywould be to invest more in public health services. Anothercould be to increase the irrigated surface area of the basin.Productivity loss through lack of irrigation helps to perpetratepoverty. Developing the irrigation potential would require amore detailed evaluation of water reserves and developmentof extensive natural gas reserves to provide cheap energy topower the scheme. One possible means of implementingmore efficient agricultural technologies would be to passlegislation promoting co-operatives to manage farms of amore adequate size.

The challenge facing the Binational Autonomous Authoritytoday is to provide an enabling environment in whichculturally sensitive development and resource-sharing mayflourish.

Based on the case study of Lake Titicaca published in the World Water Development Report (2003)

Water for People, Water for Life.

HORIZONS


The arid lands of the world cover one-third ofthe Earth’s surface, fall within territories of over110 national governments and are home to some700 million people. Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reservein southern Egypt is one of these.

The main headache for the populations of hyper-arid, aridor semi-arid areas is the scarcity of freshwater. The nomadicpopulations in Wadi Allaqi live in an area where rainfalloccurs only once every few years. Only a deep knowledgeof the local ecosystem and the nomad’s sustainableutilization of resources, particularly pasture, help them tosurvive. They know the names of all 130 plant speciesgrowing in the surrounding desert and use almost all ofthem in their daily lives, including for food and medicine,animal fodder, domestic artefacts and for charcoal andfirewood.

Surviving in a hostile environment

Most arid lands are, at best, only suited to pastoral livestockkeeping. The traditional system was, and still is in some areas,essentially nomadic or transhumant, with seasonal movementof flocks in search of water and grazing. Pastoralists andnomads represent the main population of the vast desertareas, arid grasslands and steppes. Nomadic populations havenot only survived in but also helped maintain the naturalhabitats on which they depend by both regenerating and

The pastoralists of Wadi


exploiting renewable natural resources. The astonishingcapacity of this system is that it enables human survival invery hostile environments.

The pastoralists living in Wadi Allaqi adjust to highlyseasonal rains falling unpredictably over different areas bykeeping mobile to take advantage of changes in availability ofpasture. In traditional society, there is substantial mutualsupport through sharing (or giving) of grazing land, animalsor their products. In a severe drought, nomads migrate furtherinto grazing land of other tribes or even into other countries.

For example, in 1986 many Sudanese nomads and theirlivestock were seen in the Eastern Desert deeply insideEgyptian land.

The pastoralists also conserve fodder by postponing the useof dry-season pasture for as long as possible. They diversifytheir holding with grazing and browsing species (sheep, goatsand camels), and even manage to optimize milk productionand ensure rapid herb recovery after a bad year bymaintaining a ratio of males and females in their livestock.

Dryland development a low priority

Dryland development has been a low political priority inrecent decades because the people affected have little politicalinfluence. For political reasons, pastoralists have been bothpulled and pushed towards sedentarization to control themovement of nomads across national borders. However, eventhough a sedentary lifestyle would offer pastoralists the chanceto secure land tenure and improve social services, this may notbe the best remedy in the long term to the problem of drylandneglect. By settling, they would be unable to use the drylandpasture sustainably. Sedentarization leads to concentratedgrazing on the more easily accessible lands and to cultivationof marginal lands. This results in land degradation under theimpact of severe overgrazing, destruction of natural vegetationand soil erosion.

A woman investigates a flooded plain in the downstream partof Wadi Allaqi. The water stored in Lake Nasser, formed bythe Aswan High Dam, has brought new opportunities to theBedouins, enabling them for example to cultivate plots on theshores of the lake. The plains remain flooded for 3–6 months

LAND USE IN ARID REGIONS

Nomadic pastoralism...........................................................41%Ranching...............................................................................25%Rain-fed agriculture (on the margins of the desert ).............12%Hunting, fishing, gathering ..................................................3%Irrigated agriculture .............................................................2%Practically unused ................................................................16%

Source: Clarke, J. and Noin, D. (1998) Population and Environment in AridRegions, p.5. UNESCO Publishing and Parthenon Publishing Group.

Allaqi

12. Upton, M. 1995. Integrated management Report. in SustainableRange-Dependent Small Ruminant Production Systems in the Near EastRegion. FAO Near East Regional Office, Cairo

Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve. ‘Wadi’ is an Arabic wordmeaning the bed or valley of a temporal stream in regions ofsouthwestern Asia and northern Africa that is usually dry,except during the rainy season when it often forms an oasis

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The introduction of modern technology has beenresponsible for much of the degradation and desertification ofrangelands in many Near Eastern regions, according toUpton12. The use of vehicles to carry animals, feed and waterthrough the rangelands has made pasture easily accessible andincreased the number of animals, resulting in overgrazing.Vehicle tracks have not only damaged vegetation but alsodestroyed the seed bank, which is only source of plantpropagation in desert pasture. On top of that, they have causedsoil erosion. Uncontrolled drilling of wells has also led tolarger herds and again, overgrazing. Moreover, loweringunderground water can limit the water supply of the deeplyrooted trees and shrubs which are the main source of fodderin the driest season.

The ecotechnie approach to sustainabledevelopment

Wadi Allaqi was incorporated into UNESCO’s WorldNetwork of Biosphere Reserves in 1993. Like all BiosphereReserves, it is divided into zones to accommodate differentforms of land use. There are two core areas which are strictlyprotected. They are surrounded by a buffer zone whereconservation is emphasized but where people also live andwork and the whole is encircled by a transition area promotingsustainable development. In this way, the Biosphere Reservebrings together different actors whose interests may not seemcompatible at first sight.

The UNESCO–Cousteau Ecotechnie Chair manages aresearch station in Wadi Allaqi. The station runs aninterdisciplinary programme linking education, ecology,economics, social sciences and technology within theecotechnie approach.

The Chair was established at the South Valley University’sUnit of Environmental Studies and Development (UESD) inAswan (Egypt) in November 1997, in recognition of itsoutstanding contribution to the field of multidisciplinaryresearch and applied studies towards the sustainabledevelopment and protection of natural resources in Egypt as awhole and in Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve in particular. On13 November 2002, it was one of 17 UNESCO Chairs singledout for an award at the three-day UNITWIN World Forumorganized by UNESCO13.

Ecotechnie adheres to the UNCED14 definition ofsustainable development, namely that of ‘the managementand development of natural resources within the ethicalconstraints that relate to responsibilities of the present


HORIZONS

A Bedouin woman shows a researcher (second from left) howto make bread (using flour bought from a passing caravan)

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Pastoralists making coffee in the upstream part of Wadi Allaqinear the Sudanese border

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13. See A World of Science, Vol.1, No. 2, p. 914. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio,Brazil, 1992)15. Draz, O. (1981) An International Programme for Range Managementand Sheep Feeding for the Near East and North African Countries. FAO.Rome

The nomadic tribes return periodicallyto their wooden dwellings

generation towards future generations’. In arid lands, thehema system is an example of the kind of environmentalethics which are inherent to sustainable development. Thistraditional form of communal tenure was developed in theArab Heartland. Certain areas belonging to Bedouin tribeswere declared as hema, meaning protected and off-limits.Access to these areas was restricted by inter-tribal agreementsor by force. According to Draz15, ‘the Arabian hema isprobably the world’s oldest effective range conservationsystem’. It still operates today in a limited form.

Working hand in hand with the local people

The interdisciplinary team working from the UESD providesWadi Allaqi with logistic support. It also involves the localpopulations in all stages of the design, planning andimplementation of dryland development in buffer andtransitional zones, a precondition for successful managementof any Biosphere Reserve.

One of the activities in which local people participate is thecollecting and sharing of information. For example, theBedouins’ indigenous knowledge of plant uses combined withadvanced technology, including the different irrigationmethods for cultivation of desert plants, provided the basis forthe establishment of a demonstration farm of economicallyimportant indigenous plants.

For any activities undertaken in this area, local people areinformally consulted; when asked what plants they would liketo see cultivated in the buffer and transition zone, for example,they opted for medicinal and fodder plants.

If decisions as to which indigenous plants should becultivated and where are made in consultation, the localpeople alone decide when and where to take their livestock forgrazing. The Biosphere Reserve managers don’t attempt toexert any influence, even if it is a core area, as long as there isno overgrazing.

Local people also act as guides for tours of remote areas ofthe biosphere reserve and work as rangers, on experimentalplots, at the Conservation Centre and at the Field Station.

***

The UNESCO–Cousteau Ecotechnie Chair at South ValleyUniversity co-ordinates the Arab Region Ecotechnie Network(AREN) linking itself and the Universities of Bahrain, Jordan,Mohamed V (Morocco), Khartoum (Sudan), Damascus(Syria) and Sana’a (Yemen).

Irina Springuel and Ahmed Belal

For further information, contact the UNESCO–CousteauEcotechnie Chair: [email protected] also about eco-tourism in Wadi Allaqi: www.unesco.org/mab/qualityEconomies/WadiAllaqi.pdf

19A World of SCIENCE, Vol. 1, No. 3, April–June 2003 19

Children minding goats in the downstream part of WadiAllaqi

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Small plots cultivated by Bedouins. These crops serve as animalfodder

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A Bisharin tribesman helps researchers to converse withmembers of his tribe who do not speak Arabic

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Diary

7–11 April The use of ICTs in reporting on thescience of HIV/AIDS, workshop forwomen communicators, University ofMakerere, Kampala (Uganda):[email protected]; www.scidev.net

7–16 April Empowerment of Women withTraditional Knowledge for SustainableUtilization of Local BiologicalResources, regional training workshoporganized by UNESCO New Delhi withNational Botanical Research Institute,Lucknow (India): [email protected]

9–11 April 1st International Conference onClimate Change and Tourism,organized in Djerba (Tunisia) by WTOwith UNESCO-IOC, IPCC, UNEP,WMO, UNFCCC, UNCCD:www.worldtourism.org/sustainable/climate/brochure.htm

23–24 April IDRC/UNESCO Review of Science,Technology and Innovation Systems,

UNESCO Paris, Room 14; contact:[email protected]

25 April International Consultation onUNESCO S&T Policy Programme,UNESCO Paris:[email protected]

27 April – 10 MaySea Level Data Analysis, GLOSStraining workshop, Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia) IOC: [email protected]

5–24 MayWMO Congress, Geneva (Switzerland);IOC and WMO are co-operating onGlobal Ocean and Global ClimateObserving Systems and Joint WMO/IOCTechnical Commission forOceanography and Marine Meteorology:[email protected]

15 MayDeadline for applications for KalingaPrize (see p. 9) and other UNESCOscience prizes, for info:[email protected]

17–18 May Basic Sciences and emergingpathogenic factors, meeting organizedby UNESCO and European Academy of

Arts, Sciences and Humanities(EAASH) at Polish Academy (Paris), toestablish network associating UNESCO,EAASH, WHO, FAO and Officeinternational des epizooties:[email protected]

30 May Deadline for new biosphere reservenominations from MAB NationalCommittees: www.unesco.org/mab/

4–6 JuneIOCARIBE–GOOS SteeringCommittee at TOS Americas Meeting/Oceanology International, New Orleans(USA): [email protected]

5 June IGOS Partnership meeting UNESCO Paris, co-chaired by NOAAand UNESCO: [email protected]

24 Jun – 4 JulyIOC Assembly, UNESCO, Paris:[email protected]

30 JuneDistance training for Avicenna centrestaff, organized by CNED (France), seep. 8.

New Releases

UN World Water Development Report: Water for People, Waterfor LifePublished by UNESCO and Berghahn Books on behalf of 23 United Nationsagencies comprising the World Water Assessment Programme hosted by UNESCO.English only until 2004, 700 pp, US$49.95First in triennial series; covers various water resource challenges around the worldand is based on the highly specific real-world conditions of pilot case studies (seepp. 2–6 and 13). Purchase from www.unesco.org/publishingAn Executive Summary is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish,as well as Bahasa Malay, Japanese and German. View at www.unesco.org/water/wwap orrequest a copy from: MERIC, Cairo: [email protected]; MDC, Kuala Lumpur:[email protected]; Peking University Press: [email protected]; (English andFrench) UNESCO Publishing: [email protected]; UNO-Verlag, Bonn: [email protected]:Hara Shobou, Tokyo: [email protected]; VES MIR, Moscow, [email protected];Mundi-Prensa, Madrid, [email protected]

Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Managing BiosphereReserves in South and Central Asia UNESCO, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, India; English only, 536 pp.:[email protected]

Managing conflicts over resources and values: continental coasts Results of a UNESCO workshop in Maputo, Mozambique, November 2001.CSI paper 12, English only, 86 pp: csi@ unesco.org

Computer-based Training in Physics (CD-ROM) Covers topics in mechanics, optics and semiconductors for undergraduate physicsstudents. English only. Developed by UNESCO New Delhi in collaboration withJawaharlal Nehru University. Educational institutions may request a free copyfrom Messers Jayakumar and Alam: [email protected]

Managing Trans-Boundary Nature Reserves: Case Studies onSunderbans Mangrove Ecosystems in Bangladesh and IndiaEnglish only, occasional papers: [email protected]

For sales publications: www.unesco.org/publishingUNESCO science portal: www.unesco.org/science

Governing Bodies

UNESCO’s Executive Board willbe in session from 31 March to16 April

In his report to the Board under agendaitem 3.1.2, the Director-General will bedescribing progress in implementing theInternational Year of Freshwater. He willalso be reporting on the ad hoc committeeof experts on an international basicsciences programme, which convenedrecently on the Board’s recommendation. The Director-General’s report willembrace follow-up to a number ofscience-related events, including theWorld Conference on Science (1999),World Summit on SustainableDevelopment (2002) and InternationalSeminar on Forward-looking Approachesand Innovative Strategies to Promote theDevelopment of Africa in the 21st Centuryand in Support of NEPAD (2001).In the area of bioethics, the Director-General will be reporting on the RoundTable of Ministers of Science onBioethics (2001) and on measures takento evaluate the impact of the UniversalDeclaration on the Human Genome andHuman Rights adopted in 1997.Moreover, under item 3.1.1 of the agenda,the Director-General will be reporting onthe preparation of an internationaldeclaration on human genetic data(document 166 EX/11).

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