International Workshop on Rainwater Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge in Developing Countries

Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre)

International Workshop on Rainwater Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge in Developing Countries - HRD and Technology Transfer

Pune, India
17-20 August 2009

ANNOUNCEMENT AND APPLICATION FORM
The Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) in association with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd. (MKCL) and Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation (I-CONSENT) announces the organisation of an International Workshop on ‘Rainwater Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge in Developing Countries - HRD and Technology Transfer’ during 17-20 August 2009 at Pune, India.

The workshop is being organised by the Centre as one of the activities under the collaborative project on ‘Sustainable Rainwater Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge in Developing Countries – Human Resource Development and Technology Transfer’ partially supported by the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (PGTF) of the Group of 77.

2. BACKGROUND
With the ever-increasing population, migration of vast multitudes of rural population to urban centres and development of industrial towns, the developing countries are facing great pressure on the existing infrastructure on conventional water supply systems and severe constraints on financial and material resources. Water is one of the most essential daily needs across all cross-sections of the society. Municipal water supply in most cities is unreliable and many villages in the developing countries do not have potable water supply. In this regard Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) seems an ideal sustainable solution, which entails the collection of rain in a scientific and controlled manner for future use and consists of roof top water harvesting, water from open areas such as paved ways, parks, roads, fields and in lakes and ponds.

In most of the developing countries the most proven and sustainable methods of decentralized water collection and usage systems have been neglected and the centralized mega projects have taken the center stage. Absence of organized support groups, well defined methodologies and skilled technicians / planners force the service providers to shoulder the responsibility of water supply from a centralized system, and private players are encouraged to adopt unsustainable methods of water withdrawal and supply chain without any control and effective regulations on the quality of water supplied. Therefore to provide sustainability the traditional methods of water harvesting and usage methods need to be revived and if required, modified to suit the present day requirement.

3. THE PROJECT
In order to address the above issues, the NAM S&T Centre submitted a project proposal entitled 'Sustainable Rainwater Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge in Developing Countries - HRD and Technology Transfer' in response to the Office of the Chairman of the Group of 77 in New York for financial support under PGTF. On subsequent evaluation by the Committee of Experts of PGTF, the project was found suitable from technical angle and in October 2007, G-77 Ministers for Foreign Affairs approved the project in their 31st Annual Meeting.

In this project, an integrated effort on rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge is proposed as a model solution to solve the water shortage problem in conventional water supply systems. The project aims at capacity building through HRD and technology transfer by (a) preparing a state-of-the-art report and (b) holding a centralized training programme for professionals engaged in implementing relevant schemes that would empower the participants to organize national level training courses to benefit the technicians. 20 professionals from various developing countries will be trained who in turn would be able to train ~1000 technicians each year in their own countries. Dissemination of the state-of-the-art reports would help the professionals in planning and modifying water conservation and supply schemes. A large number of beneficiaries among the population in the rural and semi-urban areas would gain through sustainable water supply.

The G-77/PGTF Project would be implemented over a period of three years starting from March 2009 through the execution of following five major components.

i) Organisation of an international workshop with participation of water technology professionals from various countries and also some experts as resource persons;

ii) Preparation of model schemes on RWH for developing countries;

iii) Preparation of a state-of-the-art report based on the information collected from the participating countries and the papers presented by the participants in the workshop (as at 1. above);

iv) Preparation of handbook and course material for organising a trainers’ training programme; and

v) Organisation of a 10-day trainers’ training programme including field visits (scheduled to be held in February 2010 at New Delhi, India), in which professionals/trainers from developing countries would be trained who in turn would be able to train water technicians in their own countries.

Technology mediated open and distance education program based on the materials developed is proposed to be offered by the organisers to support training and implementation of the RWH and GWR program and its further expansion.

4. PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES
Twelve member countries of the NAM S&T Centre, viz. Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia have already confirmed their participation in this collaborative project with identification of Country Project Coordinators. Other Member Countries and any other developing countries are also welcome to participate in the project in order to take the benefit of capacity building through human resource development and transfer of technology on Rain Water Harvesting.

5. PROGRAMME OF THE WORKSHOP
The International Workshop will be held during 17-20 August 2009. The session wise programme would be sent to the participants in due course.

6. VENUE
The international workshop will be held at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration; Raj Bhavan Complex, Baner Road, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

7. RESOURCE PERSONS
Resource persons for the workshop will comprise eminent experts from India and other developing countries.

8. ABOUT THE ORGANISERS

8.1 NAM S&T Centre
The Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre; www.namstct.org) is an inter-governmental organization with a membership of 44 countries spread over Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. The Centre was set up in 1989 in New Delhi, India in pursuance of recommendations of various NAM Summit meetings for the promotion of South-South and North-South cooperation in science and technology. The Centre undertakes a variety of programmes, including organization of workshops, symposiums, meetings and training courses and implementation of collaborative projects and offers short-term research fellowships to the scientists from the developing countries in association with various Centres of Excellence. The Centre also brings out technical books and other scientific publications in different subjects. These activities provide opportunity for scientist–to–scientist contact and interaction; familiarizing participants on the latest developments and techniques in the subject areas; identification of the requirements of training and expert assistance; locating technologies for transfer between the members and other developing countries, dissemination of S&T information etc. The Centre also encourages academic-research-industry interaction in the developing countries through its NAM S&T-Industry Network.

8.2 MKCL
The Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL; www.mkcl.org/) is a Public Limited Company which was promoted by the Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of the State of Maharashtra to create new paradigm in education and development through universalisation and integration of Information Technology in teaching, learning and educational management processes in particular and socio-economic transformative processes in general.

MKCL aims to prepare the people for the knowledge-based economy and society through the development of a competitive, flexible and value-based education system, responsive to the individual, institutional and social development at affordable cost and with universal accessibility through IT intervention.

8.3. I-CONSENT
Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation (I-CONSENT; www.mkcl.org/iconsent/) is a not-for-profit organisation of public and private institutions and voluntary organisations and individuals devoted to the cause of techno-social transformation through education for sustainable development. The Consortium works with use of ICT, approach of public-private-community partnership on win-win basis and core values of transparency, accountability and openness.

9. PARTICIPANTS
The workshop has been primarily designed for the Country Coordinators designated for this project by the Focal Points of the NAM S&T Centre in its member countries or their representatives nominated by the Country Coordinators/ Focal Points in these countries. Other countries interested in the project may nominate suitable experts/water technology professionals to participate in the workshop.

A pre-condition for participation in the workshop is that the participants must submit their CVs [Updated version, if already sent to the NAM S&T Centre] and Country Status Reports prepared according to the prescribed “Framework (appended at the end of the Announcement), along with their nomination form.

10. SUBMISSION OF NOMINATIONS
Applications for participation are required to be submitted in the prescribed form (as given below) to the NAM S&T Centre as early as possible but latest before 17th July 2009. The form should be completed in all respects and no column should be left blank.

11. PRESENTATION OF COUNTRY REPORTS
As indicated above, each participant will be required to present his/her country status report relevant to the G-77/PGTF Project during the workshop.

12. PUBLICATION OF PROCEEDINGS
The country status reports and other study material presented during the workshop will be compiled along with articles received from other experts and will be brought out in the form of a consolidated State-of-the-Art Report on Rain Water Harvesting and Ground Water Recharge as a part of the G-77/PGTF project.

13. LOCAL HOSPITALITY AND TRAVEL WITHIN PUNE, INDIA
All foreign participants will be received at the Pune airport and will be transported to the venue of the workshop. Local hospitality, including accommodation, meals and local transport during 16th to 21st August 2009 (i.e. commencing from one day before the workshop and for an additional day after its conclusion) will be arranged by the local organizers. The participants will have to make their own arrangement of stay beyond these days and therefore they should arrange their flight schedules accordingly.

14. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR TRAVEL
The participants nominated by those Member countries of the NAM S&T Centre which have already confirmed their participation in the G-77/PGTF project will be provided return international airfare by shortest route / economy class for travel between the international airport in their country and Pune, India.

For the participants from other member countries of the NAM S&T Centre and other developing countries, financial arrangements for international travel would be conveyed separately on receipt of application.

15. ENTRY FORMALITIES, IMMIGRATION AND HEALTH
Participants of the workshop must be in possession of a current passport and valid visa for entry into India. The embassies / diplomatic mission of India located in the country of a participant should be approached for obtaining an entry visa. The organizers will facilitate the issuance of a visa by providing the participants with an official letter of invitation.

16. ABOUT PUNE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS
Pune formerly known as Poona (originated from Sanskrit name ‘Punna’ means "City of Virtue"), is the eighth largest city in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai. Situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers, Pune is the 7th Metro city of India. Marathi is the official and the most widely spoken language, while Hindi and English are understood and spoken widely. Pune is also a home to sizeable religious minorities including Parsis, Jews, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims.

Pune is known as ‘The Oxford of the East’ due to its educational facilities, having more than a hundred educational institutes and nine universities. It is also referred to as ‘The Detroit of India’ owing to the many manufacturing companies, particularly automobile giants, having their base within the city's metropolitan area. Pune had well-established Manufacturing, glass, Sugar and Metal forging industries, and many information technology (IT) and automotive factories in it’s vicinity. The city is well known for various cultural activities like Classical music, Sports, Literature, Foreign language learning and Administrative, Economics, Social Science studies which attract students from all over India, and also from Middle-East, Iran, Eastern Europe, South-East Asia, makes it the city of many communities and cultures.

International Airport of Pune is located at Lohegaon. It shares its runways with the neighboring Indian Air Force base, the only one of its kind in the world. The city has two railway stations, one in the city and the other at Shivajinagar.
Website: www.pune.gov.in

18. OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
Climate: August is the mid-monsoon time at Pune with moderate rainfall and temperatures ranging from 10 °C to 28 °C (50 °F to 82 °F).
The commonly available electric supply is 220 volts AC.
Indian Standard Time is +5.5 hours ahead of GMT
The Indian Currency is Rupees (Rs.). The current exchange rate of Rs. is approximately 49.50 Rs. to a US dollar.

Note
° The governments / institutions of all the participants will be required to bear the following costs:
- All expenses in the home country incidental to travel abroad, including expenditure for passports, required medical examinations, vaccinations and miscellaneous expenses such as internal travel to the airport of departure in the home country.
- Salary and other related allowances for the participants during the period of the workshop.
- Cost of medical insurance to cover the period of participation in the workshop.
° The organisers will not assume responsibility for the following expenditure in connection with the participant’s attendance in the Workshop:
- Expenses incurred with respect to any insurance, medical bills or hospitalization fees.
- Compensation in the event of death, disability or illness of participants.
- Loss of personal belongings or compensation for damage caused to them by climatic or other conditions.
- Other costs, including airport tax and excess baggage.