Unaffordable and Undrinkable

Unaffordable and Undrinkable
Author: Diana Mitlin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2019
Genre: Drinking water
ISBN:

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"In 2015, UNICEF and the World Health Organization reported that over 90% of the world's population used improved drinking water sources. But new research suggests the indicators used by UNICEF/WHO grossly overestimated the state of water access, especially in cities of the global south. Analysis of 15 cities shows that vast segments of the urban population in the global south lack access to safe, reliable and affordable water. On average, almost half of all households in the studied cities lacked still lack access to piped utility water. The new analysis featured in this paper also illustrates that piped utility water is the least expensive option for most households. But reliability is crucial. Among those households that were connected to piped water in the analyzed cities, most received intermittent service, which results in contaminated water. Households that are not connected rely on self-provision or private water vendors, which are up to 50 times more expensive than public water. The paper argues that decades of attempts to increase the private sector's role in water provision and to corporatize water utilities have not adequately improved access--especially for the urban under-served--and have led to issues of affordability and regularity/reliability being ignored. The paper explores what cities can do to ensure more equitable access to safe, reliable and affordable water, while facing down major trends affecting water access, including population growth, degraded and depleted water sources, and climate change. It highlights four key action areas for cities to improve water access: extend the formal piped water network, address context-specific causes of intermittent water service, pursue diverse strategies to make water affordable with special considerations for low-income consumers, and support informal settlement upgrading"--Publisher's description.

The Value of Values

The Value of Values
Author: Daniel Aronson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2024-02-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 026237580X

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How business leaders can grow profits and competitive advantage by doing the right thing. Acting on values—doing good for the benefit of all—can substantially benefit the bottom line, but many business leaders mistakenly believe that doing the right thing lowers profits. This belief is the greatest barrier holding businesses back from being more financially and competitively successful—and delivering more good for the world. Not only can it be a winning business strategy to act on values, as Daniel Aronson suggests in The Value of Values, but it is also a savvy choice, increasing a company’s power, profit, and competitive advantage—in many cases with little additional investment or risk. It starts with seeing what others miss. Using extensive research and real-world calculations, Aronson demonstrates that the “submerged value” of initiatives such as taking bold action to combat climate change, helping people find jobs, or creating an open, inclusive work environment is normally 4 to 10 times more than initially believed. Calculating and capturing the true business benefit of acting on values provides a much-needed update to the sustainability and responsibility playbook. Even more important, it shows executives how to harness the value of values to improve profitability, acquire customers, and turbocharge their own careers. Written by a measurement pioneer and one of the world’s foremost experts on making ethical business count, The Value of Values trains leaders to respond smartly and credibly to today’s challenges, transforming how business can and should be done.

Understanding Social Sustainability in a Hill Town

Understanding Social Sustainability in a Hill Town
Author: Bankerlang Kharmylliem
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2024-09-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1040145205

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Nestled amidst rolling hills, Shillong, the Himalayan capital city of Meghalaya in India’s northeast, faces a growing challenge of water scarcity. This timely book examines the role of urban and traditional village councils (the Khasi dorbar shnong) in shaping equitable water distribution and management through the lens of social sustainability. The book navigates through the complexities of water governance, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities and elucidating the interplay between tradition and modernity in urban governance. It also features narratives of success and struggle, and covers diverse themes, including social capital and gender. It initially foregrounds social sustainability setting the context for the study. It ventures into a detailed examination of the institutions of the village councils, with particular attention to water equity and water governance, including highlighting differences between municipal and non-municipal areas. The volume offers significant theoretical and empirical insights into Shillong's water challenges, filling a gap in the literature on northeast hill towns/cities. Part of Transitions in Northeastern India series, this book will be valuable to a diverse audience including students, researchers, policy practitioners, community leaders, and general readers interested in urban studies, sociology, development studies, public administration, Asian studies, sustainability, and those concerned about our urban-water future.

The Heat and the Fury

The Heat and the Fury
Author: Peter Schwartzstein
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-09-24
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1642833010

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"Schwartzstein's vignettes of each troubled region are vibrantly narrated as he encounters indignant locals and has run-ins with menacing state security officials attempting to block his investigations into what they invariably consider a 'sensitive' subject. It's a riveting journey through a world running hot." --Publishers Weekly, starred As a journalist on the climate security beat, Peter Schwartzstein has been chased by kidnappers, detained by police, and told, in no uncertain terms, that he was no longer welcome in certain countries. Yet these personal brushes with violence are simply a hint of the conflict simmering in our warming world. A new dam that has brought Egypt and Ethiopia to the brink of war over water. ISIS recruiters who exploit drought to pad their ranks. Farmers-turned-pirates who can no longer make a living off the land and instead make it off bloody ransoms. In The Heat and the Fury, Schwartzstein not only puts readers on the frontlines of these conflicts but gives us the context to make sense of seemingly senseless acts. His incisive analysis of geopolitics, unparalleled on-the-ground reporting, and keen sense of human nature offer the clearest picture to date of the violence that threatens us all.

The Role of Intermediaries in Inclusive Water and Sanitation Services for Informal Settlements in Asia and the Pacific

The Role of Intermediaries in Inclusive Water and Sanitation Services for Informal Settlements in Asia and the Pacific
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2023-12-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9292705857

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In the Asia and Pacific region, accessing clean water and sanitation is a constant challenge for residents of informal settlements. Informal service providers, or intermediaries, have emerged in response to this significant essential service gap. This publication examines good practices particularly those involving intermediaries—social enterprises, the private sector, and nongovernment organizations—in delivering water and sanitation services in informal settlements, and their potential for expansion. It presents case studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. The learning is intended to encourage governments, water supply and sanitation utilities, and development financing institutions to incorporate intermediary service providers as valuable partners in large-scale, sustainable investments in water and sanitation service delivery.

The Pity of War

The Pity of War
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 650
Release: 2008-08-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 078672529X

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From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces. That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.

Artificial Intelligence and Modeling for Water Sustainability

Artificial Intelligence and Modeling for Water Sustainability
Author: Alaa El Din Mahmoud
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2023-04-25
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1000829782

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Artificial intelligence and the use of computational methods to extract information from data are providing adequate tools to monitor and predict water pollutants and water quality issues faster and more accurately. Smart sensors and machine learning models help detect and monitor dispersion and leakage of pollutants before they reach groundwater. With contributions from experts in academia and industries, who give a unified treatment of AI methods and their applications in water science, this book help governments, industries, and homeowners not only address water pollution problems more quickly and efficiently, but also gain better insight into the implementation of more effective remedial measures. FEATURES Provides cutting-edge AI applications in water sector. Highlights the environmental models used by experts in different countries. Discusses various types of models using AI and its tools for achieving sustainable development in water and groundwater. Includes case studies and recent research directions for environmental issues in water sector. Addresses future aspects and innovation in AI field related to watersustainability. This book will appeal to scientists, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students majoring in environmental or computer science and industry professionals in water science and engineering, environmental management, and governmental sectors. It showcases artificial intelligence applications in detecting environmental issues, with an emphasis on the mitigation and conservation of water and underground resources.

Climate Change 2022 – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

Climate Change 2022 – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 3070
Release: 2023-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1009445383

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The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific literature relevant to climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report recognizes the interactions of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies, and integrates across the natural, ecological, social and economic sciences. It emphasizes how efforts in adaptation and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions can come together in a process called climate resilient development, which enables a liveable future for biodiversity and humankind. The IPCC is the leading body for assessing climate change science. IPCC reports are produced in comprehensive, objective and transparent ways, ensuring they reflect the full range of views in the scientific literature. Novel elements include focused topical assessments, and an atlas presenting observed climate change impacts and future risks from global to regional scales. Available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

People, Places and Passions

People, Places and Passions
Author: Russell Davies
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1783162392

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It takes a different view of the history of Wales, examining a panorama of different emotions and experiences – laughter, happiness, fear, anger, adventure, lust, loneliness, anxiety – to give an entertaining and exciting new history to Wales. a wide range of sources are used to present the ambitions and anxieties which drove and destroyed Welsh people The book’s literary style and the fact that it follows earlier successful studies by the author should ensure an audience.

Handbook of Catchment Management

Handbook of Catchment Management
Author: Robert C. Ferrier
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 660
Release: 2021-07-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 111953125X

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HANDBOOK OF CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT In 2010, the first edition of the Handbook of Catchment Management provided a benchmark on how our understanding and actions in water management within a catchment context had evolved in recent decades. Over ten years on, the catchment management concept is entering a new phase of development aligned to contemporary and future challenges. These include climate change uncertainty, further understanding in ecological functioning under change, the drive for a low-carbon, energy efficient and circular society, multiple uses of water, the emergence of new pollutants of concern, new approaches to valuation, finance and pricing mechanisms, stewardship and community engagement, the integration of water across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the link between water, energy and food. These developments are framed within an increasingly data rich world where new analytics, sensor technology and processing power are informing increasingly real-time decision making. The challenge is also to increase cross-compliance and policy integration to meet multiple stakeholder objectives, and to link actions to achieve cost-effective outcomes. In addition, there are a number of new and exciting city, region and basin-scale real-world examples of contemporary and new catchment thinking; integrating science, technology, knowledge and governance to address multiple drivers and complex problems from across the globe. The time is now right, to capture the new challenges facing catchment management and water resources management globally. This revised and updated edition of the Handbook of Catchment Management features: Thoroughly rewritten chapters which provide an up-to-date view of catchment management issues and contexts New case study material highlighting multi-sectoral management in different globally significant basins and different geographical locations Up-to-date topics selected for their resonance not only in natural sciences and engineering, but also in other fields, such as socio-economics, law and policy The Handbook is designed for a broad audience, but will be particularly useful for advanced students, researchers, academics and water sector professionals such as planners, consultants and regulators.