An Africa Strategy For - International Water Management: Fill & Download for Free

China is helping African and Africa is helping China! Any other news you will hear is western media propaganda.NB: (Long but Interesting post ahead)Imagine if you could, a world in which Africa is completely beholden to China — a world in which China is so obsessed with controlling Africa that it is willing to risk billions of dollars by trapping African countries in debt. As an African, it is a world hard to imagine for several reasons. For starters, what would China gain that it already is not getting from Africa by impoverishing it?Apparently, that would allow China to influence decisions of African states. There are at least also two reasons why this would be politically suicidal. Firstly, it would discredit the “Beijing Consensus” as an alternative to the Washington consensus.Secondly, although Africa is a small player globally, it has the largest voting block at the U.N. general assembly. It’s therefore likely that an Africa feeling hard done by China would unnecessarily complicate Beijing’s attempts at global leadership at the multilateral level possibly making the isolation of China easier.Interestingly, Africa debt statistics also don’t support the accusation. The globally accepted debt ceiling for developing countries is a debt-to-GDP ratio of 40%. Africa’s current debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 50%. While loans from China grew at a very fast rate especially between 2011 and 2016, the reality is that Chinese loans account for an insignificant portion of Africa’s total debt stock (5%).Additionally, only three of the 12 African countries under high debt distress have borrowed heavily from Beijing. They are Angola, Djibouti and Zambia. Loans to Djibouti are all toward the construction of bulk infrastructure aimed at reducing the cost of doing business and fostering regional integration such as a railway and water pipeline linking Ethiopia and Djibouti and the expansion of the country’s main port enabling the country to handle more cargo as well as meet sanitary and phytosanitary standards for exporting livestock.In Zambia, there is sufficient evidence showing that its debt distress primarily emanates from the issuance of bonds denominated in foreign currencies. Over the last five years, the yield on Zambia’s bonds has increased from 6% to 17% forcing the country to borrow an extra $750 million to service bond payments, according to a Bloomberg report. Zambia is probably the country where the biggest form of Sino-phobia has raised its head when it comes to talk of Chinese loans.Clearly false claims have been peddled that China is about to take over some national assets such as the international airport and the national electricity utility company. It is inconceivable that China or any lender, would want to take ownership of assets that are not profitable. In the case of Zambia’s airport for example, on a busy day, the airport handles a total of about 13 passenger flights and an average of 10 flights a day.A big part of the airport’s lack of profitability is simply the lack of enough traffic numbers — something that can’t be solved by just changing management or ownership. Similarly, there are policy and structural issues affecting the national electricity utility company which would still render it loss making even after any takeover. That leaves Angola as the only country where Chinese loans are greater than non-Chinese loans — one country out of 54!That said, Angola has its nuances. For example, senior Angolan officials privately admit that China pre-conditioned continued loans on the country securing a program with the IMF — hardly the actions of a country hellbent on holding Angola captive to its wishes and demands. More controversial has been China’s “resources-for-infrastructure” approach in which countries pay for infrastructure using commodities; popularly known as ‘Angola-mode’ has been routinely frowned on. One can only guess that this is because it is seen as a new Chinese way of doing things that is out of sync with the Washington Consensus.While the practice is indeed different, it is not necessarily new. China or rather, Japan used the same approach with China many years ago. At the time, China was poor but had natural resources that Japan needed. Chinese loans have also been accused of promoting bad governance in Angola even though the World Bank World Governance Indicators have consistently shown an improvement in government effectiveness, regulatory quality and the rule of law since 2000.What external factor or player then is the cause of spiraling African debt? Before answering that, it is important to accept that a genuine concern about Chinese loans to Africa is the opaqueness of the loan conditions — especially in countries where the process of the state securing a loan is subject to constitutional oversight.This doesn’t make China responsible for Africa’s debt as available data strongly points to the fact that access to concessional lending to African countries diminished remarkably after the 2008 financial crisis as the main reason. This coupled with the fact that several African countries (such as Zambia and Ghana) graduated into middle-income status and therefore lost access to concessional funding.Confronted by the absence of concessional financing, African countries have resorted to private debt at high interest rates which are frankly unsustainable, as the Zambia example shows. In fact, according to S&P, private loans from non-Chinese sources account for 72% of Africa’s debt stock. The concessional nature of Chinese loans are hence attractive and pretty much a rational option.Chinese loans are attractive for African governments because of at least three other reasons. Firstly, Africa is confronted by a huge infrastructure gap estimated at around $170 billion annually. To correct this, African leaders launched the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). The PIDA naturally dovetails with China’s focus on infrastructure assistance and the Belt and Road Initiative, providing an opportunity for Africa to reduce its infrastructure deficit.Coupling this, as several senior African government officials have told me, is the fact that China’s broader assistance to Africa breaks away from past development assistance models to Africa that were based on stringent austerity measures and is not like the approach of other partners who market themselves as experts in African development problems. The new U.S.-Africa strategy for example has been criticized for not consulting with African countries and for its focus on China and not African development initiatives.Inevitably what will matter for Africa’s development is not where the loans come from but the extent to which Africa can use loans to enhance economic productivity in general and their ability to us use the assistance to protect national economies from exposure to commodity price fluctuations.This requires collaboration by Chinese and non-Chinese development partners to assist Africa to reduce the cost of doing business and create employment which will in turn broaden African governments’ revenue base.Furthermore, greater transparency in loan agreements would also facilitate a collaborative approach to assisting Africa by reducing the default risk for all parties (Chinese and non-Chinese).

The global Smart Water Management Market was appreciated at US$ 5.87 billion during 2013 and is expected to grow substantially in the years to come. This could be reasoned with demand for water management due to increasing awareness about depletion of water reserves around the world. Loads of international campaigns and organizations are emphasizing on apprising and educating people regarding water conservation.At present, Africa is facing acute shortage in terms of usable water. This has proved to be a wake-up call for people to work toward workable systems to manage water. On the other hand, the regions that have ample of water have started taking a cue from this water shortage and taking imperative steps for securing their future.Get a Sample PDF –https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/smart-water-management-market/request-sampleRoot Cause bird eye-view:The UN has also started promoting water conservation all over; which, in turn, is likely to positively impact the smart water management (SWM) market. It is segmented based on advanced water meter, solution, service, and geography. By advanced water meter, the segmentation goes like AMR water meter, AMI water meter, fixed network, and cellular network. By solution, it goes like enterprise asset management for water and wastewater utilities, network monitoring, advanced pressure management, advance analytics, supervisory control and data acquisition, meter data management, smart irrigation management systems, and residential water efficiency.By service, the smart water management industry spans information management, hydrant management, pipeline condition assessment, and value management. By geography, the market constitutes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA. Asia Pacific is expected to be the torchbearer due to rapid industrialization coupled with realization regarding water management. In economies like India “Water Cup” also gets organized by “Paani Foundation” every May.Players:The players contributing to the smart water management market include Siemens, IBM, GE, Nalco, i20 Water, TakaDu, ABB, GE, and Schneider. Several business strategies are being put into practice to overpower the rivals. For instance – Nalco acquired Champion Technologies of late for expanding the former’s product offerings, services, energy technologies, and market share.Full Research Report On Global Smart Water Management Market Analysis available at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/smart-water-management-market

There is a new paradigm for water management that is consistent with the long road approach - lowest cost, highest risk, most effort that I think meets your good and cheap titles. Although the ab initio skills are chemistry/bio chemistry its starting to creep into the field of chemical engineering so keep the more complex projects for the bright students.“Critical Purity Parameters (CPP) in Water Management.” The new paradigm has emerged from a realization that the concepts of “clean water”, “grey water”, “black water”, “brackish water” etc. have limited value in water management.The first recorded used of the idiom “horses for courses” was in 1898 and the concept is at last being applied to water quality. It is increasingly understood that water cleanliness that might be good for one biotic species or human need/purpose might not be good for another. The need for a new approach to water management started with a new interpretation of water quality bearing the idiom “horses for courses” in mind. "Critical Purity Parameters (CPP) are the critical chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water used as a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and/or to any human need or purpose.”In 1976, U.S. Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to increase recycling and conservation efforts as waste became a problem. It is estimated that the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle (3Rs)”, was born at this time. The catchy phrase has been taken to new heights as environmentally friendly practices are becoming the new normal and the end-of-pipe approach has been sneered at as “for lazy polluters”. The 3Rs and long-road have naturally found their way into water management.End-of-pipe. Highest cost, lowest risk, least effort.Long-road. Lowest cost, highest risk, most effort.The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a suite of management concepts developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt as introduced in the landmark book "The Goal." TOC is a methodology for identifying the most important limiting factor (i.e. constraint) that stands in the way of achieving a goal and then systematically improving that constraint until it is no longer the limiting factor. The paradigm is now regarded in international best practice as a means of achieving rapid improvement and is integral to Pinch Analysis which in turn is the crux of the long-road approach to water management. The methodical TOC. Identify, Exploit, Subordinate, Elevate is introduced even before a constraint is discovered.Application of CPPsAlthough drinking water forms only a very small part of human water use, the critical chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water for drinking in contrast to those for aquatic life are excellent examples of “horses for courses”. The purity parameter Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) is possibly the best illustration.Sugar content is a typical high COD trigger and although it is not that significant for drinking it can be fatal to aquatic life reliant on oxygen in the water that is depleted by COD.CPP water management is a methodical dynamic cyclical process looking to improve over time focusing on the 3Rs. If any treatment is required the focus is upstream and only treats the purity parameters that are relevant and only to the extent that they meet the critical needs. At the onset the dynamic must be appreciated; naturally, by reducing and re-using, the inventory will change and one would not want to be caught short e.g. installing upstream treatment plant that becomes redundant because the original design parameters are no longer applicable.Step 1.The first step in a water system design review is to list all the water sinks (everywhere water is needed) according to flow rate and CPP.Step 2.Next list all the waste water according to flow rate and purity parameters relevant to the identified CPP (looking for opportunities to re-use or recycle).Step 3.List all the primary water according to flow rate and purity parameters relevant to the identified CPPOnce the sink/source data is captured the reticulation needs to be studied and well understood. At the same time preferences should be considered and noted where purity parameters less the better apply; boiler feed water is a typical example where softer the better so naturally the strategy will be to reserve soft water (harvested rain water, condensate return etc.) in preference and divert hard water (typically borehole water) to other more tolerant sinks.Water study follows. Evaluation and logic tree uses the step by step TOC in a dynamic cyclical manner focusing on the 3Rs in their order of hierarchy (first look to reduce, then re-use before looking to recycle and only then safe and responsible disposal – preferably, of course, zero effluent). There does not need to be a constraint to start the TOC process (step 1 is adapted slightly to identify what you have and want to achieve and step 2 ignore the words the constraint if they are not applicable at the onset); constraints will probably emerge progressively as one would naturally first do those improvements that are simple, inexpensive and easily implemented (Exploit); and also those that are a high priority.Constraints are going to be diverse (e.g. the availability of piping and pumping capacity) but where each water sink CPP or flow rate does not match the source relevant purity parameters or flow rate, this is called a Pinch Point and the TOC process is called Pinch Analysis. The TOC process also considers efficiencies e.g. an energy assessment for pumping and piping purposes.The process can become complicated and the ab initio skills are chemistry and biology. Illustrating the process in this very simple example though, focusing on only one parameter, may at least show value in the paradigm.Riley shipwrecked off the coast of Moroccan Sahara in August 1815 took the drinking water they could carry in their lifeboat and strove to reach a safe zone. could they have landed in a safe zone by applying CPP water management in the true story “Sufferings in Africa”.They ran out of drinking water and in desperation came ashore in hostile territory. Captured as slaves and horribly mistreated; a slave would be worked until close to death and then either traded or killed.Against the facts and assumptions it seems by applying CPP water management they could have reached safety. They rationed the drinking water and we assume Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) at 150ppm, we don’t know how much they took with them, suffice to say it was insufficient. An inverted pyramid canopy catches dew, there is no mention of dew harvesting although there appears to be good potential in the area; we assume they could harvest 10 litres per day TDS 0ppm. There was no limit to the amount of seawater available with an assumed salinity 3,500ppm (Salinity is similar to TDS in that is an estimate of the level of salt in a water sample). An Australian government page states that a salinity of 800 - 2,500ppm "Can be consumed by humans although most would prefer water in the lower half of this range if available". It does, however, seem that salinity above 1100ppm has limited value in hydration as this seems to be the ceiling for kidney function. It would appear they could have done more to limit the amount of fluid loss (reduce) through perspiration and evaporation, e.g. by constructing sea water wetted shelters to mitigate against the hot dry weather. If the salinity in the drinking water is increased to the cap of 1100ppm the urine will not have much value as an extender but may be considered in desperation.A relatively easy project for the not so bright is counter-flow in potato processing (e.g. making packets of potato chips). The water flows in the opposite direction to the product so the relatively clean water from blanching just before the potato slices go in the fryer can be used for all the washing processes upstream until it is used for washing the soil off the potatoes at the beginning of the process.