Parties Involved in Creating the Proposal

　On February 18, 2010, Prof. Funamizu at the Graduate School of Engineering of Hokkaido University, visited the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) headquarters and submitted “Proposals concerning international cooperation in the field of water and sanitary” to Mr. Nakagawa, director of Global Environment Department of JICA.

　The proposal was organized under the lead of Professor Funamizu, a specialist of waste water and sustainable sanitation system, and Associate Professor Nabeshima, a specialist of rural community and African society, as the findings related to integrated management of water research promoted by Hokkaido University since 2005, and the output of the "HU-JICA Joint Symposium" held on December 11, 2009.

　The proposal suggests that JICA, as one of the biggest Official Development Assistance (ODA) institutions in the world, should consider the following five viewpoints when they carry out international cooperation projects in developing countries in the field of water and sanitary while considering the limitations and problems of the current water system to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.

1. It is important to establish a management system of water facilities that adapt to the local cultures, traditions and social systems, and develop and disseminate the technologies that suit this water management system.
2. International cooperation in the field of water must be started from sharing global values with common future goals.
3. It is necessary to establish a long term system for the future so that we can facilitate the improvement of the water system in terms of soft and hard infrastructure according to the economic growth.
4. It is necessary to construct a knowledge base by organizing the successful and unsuccessful cases of the international cooperation in the field of water. Moreover, it is important to foster multi-faceted human resources.
5. It is necessary to coordinate the conditions that encourage independent projects to be developed through the collaboration of supranational actors.

The full text of the proposal can be downloaded from the following website.
http://www.sustain.hokudai.ac.jp/pdf/Hokkaido_University_Proposal.pdf