A new bill has been passed in Russia that will extensively roll back Government funding of education, the arts and social services - by introducing per capita financing - that will punish smaller towns and downgrade quality in the larger ones.
Stockholm Water Week included a whole day of seminars with a
regional focus and I opted to attend 'Eye on Asia: Partnerships for
Water: How Can Asia Do More?'
A few weeks after the May coup against Dilma Rousseff by conservative parties backed by the country's largest corporations, Brazil's “interim” government, led by Michel Temer, signed an emergency loan to the State of Rio de Janeiro to help finance infrastructure for the 2016 Olympics – in particular for a subway line connecting the sports venues. The bailout was conditional to selling off the State's public water supply and sanitation company, the Companhia Estadual de Águas e Esgotos (Cedae)
