Public Participation and Effective Water Governance at the Local Level: A Case Study from a Small Under-Developed Area in Chile

The concept of participation in rural development has been evolutionary for the past two decades with those involved, such as development agencies and governments, particularly in rural water supply, re-evaluating their active role. The move towards effective community participation has encouraged a shift from the traditional top-down to a bottom-up approach whereby there is a decentralisation of unevenly distributed resources and power to empower a community and allow mobility of ‘people participation’. The Molinos water project is the first large-scale development project of its kind introduced into the village of Molinos in an under-developed area of Chile, where there has been no tradition of people participation. The project objective was to implement a low technology, low budget water treatment plant to the village of Molinos. Various aspects have hindered the continued development of the project including both technical and financial. In terms of people participation, the initial approach used was the top-down approach. There was a failure to fully integrate the community or inform the community in a formal manner about the project and consult them regarding key project issues. This case study illustrates that the lack of comprehensive consultation and the low level of participation of the community on the participatory scale does not achieve much in terms of people-centred benefits. For governance at the local level to be effective, participation should be inclusive and communicative so as to enhance transparency throughout the project lifetime. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Carboxymethyl cellulose thiol-imprinted polymers:Synthesis,characterization and selective Hg(Ⅱ) adsorption

Sulfur containing ion imprinted polymers(S-IIPs) were applied for the uptake of Hg(Ⅱ) from aqueous solution. Cysteamine which was used as the ligand for Hg(Ⅱ) complexation, was grafted along the epichlorohydrin crosslinked carboxylated carboxymethyl cellulose polymer chain through an amide reaction. The adsorption ability of S-IIPs towards Hg(Ⅱ)was investigated by kinetic and isotherm models, which, corresponding, showed that the adsorption process followed a pseudo-second-order, fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity of 80 mg/g. Moreover, thermodynamic studies indicated an endothermic and spontaneous reaction with the tendency of an enhanced randomness at the surface of the S-IIPs with temperature increases. S-IIPs indicated a high degree of selectivity towards Hg(Ⅱ) in the presence of Cu~(2+), Zn~(2+), Co~(2+), Pb~(2+)and Cd~(2+).Furthermore, the efficiency of S-IIPs was also evaluated against real samples showing86.78%, 91.88%, and 99.10% recovery for Hg(Ⅱ) wastewater, ground water and tap water,respectively. In this study, the adsorbent was successfully regenerated for five cycles, which allows for their reuse without significant loss of initial adsorption capability.