Millennium Development Goals, MDG, Eastern Asia

We live in an increasingly populated world in which poverty and environmental un-sustainability are the main threats. Population is growing in an exponential way, mainly in regions with lack of economic and institutional capacity that assures humans’ development. Even GDP have being multiplied by 8 since 1950, 15% of the total populations are in extreme poverty conditions, that is the same with precarious possibilities to have control of their own life. Both situations in absence of sustainable living models have created environmental problems (such as climate change) with unforeseen consequences.

If we consider development as the extensions of humans capabilities, the world’s main challenges regards to a well-management of population growth, the exercise of economic policies that by promoting growth could achieve the poverty reduction, and the integral management of environment.

Is in this contexts that the Millennium development goals were created. In the year 2002, in New York, the countries member to the United Nations committed with the achievement of eight goals, with the purpose to mitigate or eliminate certain expressions of poverty.

In my opinion, the MDG should be understood as a development progressive program, that aims deep transformations on society. Removing the basic un-freedoms that millions o people faced is the main goal of these goals.

This development program also considers (and in my opinion, tried to potential zed) the interconnected structure of the world in which we live. So, the efforts done by a nation (and it results) not only have implications in a global scale, but also are interconnected with the performance in other countries.

In general, Eastern Asia Region could illustrate what I am saying.

Eastern Asia is region that has had an impressive performance. Their economic policies are an example of how it’s possible to promote a sustained and robust economic growth and at the same time improve everyone’s quality of life.

Extreme poverty has being reduced around 73% in the last 15 years, mainly in China where the poverty rate is expected to fall to under 5 per cent by 2015. In terms of fight against hunger, the Region is likely to meet the target, due to China’s progress. The have reduce from 15% in 1990 to 6% in 2009 the proportion of children under age five who are underweight. Globally, the achievement of this goal could possible thanks to Eastern Asia efforts.

In terms of giving universal access to primary education, the region just improve in 1 percentage point, but it has one the highest rates of the world, similar to the developed countries.

Regarding to women’s empowerment, her enrolment in educations (primary, secondary and tertiary) in relation to boy’s enrolment overachieved the 100%. The share of women in non-agricultural paid employment increased from 38% to 43%, some of the most important advances comparing to other regions. At the same tine, almost 20% of Eastern Asia women’s are representatives in the country’s Parliament. This shows an important improvement in women’s capabilities.

China makes a great difference concerning to goal 4. Children from rural households are more risky of dying in spite of mortality rate is low. In fact, they are almost three times more likely to die before the age of five than children from the richest households. This situation is analysed when China is being not considered.

Even, there is a significant progress in pregnancy health in Eastern Asia countries, the mortality ratio decreased 62% and health care during pregnancy improve 19pp, the worldwide MDG 5 target is still far off.

The HIV/AIDS incidence rate was “unmoved” in the Region. Nevertheless, the worldwide rate declined by nearly 25%, as well as the number of people that lives with the virus, since they are receiving an antiretroviral treatment.

Nonetheless the Region has a huge environmental challenge. The whole Asia continent is by far the largest contributor to the global increase in greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades, in which China is one of the main contributors. Pollution, deforestation a biodiversity protection are main concerns.

There are some progress and important achievements. China developed a large –scale afforestation programs, and it is well-known forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle. The 2008 emissions were 38% above the 1990 level, and the gap in CO2 emissions per capita between developed and developing regions has diminished since 1990 (12,3 metric tons were emitted per person per year in developed regions, compared to about 1.7 metric tons in the developing regions).

In conclusion, the millennium development goals are in track. Some are more achievable than others ones. The notable improvements in Eastern Asian countries foster the worldwide goals achievement. This is especially important considering the globalist world in where we live.

References.

UNDP: “Millennium development goals”. UNDP. New York. 2011

UNDP: “2011 Human Development Report: Inequalities and environmental challenges threaten progress in Asia, Pacific”. UNDP. New York. 2011

Comments Off on Millennium Development Goals, MDG, Eastern Asia / 19 Jan 2012 por Diana Patricia Sanchez Barajas
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Energy Planning: Are companies in Peru are trying with energy efficiency?

Although energy efficiency is not a priority issue in Peru, at least 400 companies has achieved some level of environmental efficiency that involves savings and the generation of new markets. Jorge Villena, a consultant of the Ministry of Environment in Peru, said these companies have eco-efficient programs that apply on its water management, energy, waste or others[1].

I would like to mention the case of Cementos Lima, a cement plant located in Lima. Last October I had the opportunity to interview as a journalist the people in charge of the Corporate and Social Responsibility area of this company. They told me that in the year 2007, Cementos Lima decided to use natural gas instead of coal for cement manufacturing. This drove the company to reduce in  more than 25% its green gases emissions since this new energy matrix began to operate. For this reason, Cementos Lima became the first company in Peru that uses natural gas as a main energy source.

Another important improvement in Cementos Lima was to replace the way they transport bulk cement and other raw materials from its plant in Villa Maria del Triunfo to the port in Villa El Salvador Conchan. For this purpose they started to use an underground conveyor that permitted the company to reduce by 100% their emissions of gases and dust they used to spread to the environment before.

To change their energy matrix the company had to invest 200 million dollars. This included the construction of a Wastewater Treatment plant, the underground conveyor and other technologies. Being more efficient allowed Cements Lima to reduce in 30% its water consumption; 10% its thermal energy consumption and in 20% the electricity the company need to manufacture cement.

What more is happening in Peru?

According to the Environmental Ministry in Pery, at least 150 food industry companies are trying to be more efficient with its energy consumption in order to achieve international certifications that open the doors of the most demanding consumers.

Another sector with a good development is construction. Today in Peru we can see two or three buildings that have developed green technologies, and at least 30 or 40 buildings that have been established beforehand energy savings. This is the case of Los Delfines Hotel in Lima that changed their water taps in all their room so instead of throwing 12 liters of water per minute now they are only 4 liters. And they also added savings in electrical energy use and improved waste management, resulting in annual savings of $ 300 per room. In fact, other 8 or 9 hotels had also followed the same process of being more efficient with its energy consumption.

Comments Off on Energy Planning: Are companies in Peru are trying with energy efficiency? / 19 Jan 2012 por Iana Malaga Newton
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Sustainability | Analysing MDGs progress in South East Asia

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have their origins in the year 2000 when 189 United Nations member states made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations such as freedom and equality. This commitment became the so called eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by the year 2015. In September 2010, the world recommitted itself to accelerate progress towards these goals. The abovementioned goals are the following:

More information about the Millenium Declaration: http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf

We are now going to focus on measuring the progress of the region of South East Asia towards the Millenium Goals of 2015. Remember that this area comprises Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines, Christmas Island and Singapore.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target : Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

Trends observed in South-Eastern Asia, suggest that they are likely to meet the hunger-reduction target by 2015. However, wide disparities are found among countries in these regions. Levels in South-Eastern Asia benefit from advances made in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Target: achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.

In the case of the vulnerable employment rate (referring to informal working arrangements, lack of adequate social protection, low pay and difficult working conditions) remains stable comparing the years 2008 and 2009 but progress in the reduction of this type of work is still a challenge because more than half of the population is low paid family worker with insuffcient social protection.

In relation to the Proportion of children under age five who are underweight,between 1990 and 2009. A number of simple, cost-effective measures delivered at key stages of the life cycle, particularly from conception to two years after birth, could greatly reduce undernutrition. These measures include some like improved maternal nutrition and care, breastfeeding within one hour of birth. In the Southeastern region this rates dropped almost by half, this means that measures are effectively making progress and going on the right direction.

 

 

 

 

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.

Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Referring to adjusted net enrolment ratio in primary education,* 1998/1999 and 2008/2009, Southeastern Asia shows small increasement, but one has to see it in perspective because South Eastern Asia already had one of the highest percentages. Since they are approaching the ratio of the developed countries, there is little space for improvement left. This doesn´t mean however, that each country shouldn´t always strive for the maximum goal (100%).

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.

In order to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.

South-Eastern Asia has achieved gender parity in primary education. In secondary and tertiary education the ratio of girls´ school enrollment is higher than the number of boys, surpassing the enrollment of boys.

In relation to empowerment of women, despite growing numbers of women parliamentarians, the target of equal participation of women and men in politics is still far off. South-Eastern Asia showed no progress in this sense. Insufficient quota arrangements and measures taken by political parties may be a cause.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.

Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under- five mortality rate.

Regarding children living in rural areas at a higher risk of dying under the age of five. Despite substantial progress in reducing child deaths, children from rural households are still at a disadvantage position in South-Eastern Asia, (as we can see in the image).This can be due to difficult access to medical supply, hospitals and doctors.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health.

Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.

Regarding to maternal health one can see that South Eastern Asia is on the right track. In the last moment of measuring they scored a 160 deaths per 100.000 births. In 2015 this should be reduced to 90 deaths per 100.000 birts, a 25% of the original 360 deaths. This goal is achievable, but it remains a challenge.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

When we take a look at the HIV incidense rates we see that incidense rate in South Eastern Asia stabilized at an 0.04 person per 100 persons. This is 1 person out of 2500 and lower than the average of the world, but still higher than the average of the developed regions. On the long term I expect though that the incidense rates can decrease even further, when young people get better informed, merely thanks to the internet and social media.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

Over the last two decades we can see that the emission of carbon dioxide in the developed regions decreased, so that is a plus. On the contrary though, developing regions have been emitting more than twice as much carbon dioxide as they did in 1990. This is a worrying development, however one could have expected it. Looking at South East Asia we can see that the emission of carbon dioxide even tripled, because of the rapid economic development and the industrialization of the countries of this area. The focus should be on these developing countries. A sustainable model for economic growth should be designed for the government of those countries, so they can still continue growing, but in a more sustainable way.

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Taking in to account the following target: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications are offering alternative communications opportunities.

Internet means access to communication, to freedom and development.According to the graph attached the number of Internet users continues to expand worldwide. There is no specific data in the UN report about the region of South East Asia, however, as we can see penetration levels in the developing world remain very low, at 21 per cent by end-2010,compared to 72 per cent in the developed regions. Globally, two out of three people are not using the Internet. And in LDCs, Internet penetration was as low as 3 per cent by end-2010.

Comments Off on Sustainability | Analysing MDGs progress in South East Asia / 19 Jan 2012 por Tatiana Casquero Rodriguez
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Sustainability class: The progress of the MDGs in Northern Africa

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be met by 2015. Let us have a look where they are today- regarding the Northern Africa region. The goals and the targets (objectives) are the following:

Goal 1
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

Northern Africa will most likely reach the target. The proportion of people in the region living on less than $1.25 a day – the international poverty line defined by the World Bank – decreased from 5 per cent to 3 per cent between 1990 and 2005.

Target
Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

Regarding the participation of women in paid work, the situation has remained at the same very low level since 1990: fewer than one in five paid jobs outside the agriculture sector was held by women in 2009.

Target
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Goal 2
Achieve universal primary education

Target
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Northern Africa leads in expanding literacy among youth, with its youth literacy rate increasing from 68 % to 87 % between 1990 and 2009. The primary school enrolment ratio grew from 86 % to 94 % between 1999 and 2009.

Goal 3
Promote gender equality and empower women

Target
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

Gender parity has been reached in secondary and tertiary education, and almost in primary education (with 95 girls enrolled per 100 boys in 2009). However, regarding to paid work and participation in politics it stays on a very low level (20% and 12%).

Goal 4
Reduce child mortality

Target
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the underfive mortality rate

Northern Africa is the only region to have already met the child mortality target. This success is due to widespread coverage
of immunization against measles – 94 per cent of children 12-23 months old received measles vaccine in 2009 – and due to a remarkable progress in expanding access to safe water and sanitation.

Goal 5
Improve maternal health

Target
Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

Northern Africa made one of the greatest progress in reducing maternal mortality. Between 1990 and 2008, its maternal mortality ratio decreased from 230 maternal deaths to 92 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, due to increases in skilled attendance at birth (from 45 per cent of deliveries in 1990 to 81 per cent in 2009) and contraceptive use among women of reproductive age who are married or in a union (from 44 per cent in 1990 to 61 per cent in 2008).

Target
Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

Goal 6
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Target
Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

Target
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the  incidence of malaria and other major diseases

No progress achieved here.

Goal 7
Ensure environmental sustainability

Target
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of
environmental resources

Northern Africa has exceeded the limits for sustainable water resources. It had already withdrawn 92 per cent of its internal renewable water resources by around 2005.

Target
Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

Target
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

The region made a remarkable progress in expanding access to safe water and sanitation.

Target
By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

Goal 8
Develop a global partnership for development

Target
Address the special needs of the least developed countries, landlocked countries and small island developing states

Target
Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Target
Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt

Target
In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications

 

To conclude is that Northern Africa keeps progressing very well on many of the MDGs compared to other regions. However, many countries in Northern Africa have been affected by  the consequences of the “Arab Spring”, which may slow down some of the development progress in the region over the next few years.

Also it could be interesting to ask the question, which MDG to choose, if we could only choose one.  This might bring us back to a more baseline question: what is development.

VIDEO: End poverty by 2015

Reference: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 by UN

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/MDG2011_na_EN.pdf

Comments Off on Sustainability class: The progress of the MDGs in Northern Africa / 18 Jan 2012 por Ildiko Heim
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT – KAYELEKERA URANIUM MINING IN MALAWI

It is believed that some coutries are rich because they have deposits of minerals or may be oil. It is a wish of most of the developing countries to use each and every mineral deposit they find in their country to improve their economy. Malawi as a country also have some of the mineral deposit though at a very minimal scale.

In my discussion, i will explain about the Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga, which is a distict in the country. The mining

was commissioned on April 17, 2009, and it was expected to bost the country foreign currency account which is currently facing uncertainty largely because of the economic crunch crippling its major export destinations.It was believed that the uranium mining was to account for about 30 percent of the country’s exports, currently dominated by tobacco, tea and sugar. In fact, at US$200 million in annual foreign currency earnings, the mineral will instantly become the country’s second largest foreign earner after tobacco. (The Daily Times April 17, 2009. The sandstone deposit was discovered and proved up by CEGB (UK), it has 11,700 tonnes U₃O₈ in 0.187% ore with in situ leach potential.

However, this project faced a alot of challenges from the civil society and the community because of the following reasons.

• The Civil Society believed that there was need to to address the environmental concerns regarding the project with utmost caution.
• Both the civil society and the community were claiming to have not been informed and consulted.
• The community atlarge were scared of the health impact of Uranium.

Regarding this the civil society did petition the government and i quote one of the news papaer

On Aug. 30, 2006, Malawian rights groups petitioned the government against a plan to grant a 16-year tax break to an Australian firm set to mine uranium, saying the project could be environmentally hazardous. “A 16-year tax exemption is deplorable and in bad taste when the mining life span is ten years,” Undule Mwakasungura, a spokesman for a coalition of five rights groups, said, after sending the petition to the government. (Australian Aug. 30, 2006). The organisations have called on government to exercise caution in relation to uranium, as its mining remains a contaminating and controversial industry. “Uranium mining threatens Malawi’s natural heritage including treasures such as Sere Stream, Rukuru River and Lake Malawi. This is an ecological disaster in waiting,” said the organisations in a joint statement. The NGOs are Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, Citizens for Justice, Foundation for Community Support Services, Karonga Development Trust and Uraha Foundation. Key concerns raised by the organisations include detrimental impacts on the health of workers and nearby communities, production of large volumes of radioactive mine wastes, environmental damage and water contamination and a great chance of nuclear accidents due to tailings. (Malawi Daily Times Nov. 14, 2006)

However the government went on approving the Environmenta Impact Assessment and signed the contract for the project. This resulted in a big fight between the Civil society, community and the government, to a serious situation that people started protesting to the point that some people died in the process after the police started shooting to control the situation. On this regard, the communityis left aside because they feel not being part of the decission on something the Government believe its a way of improving the livelihoods. This will result in failure in achieving the maximum results from the initiative.

The problem here is that the government did not consider some small issue which might have caused all these challenges, one of it being the consequences of lack or inadquate consultation. This has great impact in most of the projects if we are to trap the maximum benefits from the projects.  As a country , Malawi needs inititives or projects which are sustainble and economically sound, and from the Evironmental Impact Assessment, it shows that the project passed these two points.  However due to lack or inadquate consultation and poor communication, the whole project is regarded as a mess by the majority of the Malawians. This is also as a result of the literacy levels of the majority of the community in the country; the majority of the people are illiterate and this affects the acceptance level to most initiatives. As a result most projects are poorly implemented and results in poor results or benefits. As a citizen, i would love if the government could have done more on consultation but also improve the communication channels.

It takes the mind of few people in a community to change things, knowing about the literacy levels of the country the government could have insituted national sensitization programmes about the project emphasizing on the process of the whole project but also telling them what is in the project fo the country. This could have cleared the peoples fears but also to ensure the best results.

I tried to link this situation with the Definition of ‘Gross National Happiness – GNH’ as a measure of economic development.

An aggregate measure of a country’s national production, in the vein of the gross national product or gross domestic product. Gross national happiness (GNH) attempts to measure the sum total not only of economic output, but also of net environmental impacts, the spiritual and cultural growth of citizens, mental and physical health and the strength of the corporate and political systems.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gnh.asp#ixzz1jq7YYowx

It will be likely that if a survey was conducted on the gross national hapiness, the country wolud have floped since the majority feels the project did not take into account of net environmental impacts, the spiritual and cultural growth of citizens, mental and physical health and the strength of the corporate. The people were not happy and the fact that the protest resulted in some people dying, one would question if development s about killing people in the benefit of national econmoic growth.

In my conclusion, i feel some bigger projects with a lot of investments and profits fail to achive the maximum becaues of the simple problems like lack of consultation, poor communication, lack of flexibility e.t.c. At the end of it all, instead of these projects improving the livelihoods of the majority, they end up in frustrations and poor results. Therefore as leaders whether at country, project or company level, as well as political we nees to assess the needs of our stakeholeders inorder for us to fit the their vision with ours and achieve the best.

New Uranium Mining Project  – Malawi:  http://www.wise-uranium.org/upmw.html

 

 

 

 

Comments Off on PROJECT MANAGEMENT – KAYELEKERA URANIUM MINING IN MALAWI / 18 Jan 2012 por Tabithah Mkandawire Kaluwa
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Sustainability: Millenium Development Goals for Southern Asia

I am going to start this blog making a little summary of the main eight goals related with the Millenium Development. It has been ten years since world leaders set this goals in order to free humanity from extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. The Millenium Declaration and the Millenium Development Goals framework that I am going to explain were sat up in this summit.

Instead of make a summarize of every goal and target I am going to present the facts that I think more relevants. Southern Asia has the biggest concentration of poor people int he world. This area harbors 1,500 million people and the 39% lives with less than $1,25 a day. In spite of the conflicts and instability the area grew in average. The infant mortality rate in Souther Asia has fallen down too. Instead of 130 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 59 per 1,000 births in 2007. Specifically in Bangladesh this change has been huge the infant mortality has fallen down from 144 to 69 per 1,000 births during the same period.

There have increased the enrollment in primary and secondary school however 31,5 million school-age children in basic education are not going to school in the region. In this area the challenges in terms of children malnutrition, maternal deaths in child birth and equal opportunities for women in education and health are so much greater. However there still not have disappeared the challenges to improve the child malnutrition, rates of completion of primary and secondary school, maternal mortality and gender balance in education and health.

Nearly half of all children under five years old are malnourished. The illiteracy rate among young people is quite high withe the following figures; 23% for males and 38% for women. Tuberculosis has resurged as a threat like HIV/AIDS. Last but not least with a maternal mortality raion of 567 per 100,000 live births maternal deaths during childbirth continuos to be a common tragic in Southern Asia.

 

Comments Off on Sustainability: Millenium Development Goals for Southern Asia / 18 Jan 2012 por Antonio Calixto Moreno Zarco
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Project Management: Lago Caliente Experiencece

 

After finishing my Project Management Course, I will use this blog entry to share my personal opinion in the execution of the project I used to work for. It is called Proyecto Lago Caliente .

Lago Caliente Project is sponsored by a international agency , and it is managed by a Non Governmental Organization.. The projects worked for the aim of improving the quality of life and reduce economic, environmental and social vulnerability of the inhabitants of the Rio Frio’s basin, through a zoning project oriented towards a sustainable supply of goods and services.

Because of its objectives, there were many stakeholders involved. All of them had different ideas, background, academic degrees, interests and diverse way of working and accomplishing activities. This was a big challenge and also I think it become a weakness.  The Project had clear the stakeholders, however the roles and obligations of each public were not that clear, and this cause a big problem.

During the feasibility phase, Costa Rica’s and Spain’s Government discover the importance for Costa Rica’s north part to launge this project, and allocated a fun in order to develop the project, which is supposed to be done by December 2012.

The planning phase took one year, the technical team was hired, but a strong schedule with critical path and WBS (work breakdown structure) was not really created and most important of all used by the technical team.

Because of the lack of good planning and time management during the execution phase there were problems with the procurement department and most activities were delay. Although, the control and follow up was not clear, because there were many people involved in the control of the execution, but none of them was severe enough for insuring the good performance and respecting dead lines for finishing activities. Now, the closure phase is near, and the team is gone. All of the team members but the project’s assistant and finance officer are gone.

Definitely, the project’s main objective was accomplished. But some activities were not done at all, and a greater impact and more activities could have being done with a better project management. Especially in the planning phase and with a better control and organization.

 

Comments Off on Project Management: Lago Caliente Experiencece / 18 Jan 2012 por Natalia Diaz Zamora
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Project Management: The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a 77 km international water pathway between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, reducing the trip about 12,875 km instead  of going around the southern tip of South America. And was built during two stages the French stage and the North American stage of the project.

 

Work began in 1882 along the route of the 1855 Panama Railroad (the concession had been given by Colombia in 1878) and the responsible for its construction was the same engineer as the one responsible for the Suez Canal. However this initial attempt to create the canal failed due to budgeting and the French company which had the concession, had to be liquidated. By the end of the first stage of the number of lives taken by the project were around 22,000. 1902 the United States signs a lease to conclude the project that had been started.

 

Back then Panama was part of Colombia and Colombia rejects the lease signed between panama and the United States. Finally in 1903 claims independence and is proclaimed an independent republic. With this the United States gets full authorization to continue the construction of the canal in exchange of $10,000,000. In 1904 operation are reopened and the canal is finally finished in 1913 and the first ship goes through it in 1914. And the  total  cost of the project for  United States was  of $375,000,00 which was the highest spend by any government by then.

 

As part of the project it was contemplated the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, the removal of 300,000  tons of rock, the construction of potable water delivery systems, and the construction of new    towns in the areas surrounding the canal.

There was a series of unexpected setbacks in the actual excavation of the Canal Zone. Mainly diseases such as yellow fever and malaria put much of the work force in the hospitals or dead. Due to this sanitation campaigns had to be included as part of the   project. During the completion phase (United States) more than 5,000 people lost their lives.

Finally although the works done where immense and there were unexpected setbacks the project was finished before schedule and under budget. Meaning a successful project and almost a hundred years after the project is still up and running.

References:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/panama-canal-facts.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/spanish/extra9912panamahistoria.shtml

 

 

Comments Off on Project Management: The Panama Canal / 18 Jan 2012 por Javier Solano Palacios
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Project Management: Itaipu Dam

Itaipu is a hydroeletric power plant located in the border Brazil-Paraguay. Its feasibility studies were carried out from 1970 to 1973, and the construction itself started at the beginning of 1975. The first generation unit started to run in 1984.

The capacity of the plant is 14GW, which made it the biggest hydroelectric power plant until the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, in China, completed in 2008. During 2011, Itaipu generated 92,24 TWh, providing 17% of the total energy consumed in Brazil and 73% of the Paraguayan consumption.

Background

The region where Itaipu is settled was a reason of land dispute between Brazil and Paraguay since the colonial period. In the 60’s the great hydroelectric potential of the Paraná River to produce electricity was proved and the dispute intensified. The military dictatorships governments of the countries at that moment came up with a solution that would solve the land dispute and provide energy for the increasing consumption in both countries, represented by the construction of the power plant, through the Itaipu Treaty. Afterwards, Brazil and Paraguay also signed an agreement with Argentina, since the Paraná River is one of the rivers that form the Río de La Plata, meaning that a bad water management in the dam flow could result in floods in Argentina.

Nowadays, the energy produced is shared by Brazil and Paraguay, but because of the differences regarding demand, Paraguay sells a big part of its energy rights to Brazil. The treaty between both countries expires in 2023 and since 2008 Paraguay has been claiming for a renegotiation in the conditions of Brazilian energy purchases, creating a little tension between the governments.

Challenges

100.000 workers participated in the construction of the facilities. In the peak times, about 40.000 workers were leaving in 9.000 houses at the margin of Paraná River. At that moment, the closest city was Foz do Iguaçu, which had a population of 20.000 people. A huge infrastructure had to be built in order to support the intense migration toward the region.

At the construction site, the first task is to alter the course of the Paraná River by removing 55 million cubic meters of soil and rock in order to excavate a 2 km detour. Later on, in 1978, 58 tons of dynamite exploded the two cofferdams that protected the construction of the new course. The 2 km detour created was 150 meters wide and 90 meters deep.

Almost all the work was hired from Brazilians suppliers. Many companies became huge and more representative in the Brazilian economy because of this project, and the project got over the economic crisis during the 70’s. In 1978, the site received 7,207 cubic meters of concrete, which is a record in South America.  The transportation in the site demanded more than 20.000 trucks and 6.648 railways cars. Between 1978 and 1981, about 5 thousand people were hired monthly, due to the peak of the construction and the high employees’ turn over.

The dam was constructed about 1982. Before fulfilling the reservoir created with the river’s water, a huge replacement of local populations had to be done, in parallel with programs to protect local animals and plants. The first unit started to run in 1984.

The estimated cost for the plant was about US$ 10 billion and the real final cost was of about US$ 14 billion, due to all the challenges faced and the impact of the economic crisis on the project. For having an idea of the project’s magnitude, the total amount of steel and iron used are enough to build 380 Eiffel Towers. As negative effects, we can mention the displacement of 10.000 families and the death of 149 workers during the construction, besides many other accidents and diseases.

Conclusion

From a very controversial project, Itaipu became a very important source of energy to support Brazilian economic growth. However, at the time it was built, there were fewer concerns about social and environmental impact, so the construction was not conducted in a very good way obviously taking into account the less developed technology and standards available by the same time.

The cost was huge, but in the long run it would cost much more to generate energy from non renewable sources. Comparing with other renewable sources, the cost is lower than the alternatives available for Brazil. The conclusion is that the power plant keeps playing a very important role on Brazilians development, but there are many lessons to be learned from its construction. Furthermore, the success of the plant does not mean that the country has to adopt the same technology in other regions, since the technology and knowledge about our limits on impacting the environment and the society evolved.

 

References: http://www.itaipu.gov.py/en

 

Comments Off on Project Management: Itaipu Dam / 18 Jan 2012 por Fabio Pinto Almeida
IMSD /

Project Management real case study blog #2

Project: To establish a new Tata Communications Internet exchange at Tokyo (KDDI-Otemachi); Upgrade the existing Japan (TV2)-Palo Alto (PDI) STM16 IP backbone link to STM64 capacity. Challenges seen in this project are as follows :Otemachi PoP manned by vendor while PMO activities were remote managed from India Co-ordination with functional team based out in different time zones/countries. Secondly, Procure Off-net capacity (2x10G) on diverse paths between Otemachi & Tokyo within 10 weeks from different vendors . The Work Breakdown structure was roughly
Otemachi Project Kick-off with General Planning
Engineering Team kicks off activities
Procurement Team kicks off activities
Placing of Bandwidth and Capacity Orders
Order of STM64 On-net capacity between Tokyo & Palo Alto
Order of Dark Fibers between Otemachi and Shinagwawa
Facilities Team sets up base at Otemachi Site
Implementation Team kicks off at Otemachi Site
Installation of Otemachi PoPkicks off
Commencement of installation of 2X10G connectivity between Otemachi and Shinagawa
Installation of STM64 circuit between Palo Alto and Shinagawa commences
Project Ready For Service
The timeline was from July 07 to November 07.
The project utalized “critical path”techniques: Fast-tracking, Resource leveling etc
Establish Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) for the project & sign-off by stakeholders it successfully to complete the transmission BER Test (Bit Error Rate) of the backbone circuits well in advance of the IP testing. It actively
ensured purchase orders for equipments & network orders for circuits are placed well within time. It took advantage of KPI and other monitoring systems such as
weekly review meetings & progress reports to stakeholders, updated Project Binder on common shared electronic repository. The benefits seen in the project were that they built up of additional 10G IP capacity via the Trans-Pacific to cater to high density, improved data traffic between Asia & US, created
access to 80+ ISPs for selling IP Transit services well within required timelines and was executed due to the confidence of management & deployment of much larger and complex projects on time & within budget from an offshore location.
On the Planning side they approached the challenge to manage upgrade of multi technology and multi vendor and multi geography with engineering and capacity planning. The implementation for this challenge was handled with vendor management, large scale internal project management and inventory management. The workflow was divided into 5 phases. 1.) the requirements and high level design where we integrated solution planning 2.) Low level design was handled by IP and TX equipment, capacity on-net, off-nett and dark fiber, rack and power 3.) Ordering including procurement and network ordering 4.) Implementation in regards to equipment installation and configuration, connectivity to back bone, NIMS / Cramer and other OSS and provisioning and activation and last but not least testing. The project was a success due to efficient & effective planning, co-ordination & implementation with optimal utilization of resources, coupled with close monitoring & control of activities to meet the Project Milestones.

2 comentarios / 18 Jan 2012 por Lauren Musiello
IMSD /