The environment minister, Veysel Eroglu, said work on the Ilisu hydroelectric dam on the Tigris river in south-east Turkey would restart after a six-month funding suspension ends next week.

The announcement disappointed campaigners who believed that the project had suffered a potentially fatal blow last December, after German, Swiss and Austrian institutions announced they were withholding finance because fears about the dam's environmental and social impact had not been addressed. The governments agreed that 150 World Bank conditions on the environment, heritage sites, neighbouring states and human relocation must be met.

Environmentalists have warned that the dam could destroy up to 80 towns, villages and hamlets, resulting in the forced relocation of between 50,000 and 80,000 people. Campaigners have argued that residents have not been offered adequate compensation and have accused Turkey of failing to properly consult Iraq, into which the Tigris flows, and Syria, another neighbour. The Ilisu project - due for completion in 2013 - is part of a wider network of dams known as the South-eastern Anatolia Project, which the government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pinpointed as key to transforming the region's economy and quelling Kurdish separatist violence.

First planned in the 1980s, the dam has a history of troubles. The British construction company Balfour Beatty scrapped plans for a £200m investment in 2001 under pressure from environmentalists and human rights groups.

The Workshop in the frame of FP6 Project INT-ER-LINK aims to disseminate the project results, and to facilitate networking with R&D and development cooperation players from Member States, Associated Candidate Countries, African and EECA Countries with focus on water management and sanitation.

The second day will be a brokerage event on water research in the EU-FP7. Following the joint Africa-EU strategy (2007) the Environment Directorate of DG Research plans to launch a cross thematic ‘Africa call' (with the deadline beginning of 2010)....

Recently there is no open call in the field of environmental technology research under the 7th Framework Programme of the EU. Open calls in different research fields are available at the http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm homepage.

New research initiatives in the context of the European Economic Recovery Plan
The Commission is launching three Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan. The Commission foresees to provide a contribution of 50% to the total R&D budget from the budget of the 7^th Framework Programme, with matching investment coming from the private sector. In the PPP approach there is a multi-annual integrated work programme with a pre-defined budget, ensuring continuity and allowing industry to make long-term investment plans... Several coordinated calls for research proposals should be launched in July this year.

Tender: Climate change - modelling water scenarios and sectoral impacts
The European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment has launched a call for tenders on climate adaptation for the modelling of water scenarios and sectoral impacts. The objective of this contract is to assess Europe's vulnerability to climate change impacts and analyse adaptation measures with a specific focus on water-related impacts and measures. Call Reference: OJ No S 107 of 6 June 2009, Deadline: 31 July 2009.

Nitrate pollution is expected to be one of the main reasons for water bodies not to reach the good status by 2015 and so the workshop aims at :

• addressing a scientific state of the art dedicated to classical and most innovative approaches of nitrate monitoring;
• presenting and discussing alternative methods to support water stakeholders in managing nitrate pollution.

Attendance at the workshop is free and all details will be available soon on the project website http://isonitrate.brgm.fr/

As the number of participants is limited, we recommend that you return your registration form to conf_isonitrate@oieau.fr quickly.

For more information on the project, please contact : David Widory (d.widory@brgm.fr), Emmanuelle Petelet  (e.petelet@brgm.fr)

For more information on the workshop, please contact : conf_isonitrate@oieau.fr

In a scenario of climate change, the sound management of the water is a key issue to maintain the biodiversity, the human health and the economic and social development. The “blue” challenge is of paramount importance. The entire World is going through a water crisis, safe access to water for all is one of the Millenium Goals, and water savings can be improved by more than 40% in Europe. That is why it becomes necessary to join efforts and ideas, share experiences and develop new instruments to raise awareness, contribute to create a water saving culture in Europe, define strategies, learn from each other and work with third countries.

The Summer School is oriented to regional decision-makers, elected politicians and experts from the different regional and local administrations who are interested in developing solutions for the water issues. Simultaneously, the Youth Summer School will bring young people from all Europe to work together in this issue, to promote sharing of experiences, expressing their opinion and better awareness to act as “water ambassadors” when back in their home regions.

Deadline for registrations : 20 July 2009

 The aim of the Summer Schools is to:

• Raise awareness concerning the developments affecting water ressources, their availability and their management
  
• Provide regional administrations with the opportunity to gather best practice in this field from their European counterparts and to develop innovative approaches
  
• Encourage the emergence of a "water saving culture" by involving in particular young people as early as possible and committing them as "water ambassadors"
  
• Create a "Water Award"
  
• Elaborate a "European regional Charter for Water

The Summer Schools are targeted at:

• Regional politicians, officers and experts in charge of water and environment, water management or planning and communication in relation to water

• Young people from regional youth cabinets, parliaments and political parties

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Registration

In order to register, an electronic registration form is available.

Please
- download the document below,
- fill it in and, once you have finished,
- click on the "Imprimir formulario" button in order to get a hard copy of the information you have provided,
- click on the "Enviar por correo electrónico" button in order to send your information. Please note that you cannot save the form with the information you have filled in.