Fellow Members, Associates and Friends of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association, these are indeed exciting times. We are living a a time where the world is effectively getting smaller and smaller, right before our eyes�.a time of increased globalization.

For those who have not yet seized the moment, I would like to encourage you to take advantage of the benefits of the CWWA as we all aim to compete in a global environment. We should be aware that before we can effectively go global we must strengthen our regional ties through membership, and active participation in regional bodies like the CWWA. This is especially so for smaller island nations as those found in the Caribbean.

I encourage you to take every opportunity to utilize the resources available to reach your fellow Caribbean water and wastewater professionals, especially via the CWWA Newsletter which reaches some 300 plus Industry Professionals / Organizations in some 25 plus countries across the English, French and Spanish speaking Caribbean, North America, Latin America, and Europe. Participation is open to all, and we invite submissions in the form of articles, updates, and advertisements, whether they are for education, for research and development purposes, or purely for the purpose of sharing with our membership.

JAMALCO, ALPART and Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company have jointly endowed a Chair in Professorship in Hydrogeology and Water Resources Management at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. The endowment represents a major initial step towards alleviating the country's water problems as it provides for the training of local hydro scientists to conduct research and manage projects aimed as meeting Jamaica's water resource needs.

The understanding is that this Professorship will be multi-disciplinary, applications-oriented position, with the successful candidate being required to meet the needs of the local water sector as well as of the region.

Mr. Paris Lyew-Ayee, General Manager of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, who was instrumental in putting the proposal for this Chair to the various companies, said that after a review of Jamaica's water sector, the state of it's development, the problems that the agencies and user community faces and the national goals in this sector, it was concluded that a graduate professional programme at the University of the West Indies would prepare the required persons to contribute to alleviating the country's water problems.

Mr. Lyew-Ahee said that the Master Plan for Jamaica developed by the Water Resources Authority identifies activities that require persons qualified in hydrology, geology, hydraulics, design and construction, planning and design management of facilities for the various agencies such as the National Water Commission (NWC), the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), and the Water Resources Authority (WRA), but he said there were several key positions in these agencies which were vacant because of the unavailability of qualified personnel. My. Lyew-Ahee referred to the specific geological situation in Jamaica, where most of our water resources are underground in a limestone Karst environment. This requires special scientific knowledge as to how best to locate, harness and manage these resources. The proposed programme is to ensure that we become the leading center of excellence in Karst Hydrogeology to address these issues.

The holder of the chair will be expected to: Have an international reputation in a water-related field and command the respect of the Professional community.

Promote linkages among governmental organizations and private enterprises to help support postgraduate and faculty research projects.

To provide internships and full-time employment to meet the needs of our local regional sector.

Jamalco, Alpart and Kaiser will fund the Chair in Water Resource Management at a cost of J$30 million (US $0.75m) over the next five years