Canadian Municipal Water News & Review - Fall 2011 - (Page 18) agencies that have a role in creating and updating the Tigum-Aganan Watershed Management Plan. The recent trip was to identify the key elements needed for the current State of the Watershed Report as part of the “Metro Iloilo-Guimaras Bioregion Initiative.” The bioregional approach to the management of Philippine city regions is a new and important strategy. On the recent trip we were discussing in a workshop how to address the major riverbank erosion areas, caused in most part by Typhoon Frank in 2008, and especially in the upper reaches of the watershed containing old growth forests with no access for vehicles. I mentioned soil bioengineering and gave a brief explanation of it plus a website. The next day staff from DENR (Provincial Natural Resources) were keen to tell me they had followed up on the idea and saw it as a win, win and win project, plus they were planning the first site! Seems they saw the social side benefits immediately. They could start a new small business to weave the surface cover mats from locally grown materials, similar to the mats they use for drying rice on. Next they would increase the size of their local tree and shrub nursery and add the required native tree species to meet the needs of the project, thus more employment. Finally, they could hire local labour to hand carry all the supplies on the two-day trek into the protected old growth forest region of the watershed. Thus even more local employment. Now all they need is a ‘volunteer Canadian ex-spurt’ who can teach them how to design and build their soil bioengineering project in the headwaters of their municipal water supply watershed! I love working with Filipinos as they are friendly, fun loving and so appreciative of advice freely given to them by volunteers from the developed nations. There is the added benefit of spending your weekends off in some very interesting places. This recent trip, I spent a long weekend at the beach in Boracay, ranked the number two beach destination in the world, and number one in Asia, by TripAdvisor. People come to this beach from all over the world to scuba dive, parasail, and do every sort of water sport imaginable, plus the costs are so cheap compared to Canadian prices. Tough life at my young age, but someone needs to do it! For more information on the CUI and its projects in the Philippines, visit www.canurb.org. Update on the ISO 224 Working Group 7 BY G R E G S OL E C K I , M A N AG E R , B U S I N E S S C O N T I N U I T Y & R E C OV E R Y C I T Y OF C A L G A R Y, C A L G A R Y E M E RG E N C Y M A N AG E M E N T AG E N C Y i N 2 0 0 8 , T h E f i r S T gathering of an international expert panel for a new ISO Standard on the Crisis Management of Water (Wastewater) Utilities took place in Israel. This group included representatives from Great Britain, Israel, Germany, Portugal, USA, Japan, and of course Canada. The Canadian contingent was created through the CWWA and included members of its Security & Emergency Management Committee. Although language barriers and theoretical differences are entrenched during group workshops and meetings, great strides are made in developing the best possible standard for small to large utilities. In particular, our Japanese friends struggle to get their points across by using broken English (the official ISO language) and PowerPoint presentations. During a meeting last year in Germany, the Japanese were adamant that the standard should include sections on tsunami, earthquake, and reception centre preparedness and planning. Although these are excellent subjects to be included in any crisis plan, it is geographically specific and also somewhat out of scope for us in ISO 224 WG7 (ISO 223 is the group looking at overall crisis/emergency management known as Societal Security). Imagine our horror as we watched the disasters unfold this year in Japan including the tsunami and earthquakes. Our Japanese colleagues were there to live through the events and put their crisis management expertise to the test for the water utilities in their country. An incredible overview of the water specific response to the disaster was made available to our working group by representatives of the Japanese delegation. The latest draft of the standard is an excellent resource for the development of crisis/emergency response planning strategies and concepts. Although it is specifically being developed for the water sector, the ISO process and emergency management concepts would be easily acceptable in any sector, business, or municipality. At this time, the draft now goes to committee for review, and then ratification begins before it is able to become a full standard. I would encourage anyone interested in crisis/emergency management development for their utility to contact any of the members of the CWWA Security & Emergency Management Committee. They will be able to provide further information on this and other ISO standards related to the water sector. 18 | CANADIAN MUNICIPAL WATER neWs & reVieW http://www.canurb.org http://www.cwwa.ca Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Municipal Water News & Review - Fall 2011 PRESSIDENT'S MESSAGE/MESSAGE DU PRESIDENT DEVELOPING AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE BIOSOLIDS MASTER PLAN CLEANER WATERWAYS WORKING UPDATE NEW PRODUCT SHOWCASE 26TH ANNIVERSARY MARKETPLACE INDEX OF ADVERTISERS/INDEX DES ANNONCEURS Canadian Municipal Water News & Review - Fall 2011 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0212 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0112 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0211 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0111 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0210 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0110 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0209 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/CWWB0109 http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
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