The Global Water Partnership (GWP) has appointed Mr Emilio Gabbrielli, currently serving as Managing Director of Thames Water Do Brazil, as its new Executive Secretary. Mr Gabbrielli takes up his appointment - based in the GWP Secretariat in Stockholm in Sweden - on January 1, 2003. He will replace Mr Khalid Mohtadullah who retires this year after successfully serving the GWP since March 1999.
Emilio Gabbrielli, holding both Italian and Australian citizenship, has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bologna in Italy. He also holds a post-graduate certificate in Systems Analysis from the same University.
"Joining the Global Water Partnership will allow me to follow up several key issues close to my heart," Gabbrielli says. "I have been preoccupied for some years by the fact that good water projects did not achieve optimal results unless the policy frameworks were working effectively. In the private sector one cannot always give priority to what is best for the people irrespective to the company's interests. So one of the exciting challenges I see in joining GWP is working with GWP's partners to freely analyze and encourage innovative policies that will actually result in better water resources management in the countries where we work."
Before moving to his current position in Brazil in 1999 he served as Regional Director for the Americas (based in the UK) from 1995 to 1999 and from 1987 to 1995 as General Manager of the Thames Water Asia Pacific office based in Sydney in Australia. Prior to joining Thames Water he worked in Electric Power Transmission Pty. Ltd. and Italimpianti of Australia Pty. Ltd. in Sydney, and Italconsult S.p.A. in Rome. Earlier, he served as professor of engineering in Piura University in Peru, and headed a joint research program between the Department of Chemical Engineering in Bologna University and the Department of Industrial Chemistry of the Politecnico in Milan, Italy.
Mr. Gabbrielli's professional activities in the water sector will add new dimensions of possibilities for GWP. "My background in system engineering and water system simulation has allowed me to model complex water systems," says Gabbrielli, "and to optimize them in terms of the resources available, use and applications, recycling and controlled discharge." He has been involved in water saving and environmental protection aspects of the design, operation and monitoring of two of Australia's biggest coal fired power stations, the development of water services for five million people in Jakarta in Indonesia, two thirds of whom had not been previously connected to any water system. "It appeared impossible for these people to obtain these services for many years unless an overall concession was given to a private enterprise," he says. "So, from the time I joined Thames Water, my attention moved away from design and construction to the task of providing water services in communities."
"For a number of years now, "Gabbrielli says, "I have studied and debated all the key issues relating to the financing of water; such as setting tariffs bearing in mind affordability, and cross-subsidies versus direct subsidies; the importance of the comprehensive water resources management approach in terms of water basin management; water allocation and its efficient use, especially in agriculture; and crucially of course, stakeholder attitudes and participation in decision making processes."
Mr. Gabbrielli has also been involved in helping disadvantaged communities through grants from Thames Water to improve their water services, and to renew the water and waste water systems in a Street Children shelter house.
"I believe that my move to the Global Water Partnership, a non-profit intergovernmental organization, will help me become an even more effective agent of change," he says, "and better advance the ideas that I have on all aspects of integrated water resources management, not least the participation in the decision making processes of all those who manage and use water."
The Global Water Partnership (GWP), established in 1996, is an international network open to all organizations involved in water resources management: developed and developing country government institutions, agencies of the United Nations, bi- and multi-lateral development banks, professional associations, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. GWP was created to foster Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) which aims to ensure the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources by maximizing economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of vital environmental systems. GWP promotes IWRM by creating fora at global, regional, and national levels designed to support stakeholders put integrated water resources management into practice.
For more information on this appointment, for interviews, and for information on the Global Water Partnership contact Ann Milton at the GWP Secretariat, Sveavägen 24-26, SE 105 25 Stockholm: telephone: +46-8 6985119; fax: +46-8 6985627; e-mail: ann.milton@sida.se.
