ISSN 0912-7402

No.58: December 2013

– Save Water, Save Lakes –TICAD V Symposium Accelerating the ILBM Process in Africa
ILEC, in affiliation with the Fifth Tokyo
Inter national Conference on Afr ican
Development (TICAD V), organized “TheInternational Symposium for Integrated
La ke Basi n Ma nagement ( I LBM ) i n
Africa: Accelerating the TICAD Process
through Sound Management of Lakes andReservoirs” in Yokohama, Japan, on June
1, 2013. The symposium was funded by
Japan Fund for Global Environment.
This symposium aimed to review theachievements of the African Lake BasinManagement with Sanitation Challenges
proje ct (A FSA N ), sponsore d by t he
Ministry of the Environment, Japan andimplemented by ILEC to improve waterand sanitation conditions in East African
lakes from 2009 to 2011, and to discuss thesignificance and need of promoting the
ILBM Platform Process in Africa.
At this symposium, Dr. Madhav Chitalefrom India, the Stockholm Water Prize
Laureate in 1993, gave a keynote speech on
how sustainable management of lakes andreservoirs could be globally pursued, using
some of the Indian cases as a reference for
African lakes. Case presentations on
Nyanza Gulf of Lake Victoria (Kenya),Lake Nakuru (Kenya), and Lake Chivero

IN
THIS
ISSUE

(Zimbabwe) were followedby representative researchers.
Each presentation focused on
the current situations andissues in their basins,
respectively. Finally, a panel
discussion was organized by
the presenters and invited
experts, including a representative from
United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP). The panelists actively discussed
issues and challenges in African lakes,■ TICAD V Symposium Accelerating
the ILBM Process in Africa■ ILBM Platform Process is Growing – Part III■ TWAP Global-Scale Transboundary Lake & Reservoir
Assessment Initiated by ILEC and Its Partners■ A Letter from Scientific Committee (Senegal)■ Scientific Journal of ILEC, “Lakes & Reservoirs”

what needs to be done to promote thesustainable lake basin management in
Africa, and how the ILBM can contributeto the process, etc.

■ A Report from a Former JICA Trainee (Azerbaijan)■ My Internship Experience at ILEC
■ Overview of ILEC Activities (April - September 2013)■ In Memory of Mr. Hiroya Kotani■ Perugia, Italy: The Venue ofthe Fifteenth World Lake Conference

1

ILBM Platform Process is Growing - Part Ⅲ
The Integrated Basin Lake Management(ILBM) and its Platform Process are being
promoted around the world (Figure 1). As asequel to the ar ticles from the previous
Newsletters (No. 56 & 57) that featured
ILBM-based activities in Asia, this issue
introduces three lake basins in East Africa,
namely, Lake Nakuru, Nyanza Gulf-Lake
Victor ia ( Kenya) a nd L a ke Ch ivero(Zimbabwe). ILEC conducted a three-year
project (2009-2012), known as “AFSAN”,
c om m i s sion e d by t h e M i n i st r y of t h eEnvironment, Japan, to introduce the ILBM
approach to improve water and sanitation
conditions in these basins. On June 1 2013,
ILEC organized an international symposium
to follow up the AFSAN project in Yokohama,Japan in support of TICAD V.
1) Lake Nakuru (Kenya)
Lake Nakuru, a closed and shallow alkalinelake, famous for flamingos residing in its
basin, is facing a number of issues andchallenges. In the last three years, ILEC has
been working together with local organizations
to promote the ILBM Platform Process to
confront these challenges.
After some consultative visits and fieldvisits for the AFSAN project in collaboration
with local partners, the Lake Nakuru ILBM
Platform Process was formally launched in
December 2011. In January 2012, the ILBM
steering committee was formalized; Chairman(Kenya Wildlife Service) and the Secretariat(Municipal Council of Nakuru) were also
appointed and established, respectively. Thec om m it t e e p r epa r e d t he i n it ia l p ower
point-version of the Lake Nakuru Lake Brief
using the ILEC guidelines. Three participatory
stakeholder meetings were organized toanalyze the Six ILBM Governance Pillars for
the Lake Nakuru basin to initiate the Nakuru
ILBM Platform Process. Currently, eleven key
institutions from governments, NGOs, and
CBOs (Community-Based Organizations) are
joi n i ng toget her to i mp r ove t he ba si ngovernance through the ILBM Platform
Process. The participated members committed
to bringing about the results and agreed tomeeting and reporting progress bi-annually.
They proposed both short-term and long-term
act ions to me et t he ch a l lenge s : T he s echallenges include 1) siltation of the lake andriver sedimentation, 2) poor enforcement ofenvironmental laws, 3) poor solid waste
management and urban pollution, 4) sewer
blockages/spillage and discharge of untreated2

Figure 1. Locations of ILBM Case Studies
factory effluent, and 5) poor sanitation in low
income areas.
2) Nyanza Gulf-Lake Victoria (Kenya)
Nyanza Gulf of Lake Victoria is one of themost polluted areas in the Lake Victoria basin
because it is a shallow inlet, connected to themain lake only through the narrow Rusinga
Channel (three miles wide).
After a f ield visit and a workshop in
K isu mu du r i ng t he A FSA N proje ct i n
February 2010, the ILBM Platform Process
was initiated with the support of OSIENALA,
a local focal point in Nyanza Gulf of Lake
Victoria. OSIENALA has brought together the
major stakeholders around the Nyanza Gulf,
including schools and colleges, relevant
parastatals such as KEFRI, KEMFRI, KARI,
K FS, loca l author ities, La ke Basin
Development Aut hor it y ( LBDA), La ke
Victoria Environment Management Program(LVEMP), Lake Victoria Basin Commission,
relevant ministries and CSOs.
This ILBM team is currently working on a
Lake Brief for Nyanza Gulf and implementing
the following activities:
1) Community Conservation Projects
LVEP received funding from the WorldBa n k to implement envi ron menta lconser vation activities. OSI ENA LA is
supporting community conservation projects
in the southern shores of Lake Victoria toreduce pollution loads into the lake. The
activities include tree planting, riverbank
protection and capacity building for soil
erosion control by farmers.

2) Integrated Agricultural Practices
In a bid to conserve the fishery resources,
OSIENALA in partnership with Oceantec Ltd.
(USA) has formed the First Source Kenya to
implement this project. The objective is toimprove livelihoods in Homa Bay County. The
project has four main components, namely,
horticulture, fish farming, dairy farming andsafe drinking provision.
3) HOPE-LVB Project
HOPE-LVB is a project dealing with humanand environmental health along the Lake
Victor ia basin. I n t h is project, severa l
livelihood activities are implemented to help
the community members earn a living while
protecting the environment.
3) Lake Chivero (Zimbabwe)
Lake Chivero is the source of drinking
water for the cities of Harare and Chitungwiza.
The lake is hyper-eutrophic with a high levelof nitrogen, phosphorous, and suspended anddissolved solids. As another critical issue,
sediments continue to reduce the lake’s storage
capacity. The reason for this gloomy scenario
includes inadequate treatment of sewage andwaste water discharged from the cities Harare,
Chitungwiza and Ruwa, non-point source
pollution, inadequate management of solid
wa st e, a n d t h e d e st r u c t io n of n a t u r a lpurification systems.
Possible actions to improve water quality of
Lake Chievero were identified in the five year
process of establishing the ILBM Platform
Process through the collaboration between
I LEC a nd loca l st a keholder g roups. I n
September 2011, ILEC undertook a fieldr e s e a r ch i n Z i mba bwe, a nd t h e I L BM
P l a t fo r m P r o c e s s wa s e s t a b l i s h e d i n
December 2011. In March 2012, an interim
committee coordinated by the University ofZimbabwe was set up and the concept paper
was formulated for improving governance of

Lake Chivero. In July 2012, Green Bridge –an eco-technological in-situ horizontal
f ilt ration system – was exper imenta lly
installed on the Manyame River by experts
from Shrishti Eco-Research Institute (India)
and the Zimbabwean ILBM team. As it may

ta ke time to fully implement the ILBM
Platform Process there, ILEC continues to
explore various possibilities to support andencourage local stakeholders to participate inand contribute to the process.

TWAP Global-Scale Transboundary Lake & Reservoir Assessment
Initiated by ILEC and Its Partners
The Transboundary Waters Assessment
Programme (TWAP) is an international project
funded by the Global Environment Facility(GEF) to conduct a global-scale assessment offive major types of transboundary water
systems (Lakes, Rivers, Groundwater, Large
Marine Ecosystems, and Open Oceans) for the
purpose of ranking them in regard to theirdegree of vulnerability to human impacts. The
results of this global assessment will provide
the GEF with a means of establishing priorities
i n rega rd to t he most effect ive f und i ng
allocations within its International Waters
portfolio.
After completing an initial medium-size
project focusing on t he development ofassessment methodologies, and in cooperation
w it h t h e Un it e d Na t io n s E nv i r o n m e nt
P r og r a m m e ( U N E P) , I L E C i n it ia t e d a
T WA P-FSP ( Fu l l-Size P roje ct) to ra n ktransboundary lakes and reservoirs, utilizing a
GIS-based spatial and analytical methodology
with relevant indicators. This project is being
pursued in cooperation with the ResearchCenter for Sustainability and Environment,
Shiga University, Japan and the International
Center for Watershed Studies, Texas State
University, USA.

ILEC has established a Lakes Working
Group to undertake the primary lake andreservoir component of TWAP. The Lakes
Working Group has made progress in threemajor activities:
Activity-1: Preparation for assessmentof transboundary lake basins●Delineation of the areal boundaries ofapproximately 160 GEF-eligible and 50
non-GEF-eligible transboundary lake andreservoir basins, using GIS-based technique,combined with remote sensing data and adigital elevation model;●Identification of 11 initial indicators to rank
the lake and reservoir basins in regard totheir vulnerability to human activities.
Determining the relative importance of these
indicators is a continuing activity being
conducted on a sub-continental/regional
basis.
Activity-2: Identifying andcharacterizing sub-continental/regional
issues and challenges●Sub-continental/regional GIS overlay maps,
illustrating the hydrologic linkages of thestudy transboundary lake and reservoir

basins to nearby transboundary river basins,
groundwater aquifers and large marine
ecosystems, have been prepared on a global
scale;●Biodiversity hotspots, land degradation, andland use data also are overlain onto these
sub-continental/regional maps, in order tohighlight water-related issues and to bettercharacterize each sub-continental/regional
area.
Activity-3: Developing an assessment
framework and analytical methodology
for identifying and assessing global lake
and reservoir basin management needs●Elaboration of a multi-criteria analyticalmethodology, embodied in the Analytic
H iera rchy P rocess (A H P) assessment
framework, for consideration of quantitativeand qualitative ranking criteria;●Development of a comprehensive questionnaire
to obtain regional/sub-regional-specific dataand information from local experts, and theILEC Scientific Committee, as a means ofaugmenting relevant lake and reservoir basin
data and filling important data gaps.

General information on the TWAP is available on the TWAP project website (www.geftwap.org), while more detailed information
regarding the transboundary lakes and reservoirs component of TWAP is available on the ILEC website (www.ilec.or.jp) and the
Meadows Center for Water and the Environment website at Texas State University (icws.meadowscenter.txstate.edu/TWAP.html).

3

A Letter from Scientiﬁc Committee

Human Pressures on Coastal and Marine
Ecosystems in West and Central Africa
Salif Diop (Senegal)
My present focus and on-going project

to its coast a l populations. T he mostconcern a scientific publication on theimportant of them are related to critical

overall coastal and marine ecosystems

fish habitat, wood and charcoal fromservices and benefits and the impacts thatmangroves as well as space for agriculture,

can affect them when they are submitted toaquaculture, urban development, tourism

hu m a n a nd n a t u r a l p r e ssu r e s ( la ndand transport.

degradation upst rea m, sea level r ise

West Africa estuaries in particular whendownstream, salinization and drought

occupied by mangrove ecosystems, play aimpacts phenomena, overexploitation ofsignificant role in terms of ecologicalfisheries resources and mangroves, etc.).

functions, f lood control, groundwater

The regional focus is on West and Central

replenishment, coastline stabilization and

African estuaries that are indeed home ofprotection against storms, retention andsignificant interactions. Strong biologicalexport of sediments and nutrients, carbon

productivity that benefits variety of animal

storage capacity, water purification. Suchand plant species, specific habitats such ashydrological and ecological functions

mangroves, sea grass beds and other sandexplain the various services of mangrovebanks explain number of protected areas,e cosystems wit h i n such est ua r i neexacerbated by population growth in theparks and other natural reserves that haveenvironment: they provide benefits to thecoasts. In time of disaster, human andbeen created and provide refuge to many

riparian communities who draw significant

property losses within those estuarine

endangered species, including most of theincome from fishing, rice production,

environments are important and deservem igrator y birds’ f lyway of West andtourism, salt extraction and other resources

particular attention.

Central Africa.

activities exploitation, including honey

Ecosystem approach has been adopted

harvesting and medicinal plants.

With the completion of such first project,
I hope that this will constitute a good step

indicating why if we want to deliver

Yet estuaries and other coastal featuresthat brings together most up-to-date andsustainable ecosystems services to respondin West and Central Africa have been

recent information about selected estuaries

to human needs in estuarine environment,

exp er ienci ng severe de cl i ne a ndand coastal areas, including maps, models,

we have to move into more integration

degradation for some decades. This is

new data and knowledge on recent changes

assessment and management of land, waterparticularly due to a series of drought

and evolution and their implications in theand living resources. Four aspects of theevents, the important climate variability ofmanagement of coastal waters of West andecosystems approach will clea rly bethis area and inter-annual variations andCentral Africa. The book, once published,appearing all along this publication. They

deficits in rainfall that alternate at time

will be used as a documentation source forare related to providing and supplying

wit h sporad ic f loods. One of t hepreser ving a nd util izing t he coast a lservices, regulating services, supportingc on s e que nc e s i s t h a t r e s o u r c e s a r e

ecosystems and its environment, and be

services and cultural, recreational andbecoming scarce, biodiversity erodes with

helpful to scientists, foresters, geographers,

ecotourism services. Indeed, as it appears

t hei r negat ive i mpacts on loca lengineers, gover n ment agencies a ndin several studies and research programs,

communities and resource dependence isstudents dealing with coastal and marine

the overall western and central coasts ofincreasing. The adaptive capacities of thestudies and researches.

Africa, including the main estuaries andlocal communities − already strained bydeltas, provide series of goods and services

the financial and technical resources − areProfessor Salif Diop is a water specialist with extensive experience in various aspects of coastal oceanography, freshwater
assessment, aquatic and marine issues, sustainable management, and development. He is a member of the National Academy of
Sciences and Techniques of Senegal, the African Academy of Sciences (ASS) and the World Academy of Sciences for the Developing
World (TWAS). Currently, he is teaching at the Doctoral School on Water and Environment, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal,
after working at UNEP - Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) as a Senior Officer for nearly fifteen years.

4Scientific Journal of ILEC
Lakes & Reservoirs: Research and Management

Table of Contents

Volume 18, Issue 1 (March 2013)
Article Title

Editorial

Featured
ArticlesAuthor(s)The roles of stakeholders in lake basin management: Fundamental, but
often overlooked (p.1)

Walter Rast

People and ponds: the participatory role of humans in Integrated Lake
Basin Management (pp.3-4)

Jeﬀrey A. Thornton,
Hebin Lin and Thomas M. Slawski

Creating opportunities for improving la ke -focused sta keholder
engagement: knowledge-action systems, pro-environment behavior andsustainable lake management (pp.5-14)

Kathleen P. Bell, Laura Lindenfeld,
Ann E. Speers, Mario F. Teisl and Jessica E. Leasy

Lakes, landscapes and locals: Pooling partnership resources to create
sustainable lake catchments (pp.15-25)

John R. Pinder

Stakeholder participation in lake management in Wisconsin (USA)(pp.27-33)

Jeﬀrey A. Thornton

Local institutions and lake management (pp.35-44)

Margaret Snell, Kathleen P. Bell and Jessica Leathy

Salient ecological functions of a tropical freshwater wetland (pp.45-51)

Buudhika D. Madurapperruma,
Mala D. Amarasinghe and Peter G. Oduo

River basin organization development in southeastern Wisconsin(pp.53-65)

Thomas M. Slawski

Protecting in partnership: the Mukwonnago River Basin Protection Plan
(pp.67-80)

Jeﬀrey A. Thornton,
Thomas M. Slawski and Eric Olson

Participatory and evolutionary integrated lake basin management(pp.81-87)

Hebin Lin, Jeﬀrey A. Thornton and Thomas M.
SlawskiTable of Contents

Volume 18, Issue 2 (June 2013)
Article Title

Featured
ArticlesAuthor(s)Assessment of water quality, macroinvertebrate biomass and primary
productivity of small water bodies for increased ﬁsh production in theLake Victoria basin, Kenya (pp.89-97)

Steve O. Ngodhe, Phillip O. Raburu,
Geraldine M. Kasisi and Patric O. Orwa

Anthropogenic and climatic inﬂuences over the past three centuries on
characteristics of an Adirondack lake, Eastern North America (pp.99-113)

Sharon L. Kanfoush

Spatio-temporal variation of gross CO2 and CH4 diﬀusive emissions from
Australian reservoirs and natural aquatic ecosystems, and estimation of
net reservoir emissions (pp.115-127)

Julie Bastien and Maud Demarty

Bioavailability of particle-associated nutrients as aﬀected by internal
regeneration processes in the Nyanza Gulf region of Lake Victoria (pp.129-143)

Fredric J. Guya

Lake bathymetry from Indian Remote Sensing (P6-LISS III) satellite
imagery using artiﬁcial neutral network model (pp.145-153)

Sheela A. Moses, Letha Janaki, Sabu Joseph,
Jairaj P. Gomathi and Justus Joseph

Bathymetric study of Lake Hayq, Ethiopia (pp.155-165)

Hassen M. Yesuf, Tena Alamirew,
Assefa M. Melesse and Mohammed Assen

Comparing echosounder eﬃciency using ﬁeld observations (pp.167-177)

Inigo Everson, Robert Kayanda and Anthony
Taabu-Munyaho

A role for aeration and intake depth in managing toxic Cylindrospermopsis:
A comparison between oﬀ-stream and riverine environments in the
Fitzroy Basin, Australia (pp.179-196)

Leigh Stitz, Susan Kinnear and Larelle Fabbro

Spatial distribution and habitat characterization of schistosomiasis hostsnails in lake and land habitats of western Kenya (pp.197-215)

Ayub V. Ofulla, Samson O. Adoka, Douglas N.
Anyona, Paul O. Abuom, Diana Karanja, John M.
Vulule, Tom Okrut, Ally-said Matano, Gabriel O.
Dida, Tsuma Jembe and John Gichuki

5

A Report from a Former JICA Trainee
Rovshan Abbasov (Azerbaijan)
A participant of the third JICA training course on Integrated Basin Management for Lake
Environment organized by ILEC in 2008, Dr. Rovshan Abbasov is currently the head of theEnvironmental Research Center at Khazar University, the Azerbaijan Republic. The Center isdedicated to providing advanced scientific information for protection, restoration andsustainable use of the Caspian Sea resources. He recently published a new book (available atamazon.com) via Springer Press about his investigations on long-term changes of the CaspianSea. Here is part of the story from his book about the historic change of the water level of the
Caspian Sea.
The Caspian Sea is the biggest inlandover the past centuries. Between 1837 andwaterbody in the world, located on the1931, the sea level fluctuated between -25.5

Eurasian Continent where the South-Easternm and -26.8 m (above sea level). The sea

Europe borders Asia. The exploration of richlevel dropped dramatically by 1.7 m in thetime series effect still demonstrates cyclic

oil and gas resources has raised thenext nine years. In 1977, the Caspian Sea

fluctuations. The Caspian Sea case suggests

awareness of the importance of the region

reached its lowest recorded level, -29 m, andthat both the secular long term trend and theover the last decades.

then started to rise. In 1995, the Caspian Sealong range cyclic f luctuations may exist

Due to climatic oscillations, the Caspianlevel reached its maximum elevation, -26.5

t oge t h e r i n ge o p hys ic a l p h e n o m e n a .

Sea has significant water level fluctuations.

m, that is, a total rise of 2.4 m since 1977.

Statistical modeling of the fluctuations of theDr. Rovshan Abbasov

Instrumental observations over the Caspian

The time series data in the Caspian Sea

water level may be performed by combining

Sea water level were carried out during thewater level fluctuations seems to indicate

a long term trend component with a memory

period of 1837 to 2010. According to theboth a long term secular trend and a long

component to show inter-relationships

analysis of these observations, there is arange of cyclic f luctuation. Even after

between various phases of the time series

great extent of change in the levels of the sea

removing the long term trend, the residual

over a long period of time.

My Internship Experience at ILEC
Nyasha Dumba (Zimbabwe)
I carried out my three week internship at ILEC in September 2013. I am a master’s
student major ing in Water and Waste Management at the Graduate School ofEnvironmental Studies, Nagoya University.
It was a great experience working at

t he c ond it ion of ou r la ke s is a t r ue

ILEC. During my internship, I got toreflection of human activities. Mirrors do

understand why and how ILEC promotes

not lie; most of the la kes worldwide

sustainable management of lakes and their

showing signs of degradation only reflectbasins. As I learnt more about the ILBM

our lifestyles.

concept and the ILBM Platform Process,Z i m b a bwe i s fa c i ng d e e p - r o o t e d

the relevance of their work dawned on me.

cha llenges in rega rds to proper la ke

Water is vital for our survival. Lakes inmanagement. Lake Chivero, the main

this sense are extremely important storing

supplier of water to t he capita l cit y,accordingly. I learnt that a managementa round ninety percent of the world’s

Harare, is highly polluted due to untreatedplan is only half the story, the governanceaccessible freshwater.

sewage, industrial eff luents,

aspect is t he ot her ha lf t hat is of ten
neglected but very crucial.

The theme of the upcoming Fifteenthagro-chemicals and urban runoff. Lake

World Lake Conference describes lakes as

Chivero is Harare’s mirror and in order to“mirrors of the earth”. I understand thatchange its conditions, we have to act

6

Ms. Nyasha Dumba

T H A N K YO U I L E C F O R T H E
WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY.

Overview of ILEC Activities (April - September 2013)
April 7 Delegation from Laguna Lake Development Authority andUniversity of the Philippines visits ILEC【PIC ❶】September 2-20 A Zimbabwean graduate student from Nagoya
University interns at ILEC【PIC ❹】May 10 President of University of Guanajuato visits ILEC

4 Members of the Fukushima Prefectural Assembly visit ILEC

13-16 The Transbounadary Water Assessment Programme (TWAP)

6 JICA commissioned training program: “ILBM for Lake

- Full Size Project kicks off: Lake Group Inaugural & 1st Expert
Group Meeting (Kusatsu)【PIC ❷】Environment” kicks off (Concluded on Nov.1)【PIC ❺】12 Students from Ritsumeikan University visit ILEC

June 1 TICAD V partnership project: “The International

13-14 Participation at the 4th International Conference of the
SATOYAMA Initiative (Fukui)

Symposium for ILBM in Africa” (Yokohama)
11 Students from Osaka Kyoiku University visit ILEC
July 8-11 TWAP Southeast/East Asia Expert Seminar & 2nd
Expert Group Meeting (Kuala Lumpur / In collaboration with

16-18 The Fifteenth World Lake Conference Preparatory Meetingsand Special Workshops (Rome, Perugia and Castiglione del Lago
/ In collaboration with USMA)【PIC ❻】17 Malawian government officials visit ILECNAHRIM)
13-16 Consultative field visits to Indonesian lake basins (Bogor,

19-22 TWAP 3rd Expert Group Meeting focused on the West

Jatiluhur, and Jakarta / In collaboration with LIPI).【PIC ❸】Africa, North Europe & Mediterranean Sea regions (Perugia)

August 12 Thai National Mekong Committee Secretariat visits21-25 Panel exhibition at the Shiga-Biwako Brand Expo (Osaka)

ILEC

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Mr. Hiroya Kotani, former Executive Director of ILEC passed away on May 13,
2013 at the age of 74. Professor Saburo Matsui, a dear colleague and a Member of
the ILEC Board of Trustees forwarded the following eulogy.

In Memory of Mr. Hiroya Kotani
Member of ILEC Board of Trustees, Saburo Matsui

It was all too sudden that Mr. Hiroya Kotani
passed away. I still cannot get over this loss.
Mr. Kotani was a person who genuinely loved
Lake Biwa. His eyes were always directed to
the natural environment of the lake. Then his
thoughts were extended to caring about theenvironmental protection of the whole Lake
Biwa basin, including the agricultural andother industrial activities therein.
M r. Kotani has played a key role as aleading member of the administrative staff indisseminating information on Lake Biwa andits environmental conservation activities to theworld. These included the organization of theFirst World Lake Conference, which led to theestablishment of ILEC, and inviting UNEP’s
International Environmental Technology
Centre to Osaka and Shiga Prefecture.
I became involved in Lake Biwa research asa member of the environmental assessment
committee of the North-Eastern Lake Biwa
Sewage Works Plan in 1982. Then, I started
working with him, first as a member of theorganizing committee of the First World Lake
Conference held in 1984, then as Secretary of
the ILEC Scientific Committee in 1987, under
the guidance of the Chairperson, the late Dr.
Tatsuo Kira. On the occasion of inviting the©The Kyoto Shimbun Newspaper Co., Ltd

UNEP Centre to Shiga Prefecture, Mr. Kotani
and I went to Nairobi together to participate in
the UNEP Governing Council.
It was very informative for me to exchange
views and opinions about Lake Biwa with Mr.
Kotani because the greater part of my research
has targeted Lake Biwa. We will miss a great
witness who can tell the environmental historyof Lake Biwa. I wish I could have talked morewith him about the future of Lake Biwa. May
he rest in peace.

7Perugia, Italy: The Venue of the Fifteenth World Lake Conference
Somewhere in the middle of bucolic
green in the Umbria Region, there stands
Perugia (PIC ❶). This beautiful hill town
has been the center of the region since theancient times. One of the oldest remainsthat tells its origin is the Etruscan town
walls (PIC ❷) built about 2,500 years
ago. It is said that the Etruscans settled in

the area because of the rich water resourceof the region. Other attractions that wecannot miss are the iconic landmark in themain street, Fontana Maggiore (PIC ❸)and the thirteenth century aqueduct (PIC❹&❺), now is a promenade, originallybuilt to bring the water up to the fountainlocated at the higher altitude of the town.

Just walking around the old district, youwill find medieval wells (PIC ❻) anddrinking fountains (PIC ❼) in every
other cor ner. This histor ical town of
Perugia is hosting the Fifteenth World
L a ke C o n fe r e n c e ( W L C15) f r om
September 1 to 5, 2014. We look forward
to meeting you there!

PIC ❶

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* Please stay tuned and visit the Conference website (www.wlc15perugia.com) for the coming updates!
** The WLC15 First Announcement is available on the above website.

INTERNATIONAL LAKE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE FOUNDATION (ILEC)

1091 Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu-city Shiga 520-001, JAPAN
Tel:+81-77-568-4567 / Fax:+81-77-568-4568 /Website: www.ilec.or.jp / Facebook: www.facebook.com/ilec.english*The latest issue and back issues of this newsletter are also available on our website above.

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