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NEWS in brief
management already exist. Now, we need to find out which
work best according to the local context, and implement
them, he says. “This is where the significant capacity gap
exists in most developing countries,” he says.

Global Highlights

Water Manager Admits Embezzling Over $1 Million

The study identifies some successful strategies to build
cooperation around water issues, such as including a
third-party mediator in negotiations and finding “creative”
forms of financing — for instance, Egypt funded water
projects in Sudan in exchange for water access.
But some attempts at cooperation over the past ten years
have failed to garner the expected results, the study says.
These less effective strategies often involve bilateral instead
of multilateral negotiations, or neglect underground water
resources, the authors write.
The study provides several examples where cooperation,
although not perfect, has taken place even under difficult
circumstances. This includes cooperation among the
countries along the Mekong River, which stretches from
Tibet to the southern tip of Vietnam, and in the TigrisEuphrates river basin, which straddles Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Syria and Turkey.
These examples show that “water provides a strong
incentive for nations to cooperate”, says Olcay Unver,
another author of the study and deputy director of the
Land and Water Division at the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.
Although water cooperation between countries is
important, water management within nations deserves
more attention, says Bruce Currie-Alder, director of the
Middle East and North Africa office of the International
Development Research Centre, a Canadian government
corporation.
“A lot of literature has been focused on international
cooperation, but I think the biggest gains are to be
made are within borders,” Currie-Alder tells SciDev.Net.
Cooperation between different ministries, different users,
farmers and urban people are at least as important as
cross-border cooperation, he adds.
References
Zafar Adeel and others Water cooperation: Views on progress
and the way forward (UNU-INWEH, 1 October 2015)

Image credit: “go to jail,” Ken Teegardin © 2011, used under an
Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org
A water manager in Colorado pleaded guilty to embezzling
funds from a local special water district and will face his
formal sentencing on November 30.
Terry Malcom, 66, must repay $1,154,210 to the Arabian
Acres Water District, the Cascade Metropolitan Water
District, and Cascade Resort Communities, it was reported.
The Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed formal
charges against Malcom in March 2015. Malcom admitted
in court he embezzled more than $1 million between 2007
and 2013.
“Malcom’s attorney, Mathew Werner offered a plea
agreement which would allow his client to serve three
consecutive six-year terms in prison. Malcom would also
have a five-year parole period and pay back more than
$1 million in restitution. If he were to go to trial and be
convicted, Malcom would have faced 24 years in prison for
each felony charge,” the report said.
Malcom is an ex-con from Nebraska. It was not
known why he was allowed to handle major financial
responsibilities at all.
“Why was a convicted criminal dealing with ratepayer
money, even as he was supposed to have been under the
supervision of the federal probation system? At least part
of that answer lies in Malcom’s ebullient personality and
his ties to an old law-school buddy,” the report said.
“Malcom’s outgoing nature served him well for years in
McCook, Neb., where he served as an attorney and was
appointed by the governor to chair the state Highway
Commission in 1987,” the report continued. “But in 1997,
Malcom lost his law license and was convicted in state and
federal courts of swindling clients out of $2.7 million. He
served prison time before being released to the federal
probation office in Denver for five years of supervised
release, which ended in 2007.”
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2015

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