Vinayagan Dharmarajah

Vina is the Regional Director (Asia) of BirdLife International and has been in post since January 2017. BirdLife International is a Partnership of about 120 local organizations globally and supports conservation in 15 countries in Asia. Prior to joining BirdLife, Vina worked for the business school INSEAD for almost 6 years as its Legal Counsel in Asia. He has a Bachelors (LL.B. Hons) degree in law from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, a BA.

Silvia Cardascia

Silvia is a water resources specialist at ADB, where she supports the design of projects in the People’s Republic of China and Mongolia. She also works on knowledge management and is one of the authors of the Asian Water Development Outlook 2020. Prior to joining ADB in 2018, she was a research assistant at the University of Oxford, a United Nations Fellow and a Programme Officer for the Italian Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Addis Ababa.

Environmental Impacts of Floating Solar Panels on Water Bodies

There has been a global trend of increasing deployment of floating solar panels (floatovoltaics) on water bodies over the last few years. Drivers for this have included potential reduction in evaporation and the desire to decarbonize electricity production. Given these environmental motivations, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the impact that floatovoltaics will have on the water body ecosystem itself, despite the many environmental goods and services which water bodies provide.

Training Course on Pollution, Health, and Safety Management in ADB Projects - Water Quality Module

ADB’s Training Course on Pollution, Health, and Safety Management in ADB Projects was organized in response to an indicated need for better understanding of how the general and industry-specific Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines are applicable to ADB projects, how to assess the environmental impacts of project-generated pollution, and how to identify performance standards.

Thomas Panella

Tom Panella is the Director for Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture in the East Asia Department at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is Chair the Water Sector Committee/Group for ADB. As Director in East Asia, he is responsible for managing operations including strategy; project development, management, and programming; policy dialogue; and knowledge management.