Water Resources Management Support
Safe, affordable water in sufficient quantities is not only a human necessity but also a human right. Despite this finite resource’s fundamental importance, billions of people worldwide lack adequate access to it for drinking, agriculture, and other uses. Cadmus’ experts in drinking water and water resources management work with governments, international and nongovernmental organizations, utilities, and other stakeholders to act as wise stewards of the world’s fresh water supplies. Working closely with our clients, we help develop strategic water program plans; support programs to build the technical, financial, and managerial capabilities of water systems; promote collaboration and aid effective stakeholder involvement; advance innovative water system restructuring and ownership models; and assess capital financing mechanisms. For recent projects in this area, we:
- Made recommendations for ensuring that drinking water provided by the USAID-funded PlayPump® Water System program meets the quality standards set by South Africa and the United States. The innovative system, made by a South African company, is being installed in villages in sub-Saharan Africa. It relies on a child’s merry-go-round to pump water from a deep borehole to an elevated storage tank, from which the water flows via gravity to a communal tap.
- Visited Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, three members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to evaluate the availability of water resources data and information from the Mekong River watershed as they relate to three concepts of the ASEAN Strategic Plan of Action on Water Resources Management:
- River Classification Systems
- Water Data Management and Reporting System Design
- Risks and Impacts from Extreme Events
- Wrote guidelines for the environmentally sound design and management (ESDM) of small-scale water and sanitation projects, chapter 16 of the USAID Africa Bureau’s Environmental Guidelines for Small-Scale Activities in Africa. This chapter is a model for the entire the document, which is available for downloading at http://www.encapafrica.org/egssaa.htm.