Water and benefit sharing in transboundary river basins

Le partage équitable des bénéfices dans les bassins fluviaux transfrontaliers est nécessaire pour résoudre les conflits entre les pays riverains et atteindre un consensus sur les activités de développement et de gestion du bassin versant. Le partage des bénéfices doit être discuté collectivement par tous les pays riverains pour être perçu non seulement comme efficace, mais aussi équitable. La littérature actuelle décrit principalement ce que l’on entend par le partage des bénéfices d’un point de vue conceptuel. Les arrangements institutionnels pratiques qui assurent le bien-être économique maximal, ainsi que les méthodes développées en collaboration pour encourager le partage équitable des bénéfices, ne sont toutefois pas présentés. L’objectif global de ce projet de thèse est de développer un arrangement institutionnel, qui comprend à la fois des politiques de répartition de l’eau et des mécanismes de partage des bénéfices, afin d’améliorer la gestion des ressources en eau transfrontalières et d’encourager la coopération entre les pays riverains. La méthodologie étend l’approche traditionnelle, basée sur des stratégies d’allocation très limitées en allouant efficacement les ressources en eau et le partage équitable des bénéfices découlant de l’utilisation de l’eau. Cette thèse détaille l’arrangement institutionnel développé et, à travers trois activités distinctes, les principales composantes de l’arrangement sont analysés. Dans l’arrangement institutionnel, une autorité de bassin fluvial (RBA) est l’opérateur d’un système axé sur le marché, dans lequel les politiques d’allocation économiquement efficaces sont identifiées et imposées aux usagers de l’eau, qui doit payer pour l’eau qui leur est alloué. Ces frais sont collectés et redistribués, via une règle de partage spécifique au bassin fluvial, afin d’assurer l’équité entre les usagers de l’eau. Le bassin du Nil oriental est utilisé comme étude de cas pour illustrer l’approche. Il y a des secteurs hydroélectriques et agricoles répartis dans trois pays (Egypte, Soudan et Ethiopie) et une longue histoire de non-coopération dans ce bassin. La répartition actuelle de l’eau repose sur des accords bilatéraux de l’époque coloniale, qui désignent l’Egypte et le Soudan comme les seuls bénéficiaires des eaux du Nil. La coopération future est impérative dans ce bassin pour profiter du potentiel hydroélectrique en Ethiopie, et du potentiel de l’agriculture au Soudan, ainsi que pour atténuer, autant que possible, les effets du changement climatique. Les résultats montrent que la gestion coopérative du bassin du Nil oriental, et de son infrastructure, augmenterait considérablement les bénéfices économiques à l’échelle du bassin et entraiînerait une répartition de l’eau plus efficace. L’arrangement institutionnel garantit que l’eau est retirée ouù elle a la plus grande valeur et que les investissements en amont dans des projets à faible productivité sont découragés. Le plus haut niveau de coopération est effectuée en vertu d’une institution supranationale et toutes les parties doivent se mettre d’accord sur la définition de l’équité dans le le partage des bénéfices. L’imposition d’axiomes spécifiques sur la base de cette vision collaborative de l’équité se traduit par une solution unique pour la répartition des bénéfices économiques. Une règle de partage élaborée avec la participation des parties prenantes peut être plus acceptable parce que la définition de la règle n’est pas contestée, comme ce serait le cas si les règles existantes avaientété appliquées avec leurs propres définitions de l’équité. Enfin, les résultats globaux montrent que la réalisation de compromis entre l’efficacité et l’équité peut se produire lorsque ces deux principes de répartition de l’eau sont couplés afin de maximiser les avantages de l’utilisation de l’eau, puis de réaffecter ces d’une manière équitable.The equitable sharing of benefits in transboundary river basins is necessary to solve disputes among riparian countries and to reach a consensus on basin-wide development and management activities. Benefit-sharing arrangements must be collaboratively developed to be perceived not only as efficient, but also as equitable, and to be considered acceptable to all riparian countries. The current literature mainly describes what is meant by the term benefit sharing, in the context of transboundary river basins, and discusses this from a conceptual point of view. Practical, institutional arrangements that ensure maximum economic welfare, as well as collaboratively developed methods for encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits, are, however, not provided. The overall objective of this PhD project was to develop an institutional arrangement, that includes both water allocation policies and benefit-sharing mechanisms, to improve the sustainability of managing transboundary water resources and to encourage cooperation between riparian states. The methodology extends the traditional approach, which is based on highly constrained allocation policies, that merely complement existing management institutions, by efficiently allocating water resources and then equitably sharing the benefits derived from water use. This thesis details the institutional arrangement developed and, through three separate activities, the main components of the arrangement are analyzed. A river basin authority (RBA) is the operator of a market-based system, in which economically efficient allocation policies are identified and imposed on water users, who are charged for the water allocated to them. These charges are collected and redistributed, via a sharing rule specific to the river basin, to ensure equity among the water users. The Eastern Nile River Basin is used as the case study to illustrate the approach. There are important hydropower and agricultural sectors spread across three countries (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia), and there is a long history of non-cooperation in this river basin. Current water allocation is based on colonial era bilateral agreements that designate Egypt and Sudan as the only beneficiaries of the Nile waters. Future cooperation is imperative, in this basin, to take advantage of hydropower potential in Ethiopia, and agriculture potential in Sudan, as well as to mitigate, as much as possible, the effects of climate change in the near future. Results reveal that the cooperative management of the Eastern Nile River Basin and its infrastructure would significantly increase the basin-wide economic benefits and lead to more efficient water allocation. The institutional arrangement ensures that water is withdrawn where it has the greatest value (efficient water allocation is established) and that upstream investments in low productivity projects are discouraged. The highest level of cooperation is effectuated through a supranational institution and all parties must agree on the definition of fairness in the sharing of benefits.The imposition of specific axioms, based on this agreedupon vision of fairness results in a unique solution for the distribution of economic benefits. A sharing rule developed with stakeholder input may be more acceptable because the definition of the rule is not in question, as would be the case if existing rules were applied with their inherent definitions of equity. Finally, overall results show that achieving trade-offs between efficiency and equity can occur when these two principles of water allocation are coupled to first maximize the benefits from water use and then reallocate these in an equitable manner

the even passage of the sun

A collection of poems that explore the relation of the individual to the world, a world of violence, complex systems of nature and industry, and beauty. The contemporary experience is filtered through the lenses of alchemy and metallurgy, drawing upon my personal history and readings in an attempt to make something completely atemporal

The fish fauna of the Iwokrama Forest

Fishes were collected from the rivers in and around the Iwokrama Forest during January-February and November-December 1997. Four hundred species of fish were recorded from forty families in ten orders. Many of these fishes are newly recorded from Guyana and several are thought to be endemic. The number of species recorded for the area is surprising given the low level of effort and suggests that this area may be particularly important from a fish diversity perspective. This paper focuses on species of particular interest from a management perspective including those considered economically important, rare or endangered. The paper is also the basis for developing fisheries management systems in the Iwokrama Forest and Rupununi Wetlands

Strategies for effective bioremediation of water co-contaminated with 1, 2-dichloroethane and heavy metals.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.The production of 1,2-Dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) exceeds 5.44 billion kg per year, and is higher than that of any other industrial halogenated chemical. Improper disposal practices or accidental spills of this compound have made it a common contaminant of soil and groundwater. 1,2-DCA has been classified as a priority pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency owing to its toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation in the environment. It has also been shown to have mutagenic and potential carcinogenic effects on animals and humans. Bioremediation is emerging as a promising technology for the clean-up of sites contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons. However, sites co-contaminated with heavy metals and 1,2-DCA may pose a greater challenge for bioremediation, as the former pollutant could inhibit the activities of microbes involved in bioremediation. Therefore, this study was undertaken to quantitatively assess the effects of heavy metals on 1,2-DCA biodegradation and to investigate the use of biostimulation, bioaugmentation, dual bioaugmentation, and biosorption for remediation of water co-contaminated with 1,2-DCA and heavy metals in microcosms. The combined effect of 1,2-DCA and the respective heavy metals on the microbial population and diversity was also investigated. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and concentrations of the heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead) that caused half-life doubling (HLDs) of 1,2-DCA as well as the degradation rate coefficient (k1) and half-life (t1/2) of 1,2-DCA were measured in two different wastewater types. An increase in heavy metal concentration from 0.01–0.3 mM, resulted in a progressive increase in the t1/2 and relative t1/2 and a decrease in k1. The MICs and HLDs of the heavy metals were found to vary, depending on the heavy metals and wastewater type. In addition, the presence of heavy metals was shown to inhibit 1,2-DCA biodegradation in a dose-dependent manner, with the following order of decreasing inhibitory effect: Hg2+ > As3+ > Cd2+ > Pb2+. For the bioremediation experimental set-up, 150 ml wastewater was spiked with 1,2-DCA (2.5 mM) and the respective heavy metal in air-tight serum bottles (Wheaton). The bottles were biostimulated, bioaugmented, dual-bioaugmented or undergoing biosorption. The microcosms were incubated at 25 °C and the 1,2-DCA concentration was measured weekly. Co-contaminated water undergoing biostimulation, bioaugmentation and, in particular, dual bioaugmentation were observed to exhibit higher degradation of 1,2-DCA in the presence of the heavy metal, compared to co-contaminated water receiving none of the treatments. Dual bioaugmentation, proved to be most effective, resulting in up to 60% increase in 1,2-DCA degradation after 4 weeks, followed by bioaugmentation (55%) and biostimulation (51%). In addition, an increase in the total number of 1,2-DCA degrading bacterial population was observed in the bioaugmentated microcosms compared to those biostimulated, which corresponds to an increased 1,2-DCA degradation observed in the bioaugmentated co-contaminated microcosms. Dominant bacterial strains obtained from the co-contaminated microcosms were identified as members of the genera, Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Enterobacter and Bradyrhizobiaceae, that have been previously reported to degrade 1,2-DCA and other chlorinated compounds. Some of these isolates also belong to genera that have been previously shown to be resistant to heavy metals. PCR-DGGE analysis revealed variations in microbial diversity over time in the different co-contaminated microcosms, whereby the number of bands was reduced, the intensity of certain bands increased, and new bands appeared. Agricultural biosorbents (AB) were found to adsorb heavy metals effectively when utilized at a concentration of 2.5%, with the level of biosorption found to be dependent on the type of AB as well on the type of heavy metal present. OP proved to be the most efficient biosorbent for the heavy metals tested, followed by CNF, and corn cobs (CC) least efficient; therefore CC was not used in further bioremediation experiments. Both orange peel (OP) and coconut fibre (CNF) were found to be excellent at removing heavy metals from co-contaminated microcosms, with OP removing 14.59, 74.79, 60.79 and 87.53% of As3+, Cd 2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+, respectively, while 10.03, 40.29, 68.47 and 70.00% of As3+, Cd2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+, respectively, was adsorbed by CNF. Consequently, a higher degradation of 1,2-DCA was observed in the presence of OP and CNF, compared to the untreated control. It can be concluded that the remediation approaches utilized in this study proved effective in the bioremediation of water co-contaminated with 1,2-DCA and heavy metals and may provide the foundation for new and innovative treatment strategies for co-contaminated sites

In Vitro efficacy of antimicrobial extracts against the atypical ruminant pathogen Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasmosis is a common infection in human and veterinary medicine, and is associated with chronic inflammation and high morbidity. Mycoplasma species are often intrinsically resistant to many conventional antimicrobial therapies, and the resistance patterns of pathogenic mycoplasmas to commonly used medicinal (antimicrobial) plant extracts are currently unknown. METHODS: Aqueous extracts, ethanol extracts, or oils of the targeted plant species and colloidal silver were prepared or purchased. Activity against the wall-less bacterial pathogen Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri was determined and compared to activities measured against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by broth microdilution assays. The lethal or inhibitory nature of each extract was determined by subculture into neat growth medium. RESULTS: Growth of M. mycoides capri, E. coli, and B. subtilis was inhibited by elderberry extract, oregano oil, ethanol extract of oregano leaves, and ethanol extract of goldenseal root. No inhibition was seen with aqueous extract of astragalus or calendula oil. Growth of M. mycoides capri and B. subtilis was inhibited by ethanol extract of astragalus, whereas growth of E. coli was not. Similarly, M. mycoides capri and E. coli were inhibited by aqueous extract of thyme, but B. subtilis was unaffected. Only B. subtilis was inhibited by colloidal silver. Measured MICs ranged from 0.0003 mg/mL to 3.8 mg/mL. Bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects differed by species and extract. CONCLUSIONS: The atypical pathogen M. mycoides capri was sensitive to extracts from many medicinal plants commonly used as antimicrobials in states of preparation and concentrations currently available for purchase in the United States and Europe. Variation in bacteriostatic and bactericidal activities between species and extracts indicates that multiple effecter compounds are present in these plant species

The long-run relationship between inflation and real stock prices: empirical evidence from South Africa

The existing literature on the theoretical relationship between the rate of inflation and real stock prices in an economy has shown varied predictions about the long run effects of inflation on real stock prices. In this paper, we present some time series evidence on this issue using South African data, by applying the structural bivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) methodology proposed by King and Watson (1997). Our empirical results provide considerable support of the view that, in the long run real stock prices are invariant to permanent changes in the rate of inflation. The impulse responses reveal a positive real stock price response to a permanent inflation shock in the long run, indicating that any deviations in short run real stock prices will be corrected towards the long run value. It is therefore concluded that inflation does not lower the real value of stocks in South Africa, at least in the long run

Ethical and compliance-competence evaluation: a key element of sound corporate governance

Motivated by the ongoing post-Enron refocusing on corporate governance and the shift by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK to promoting compliance- competence within the financial services sector, this paper demonstrates how template analysis can be used as a tool for evaluating compliance-competence. Focusing on the ethical dimension of compliance-competence, we illustrate how this can be subjectively appraised. We propose that this evaluation technique could be utilised as a starting point in informing senior management of corporate governance issues and be used to monitor and demonstrate key compliance and ethical aspects of an institution to external stakeholders and regulators

Lead-lag relationships in an embryonic stock market: exploring the role of institutional ownership and liquidity

This paper investigates the influence of institutional ownership and liquidity on stock return relationships for an embryonic and relatively illiquid stock market. Using daily, individual stock data for Trinidad and Tobago from 2001 to 2015 and a VAR modelling approach, we find for firms of all sizes and levels of analyst coverage that the returns of more institutionally favoured stocks lead those with less institutional ownership. Distinctively, greater institutional coverage is shown not to be associated with greater liquidity, though liquidity levels do condition the influence of institutional ownership. This indicates that institutional owners have information advantages relative to other stock owners

The globalizability of temporal discounting

Economic inequality is associated with preferences for smaller, immediate gains over larger, delayed ones. Such temporal discounting may feed into rising global inequality, yet it is unclear whether it is a function of choice preferences or norms, or rather the absence of sufficient resources for immediate needs. It is also not clear whether these reflect true differences in choice patterns between income groups. We tested temporal discounting and five intertemporal choice anomalies using local currencies and value standards in 61 countries (N = 13,629). Across a diverse sample, we found consistent, robust rates of choice anomalies. Lower-income groups were not significantly different, but economic inequality and broader financial circumstances were clearly correlated with population choice patterns