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Introduction. Report List.

The following list contains some of the most relevant reports carried out by Engineering without Borders.

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  Esferes 12. El canvi climàtic i indústries extractives
  

  [En castellà]
  El poder de las principales industrias de extracción de recursos es superior a la capacidad de control de la mayoría de estados en los que operan,  su campo de actuación es transnacional y los intentos de ejercer el control sobre sus actividades choca de frente con la inexistencia de un marco jurídico internacional fuerte. Las iniciativas internacionales han dado como resultado en instrumentos que les sirven para dar una cara amistosa y amigable a las grandes corporaciones, permitiéndoles legitimar sus actividades ante la “opinión pública” utilizando estrategias comunicativas de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa.

  En el informe se analizan los datos científicos y las implicaciones del cambio climático, se detallan los actores y acciones más relevantes de la agenda nacional e internacional oficial y no oficial, así como los impactos de las industrias extractivas en el cambio climático.

  Autora: Vanesa Calero
  
  Aquí puedes descargarte el informe [PDF]

  
  

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  ESFeres 11. Del Bid a la realitat
  

  El procés de descentralització de l'aigua potable i sanejament a El Salvador.
  
  El present estudi neix amb la voluntat de ser un document de referència a l'hora d'analitzar el procés de descentralització del sector d'aigua potable i sanejament a El Salvador. Un procés que ha estat llarg (més de 10 anys) i amb multitud d'interessos, sovint contraposats. Quins van ser les principals motivacions a l'hora d'iniciar-lo, quins han estat els obstacles, quines oportunitats planteja, són alguns dels aspectes que s'estudien en l'informe. A partir de l'anàlisi, també es plantegen unes recomanacions a curt, mig i llarg termini, per a impulsar en el futur altre tipus de procés de descentralització a El Salvador, millorant també la institucionalitat del sector aigua potable i sanejament.
  
  Autor: Quique Gornés Cardona
  
  Aquí pots descarregar-te l'informe [PDF en castellà]

  
  

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  ESFeres 10. Falta aigua o sobra mineria?
  

  Implicacions de la Raw Materials Initiative de la Unió Europea a Amèrica Llatina

  Aquest estudi, en el marc de la campanya “El preu de la abundància: drets humans a les fosques”, identifica les conseqüències socials, ambientals, polítiques i econòmiques que pot desencadenar la Raw Materials Initiative (RMI) impulsada per la UE des de 2008 a les zones d’extracció d’Amèrica Llatina, i, l’assignació de responsabilitat que es pot establir-hi. La hipòtesis de l’estudi és que els Tractats de Lliure Comerç (TLC) estimulen una explotació indiscriminada i sense restriccions dels recursos naturals incidint negativament en els processos socials, polítics, econòmics i ambientals de les zones d’extracció i obstaculitzant les bases d’un model de desenvolupament sostenible a les zones d’extracció.
  
  L’informe s’estructura en quatre parts: una primera, amb el context actual de la producció minera mundial; una segona on es concreta la vulnerabilitat europea en l’accés al recursos naturals i els punts clau de la RMI; una tercera amb el paradigma actual a Amèrica Llatina i una darrera, on es projecten els punts clau de la RMI sobre Perú, Brasil i Xile.

  Autora: Sílvia Fromentí

  Aquí pots descarregar-te l'informe. [PDF]
  
  

  
  

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  Proposals from Engineering without Borders and the Blue Planet project of the Council of Canadians
  

  REGARDING TO 7/22 resolution of United Nations Human Rights Council about Human rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

  The proposals of this report provide a general vision of key questions about the function of the private sector regarding to water services and sanitation and the right to have access to water.

  The report is divided in four parts: the first one summarizes the key questions about the private sector participation and water privatization; the second one investigates States obligations to defend human rights; the third one studies the obstacles faced by communities while searching for appealing for human rights abuses; and the last one proposes recommendations and areas for future investigations.

   You can download the report here [PDF in Spanish]. 

  
  

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  ESFeres 9. When the impossible is asked
  

  

  The untenable energetic consumption of the food system
  
  This study is presented as a revision of the current agrifood system from the point of view of the energy and the impacts of its use, made by different models of production, distribution and food consumption. In order to do so, the content has been divided in three building blocks: i) Introduction to the world agrifood systems and the existing alternatives, as a main previous content to understand the dynamics of economic, social and environmental relations in which our agrifood system is developed; ii) Energetic habits associated with the food chain stages, in which energy importance in nutrition is introduced and the main steps of food production and distribution system are broke down while describing the associated energy consumption; iii) Practical cases about energetic comparatives between four chosen products (apple, tomato, milk and pork).
  
  You can download the report here [PDF in Spanish]

  You can dowload an executive summary of the report here  [PDF in Spanish]
  
  

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  ESFeres 8. Inventory of existing legal remedies in Ecuador, Spain and the International System to determine the accountability of foreign oil companies for environmental damages
  

  

  The oil spill at the Yasuní National Park (Ecuador) is just one of many examples about similar cases occurred in countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia or Peru, where hydrocarbon activities and the longing for development and economic growth have left the inhabitants of hydrocarbon areas helpless. The present study focuses on determining the existing legal remedies in Ecuador, Spain and the International System, to demand accountability to Spanish companies for developing their activity in Ecuadorian territory.

  Authors: Andrea Arteaga Iglesias, Laura Camps Solà and Paola Villavicencio Calzadilla.

  You  can download the report here [PDF in Spanish ]

  You can download an executive summary of the report here [PDF in Spanish]

  
  

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  ESFeres 7. THE ADA: The European threat on the water in Central Americ
  

  
  The trade policy of the European Union has valued the commercial interests of European transnational corporations over environmental and social conditions of the most vulnerable populations in the South. Moreover, the commercial interests for safe water supply and sanitation as well as those for more environmentally polemical areas (electric power generation, mining..) have become extremely worrying. Thus, in a further step in that direction, the policy of European global competitiveness has focused on Central America, after the rejection of other countries and regions of the global South. In this study, we analyze the possible impacts of the Association Agreement between the EU and Central America, particularly on the water in this region.
  

  Available in English. [PDF]

  
  

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  ESFeres 6. Debt in exchange for water
  

  The trap of initiatives of foreign debt reduction and the processes of water privatization in Sub-Saharian Africa.
  

  
  
  

  Author: Irene González Pijuan, member of Engineering Without Borders Catalonia
  Co-author: Iolanda Fresnillo Sallan, researcher at the ODG
  Maps: Pau Miró, Universitat Politècnica de València and ODG

  Available in English. [PDF]
  
  

   

  
  

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  ESFeres 5. Water gets no credit
  

  
  This report examines, analyzes and confirms that FAD loans promote and facilitate the internationalization of Spanish firms in impoverished countries while destroying local capacities to create their own local fabric of industries. In this sense, the loans granted to corporations in order to make projects related to water management do not differ from loans granted to other sectors. As a consequence, there is enough evidence to assert that the FAD loans are not the most suitable instrument to fight poverty.

  Available in Spanish. [PDF]

  
  

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  ESFeres 4. Shortage in abundance
  

  
  The situation of the Right to Water in El Salvador is quite precarious. This is because the Right to Water is not recognized as such within the legislative framework and, furthermore, there is a competences overlapping leading to a responsibility vacuum. In addition, the state authority in charge of safe water supply and sanitation has weak institutionalism and receives scarce public investment. Therefore, this entity is forced to resort to loans conditioned by International Financial Institutions.
   
  Moreover, the lack of public governance is exploited by the corporations, both national and transnational, that waste and pollute water without accepting consequences.
  
  Hence in order to face this situation, organized civil society aims to promote the democratization of water management through public participation.

  Available in Spanish [PDF]
  

  
  

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  ESFeres 3. Drowning: The commodification process of water management.
  

  
  Nowadays many people worldwide have no access to safe water and basic sanitation. This problem, however, is not because of a lack of resources but of political will. Thus, in recent years, policies on water management have moved a step backwards. In this sense, then, it becomes necessary to know what policies have been promoted until now by development banks and the main donor agencies in order  to reformulate them. 
  
  
  Availabe in Spanish. [PDF]
  
  
  

  
  

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  ESFeres 2. Investment from everyone, water for a few.
  

  
  From a human rights perspective, the state of Right to Water in Cameroon has deteriorated steadily over the past 20 years. The privatization process, started in 1999 and finished in March 2008, has not been anything but a step in the process of replacing an inalienable right with a commodity, subject to the laws of supply and demand. The report details the steps of the process and analyzes the implications of privatization: coverage, service and price of water.
  

  Available in Catalan. [PDF] 

  A draft version can also be downloaded in French [PDF]

  
  

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  ESFeres 1. Integration of Technology for Human Development in Compulsory Secondary Education
  

  
  Academic training in the field of technology and science has traditionally inculcated neutral skills, deprived of the social aspects and of the fair and sustainable human development, features which are inextricably linked to these areas.
  
  The analysis of textbooks of Technology for Secondary Education shows a "hidden curriculum" that, under apparent neutrality, conveys a naive idea of technology, focused on a Western-oriented vision of consumer markets needs in the North.
  
  Available in Catalan. [PDF]