Consulting Chronicles And Patan Moments

About the Book

This volume documents the author’s second-career experiences as a consultant to international development organizations that are dedicated to helping poor people in developing countries gain access to water suitable for their agricultural and domestic use, while reducing their vulnerability to floods and droughts. The technical solutions to problems of sustainable water resources development are well understood and practiced in the developed world, yet religion, culture, history, governance, institutional conflict, and corruption stand in the way of achieving sustainable water-resources development in the developing world. Some argue that more wars will be waged over water than oil in the 21st Century because numerous large river basins are shared by many countries and provide the framework for mistrust in the face of water degradation and scarcity.

Such mistrust often is based on centuries-old animosities driven by (a) religious prejudice, (b) historical conquests, subjugation, and genocide, and (c) economic exploitation. In more recent times, the collapse of the Soviet Union left several Central Asian Republics—finally free from 70 years of Soviet control—at odds over management of their shared water resources and lacking political mechanisms to mitigate potential conflict among them. This volume provides insight into tensions over shared water resources and the author’s experiences in the developing world, many of which are characterized as memorable “Patan Moments.”

Patan Moments include (1) visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram—a peaceful residential complex of a Hindu holy man and his female companion, known as “Mother”—in Pondicherry, a Union Territory on the east coast of India, (2) a delightful dinner with friends in a comfortable and cool sidewalk café in Hanoi, Vietnam after spending two weeks in the brutal heat and humidity of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, (3) a tasty lunch with friends at a fish hatchery in Baia Mare, Romania, and (4) dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, a pleasant family restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand.

Other Patan Moments are related to developing close friendships with Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, and residents of former Soviet Republics, all of whom have put Cold War and US-Vietnam conflicts behind them in their quest for modernity and self-development. Negative experiences include being shaken down by Gypsies posing as police officers in Bucharest, Romania, visiting the S-21 Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, and becoming ill from a spoiled breakfast omelet on a United Airlines flight from Bangkok to Tokyo.

The volume is not a text book, but is intended to relate the author’s personal experiences during his career as an international and water-resources consultant. Based on that career and a earlier 27-year career as a hydrologist and water-resources technical program manager for the US Geological Survey, the author brings more than 4 decades of experience into play as he observes how many of the 40 countries that he visited on professional and personal business provide for their economic and social development.

The book consists of 16 chapters that interleave several themes, such as doing business with US agencies, and international development organizations—including the World Bank and Mekong River Commission. Water, politics, and institutions in both the developed and developing world are the focus of one chapter, as is the challenge of running a small business in another.

Most chapters document experiences in specific geographic areas such as India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh in South Asia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan in East Africa, and Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus.

Separate chapters also address country based experiences in Romania, Mexico and China. The experiences in China include the author’s consulting visits to Beijing and Tibet

About the Author

Richard W. Paulson is a consultant to numerous international development organizations and is former program manager with the United States Government. He specializes in mitigating water-resources and flood-management problems in international river basins, including the Araks and Kura Rivers in the South Caucasus; the Lower Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna River Basin in South Asia, the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia, and the Nile River Basin in Africa. He has worked on mitigating similar problems in Romania, Mexico, and Sri Lanka. Mr. Paulson resides with his wife Marion in St Michaels, MD.