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International Urban Environmental Forum scheduled for June 1999.
The Air & Waste Management Association, a US-AEP partner, is organizing
an International Urban Environmental Infrastructure Forum to take place at
its Annual Meeting & Exhibition, June 20-24, 1999, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Focusing on "Mobile Sources and Transportation Planning Issues," the forum
is expected to bring together representatives from more than 40 cities
around the world. In conjunction with this event, A&WMA is organizing an
Alternative Transportation Technology Pavilion, which will provide insight
into the future of transportation. For more information, please contact A&WMA�s
Mike Roy at e-mail address: mroy@awma.org.
WET project
pinpoints ways to keep Indonesia's water flowing.
The US-AEP-supported Water Efficiency Team (WET) project in Indonesia is
moving ahead in visiting top-priority PDAMs (Indonesian water enterprises)
and making recommendations on the best ways to keep water flowing during the
economic crisis. With assistance by engineers from the Association of
Sanitary and Environmental Engineers (IATPI), funded by a US-AEP grant, WET
has visited seven PDAMs since the program began in October 1998. Several of
these enterprises were found to have both excess capacity and an unfilled
demand for new connections. In the first visit alone (to PDAM Majalengka),
WET estimated that 40,000 person-days of work would be generated by hooking
up 6,000 connections requested by new customers. As a key part of recovery
plans, WET will recommend the best financing options to enable PDAMs to
install these new connections. The team�s recommendations will be
incorporated into the conditions of the Water Supply Program Loan being
prepared by the government of Indonesia and the World Bank later in 1999.
Water Efficiency Team members are working with the government of
Indonesia, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank to help fund the
PDAM effort. In addition, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), one of US-AEP�s
partners, is providing stateside backstopping and assistance to the IATPI
for WET activities, and the two organizations are discussing closer
institutional ties.
US-AEP
partners help Bangkok work toward cleaner air.
During his November 1998 visit to Washington, DC, Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration (BMA) Governor Bhichit Rattakul requested US-AEP�s assistance
in reducing mobile source emissions. Responding to this request, two of US-AEP�s
partners--Kenan Institute Asia and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)--worked together to conduct a January 18-22 training session. The team
made specific recommendations on a wide range of topics, such as vehicle
emissions testing equipment and procedures, public awareness techniques, and
capacity building for repair technicians and inspectors. In addition, the
trainers alerted BMA to the potentially critical problem of fuel
adulteration, which could prove to be a major cause of Bangkok�s black smoke
problem. In partnership with the team, BMA is amending its testing
procedures, revising its training activities, improving its public
information materials, and developing a communications campaign to change
the public�s vehicle maintenance behavior. Among the next steps: EPA will
deliver a communication and public outreach course to BMA in March 1999, and
it is expected that Governor Bhichit will announce the BMA "Green Fleet
Campaign" in April.
EPA personnel are also continuing to provide technical input to the World
Bank team that is finalizing the proposed Bangkok Urban Environment Program.
This program will enable BMA to provide the necessary infrastructure to
implement many of EPA�s recommendations. The World Bank has agreed to
coordinate proposed activities under this program with EPA and US-AEP.
New
resources for U.S. businesses on US-AEP's website.
A new paper-- "Identifying Your Potential Export Markets"--has been added
to the Export-Link� section of US-AEP�s website. The paper presents
the methods and resources U.S. firms can use when conducting market
research. You�ll find it at:
https://www.usaep.org/export/index.htm.
Filipino
delegation studies power industry in U.S. and Argentina.
Delegates from the Philippine House Committee on Energy recently
completed their second US-AEP exchange on the power industry. From January
8-16, nine delegates visited Argentina, where they studied the country�s
restructured power sector and regulatory and market models. Argentine
participants shared lessons learned during the restructuring process and
reported on impacts to industry and consumers.
The first exchange was held November 2-13, 1998, and brought a
seven-member Filipino delegation to the United States to learn about
regulatory models and operations of the U.S. power industry. Among the
objectives were to observe a fully working model of the wholesale market, as
well as to analyze changes in U.S. legislation and their impacts on the
power industry and consumers. This study tour featured visits to the
California Power Exchange, Unocal Geothermal, Pacific Gas and Electric
Company, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. Both exchanges were organized by US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange
program, managed by the Institute of International Education.
Welcome and
farewell.
Mr. Steve Gale joined the US-AEP Secretariat for an eight-week
assignment starting the week of January 19. A direct hire from USAID�s
Center for Development Information and Evaluation, Steve has extensive
experience in field evaluations, strategic planning, and environmental
performance measurement. He leads the agency-wide environmental team that
prepares USAID's Annual Performance Report (APR) and has supported US-AEP in
a number of capacities over the years. Steve will be assisting the
Secretariat with program evaluation and other matters as needed. He can be
contacted by phone at 202-712-1953 or by e-mail at
sgale@usaid.gov.
Best wishes to Mr. Kamran Akhtar, director of US-AEP�s Office of
Technology Cooperation in Taiwan. Kamran departed from the program on
January 29 to return to Washington, D.C. We wish him all the best in his
future endeavors! Ms. Jennifer Huang is Acting Director and should be
contacted on any matters pertaining to the US-AEP program in Taiwan.
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