Draft:Andrei Filotti

Andrei Filotti
Filotti in 1952
Born	(1930-10-27)October 27, 1930 Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
Died	October 14, 2024(2024-10-14) (aged 93) Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Nationality	Romanian; American
Citizenship	Romanian; American
Education	Gheorghe Lazăr National College, Bucharest
Alma mater	Politehnica University of Bucharest
Occupation(s)	Hydropower engineer; Specialist in water management
Spouse	Maria-Ligia Vasiliu ​ (m. 1954)​
Father	Eugen Filotti
Relatives	Gheorghe Tașcă (maternal grandfather)

Andrei Filotti (October 27, 1930 – October 14, 2024) was a Romanian hydropower engineer and specialist in water management. In the period 1961-1962, he was the coordinator of the elaboration of the National Water Management Plan in Romania, which established the orientation of the development of water for multiple purposes in the following decades; further, he had the responsibility of coordinating the inclusion of new works in the provisions of this plan both in terms of satisfying the water requirements of the uses and for combating floods and protecting water quality.

He carried out research in the field of water management, having essential contributions in the application of mathematical modeling and economic efficiency calculations in this field. He also taught the course of water management and damming and regularization at the Faculty of Land Improvements of the Nicolae Bălcescu Agronomic Institute.

He left Romania in 1982 working as chief adviser to the United Nations Secretariat, coordinating projects in India, Bangladesh, Chad, Nigeria, Senegal and various other countries. After his retirement, he continued to work as a consultant for various international organizations, focusing on anti-corruption activities.

Early life and personal life

Andrei Filotti was born in Bucharest, on October 27, 1930. His father, Eugen Filotti, was a Romanian diplomat, and his mother, Elisabeta Filotti, was the daughter of Gheorghe Tașcă, a Romanian economist and politician, at that time Rector of the Commercial Academy. Between 1936 and 1940, Andrei Filotti studied at Romanian primary schools in Greece and Bulgaria, where his father was employed. Between 1940 and 1947, he attended the Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest, except for the 1944/45 school year when he was enrolled at the Dinicu Golescu High School in Câmpulung-Muscel. Passing the last two high school classes in the same year, Andrei Filotti enrolled in 1947 at the Faculty of Electromechanics of the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute. Following the transformations determined by the education reform, he graduated from the Faculty of Energy, specializing in hydropower, passing the state exam in 1952 and obtaining a diploma of merit.

Filotti in 1938

Working as a design engineer, Andrei Filotti continued his studies later. In 1968, he followed a post-graduate internship at the Center International des Stages in Paris . Then he obtained the title of Doctor of Engineering in 1971, presenting the thesis Application of electronic computers in water management under the leadership of the academician [Dumitru Dumitrescu], the commission being part of Prof. [George Ciucu], Prof. Dorin Pavel and Prof. Stefan Zarea.

Andrei Filotti was married to Maria-Ligia Filotti (née Vasiliu) an art critic and historian, in addition a professor at the U.S. State Department's George Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center.

Early Career

Design engineer at the Institute of Energy Studies and Designs

After graduating from the Polytechnic, Filotti was assigned to the Institute of Energy Studies and Design - ISPE in Bucharest, where he worked as a representative of the Institute on the construction site of the Sadu V hydroelectric plant. Here he particularly followed the execution works of the temporary cofferdam, the water intake, the adduction gallery and the balance castle.

Research engineer at the Hydraulic Research Institute

In 1954, as a result of the reduction of hydropower works, Filotti transferred to the Hydraulic Research Laboratory (later transformed into the Hydraulic Research Institute) of the Ministry of Naval and Air Transport. In the first period he followed the execution works of the laboratory, then moving on to the research activity.

Appointed head of the construction hydraulics laboratory, Filotti took care of laboratory research on hydraulic models. Among the studies he coordinated, the most important were:

• Study of the movement of alluvium on the Băla - Borcea arm of the Danube;
• The study of the regularization of the Siret river in the area of ​​the Șcheia bridge, Iasi;
• The study of eddies with air entrainment at the water intake of the Brăila industrial complex
• The study of infiltrations with the help of analog computers.

Activities in the field of water management

Filotti in 1955

In 1959, Filotti transferred to the Institute for Planning and Hydrotechnical Constructions (IPACH), where he successively held the positions of team leader, workshop leader, adviser and, starting in 1968, chief engineer. In 1982, Filotti resigned and emigrated to the United States of America.

The institute had received the assignment to develop the development plans of the hydrographic basins in Romania and was in the phase of re-profiling itself to respond to this request. Within IPACH, Filotti chose water management as the field of activity that constituted the center of his professional concerns.

Methodological contributions

In 1960, water management was a marginal concern, being considered an ancillary activity of hydrotechnics. Filotti managed to separate the constructive problems of hydrotechnical constructions from the functional ones, and, together with his collaborators, to develop water management into an independent discipline, becoming at the same time one of its main representatives. In addition to the activities of drawing up layout plans and other design studies, the creation of a new discipline required first of all important methodological innovations that are very much due to Filotti.

Broadening the field of concerns in water management

In 1959, water management dealt exclusively with satisfying the water quality requirements of the uses. Filotti widened the field of concern of the discipline to all aspects related to the management of water resources. Among the new branches of water management that he created, those that were particularly developed were large water management and water quality management.

• In the field of flood control, the usual concept in Romania was to protect, usually by dams, the objectives that were endangered by floods. The punctual solution did not take into account the effects of the damming works on the watercourse as a whole. In particular, they neglected both the effects of raising the water level upstream, due to the strangulation of the sections, and the increase in flows downstream, a consequence of the elimination of the natural mitigation effect of the floodplains. The transition to the new concepts of large water management, supported by Filotti, involved analyzes on the entire water course and had as a consequence a radical change in the solutions adopted for the defense against floods. Instead of focusing exclusively on embankment works, as in the past, Filotti's vision placed an increased emphasis on reducing flood waves, through reservoirs or lateral polders, so as to compensate for the negative effects of embankments.
• In the field of water quality, the old concept was to control water quality in rivers exclusively by treating sewage before it is discharged into rivers. The concept of water quality management also took into account diffuse pollution sources, and on the other hand, extended the analysis to the qualitative processes in water courses or lakes. Also, the new concepts took into account not only the limit situations, which were the basis of the sizing of the treatment plants, but the entire time variation of the hydrological elements, and the qualitative effects of the evacuation of some flows from the reservoirs.

In addition to these, Filotti introduced new concepts of groundwater management, which emphasized the connection between surface and underground waters and envisioned systems for refreshing groundwater from surface resources. He was also concerned with the management of solid flows, which had an influence both on the clogging of reservoirs and on the morphological processes of the riverbeds.

Filotti with the participants of the Congress for Combating Disasters Caused by Water, at the reception at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (1967)

The systemic approach to water management

A second important theoretical contribution of Filotti was that of a systemic approach, in which the emphasis was placed on defining the way of cooperation between the different elements of a layout scheme. Thus, if until 1959 the various water management works were conceived, promoted and exploited independently, in the following periods, by applying this systemic vision, a coordination was reached both regarding the promotion of the works, as well as their realization and exploitation, the various works being integrated into water management systems.

For example, during the 1950s, during the promotion and execution of the hydropower system of the [Izvorul Muntelui Dam] on Bistrita, it was shown that the dam could irrigate approximately 200,000 ha in Bărăgan and could also have an effect of reducing flood flows. However, the construction of the main Siret - Bărăgan irrigation canal was started only in the 1980s and has not been completed until now, and with regard to the mitigation of flood waves, for many years the operation did not take into account the situation of high waters in the Siret basin and as such, during the floods of the 1970s, cases were recorded in which the exploitation of the lake even led to the increase of the floods on the lower Siret. The situation had changed radically in the 1960s, a representative example being that of the Vidraru Dam. Based on water management studies carried out according to the new methodologies, the dam was promoted from the beginning as a multi-use work. At the same time as the construction of the dam, or just a few years after its completion, the water supply systems of the municipality of Bucharest and, later, of the municipality of Pitesti, as well as the irrigation works on the Argeș River, were put into operation. This approach, which is largely the result of the concepts promoted by Filotti, was generalized to all water management works in Romania.

The new concepts that amplified the technological analyzes made it much more difficult for the same team to solve both constructive and water management problems. As a result, within the IPACH institute, a sector specialized in the specific problems of the new discipline was created, which Filotti led until the time he left the Institute.

Succeeding in convincing the management of the State Water Committee of the importance of thorough water management analyzes in promoting a rational water policy, the units subordinated to it had the responsibility of preparing the vast majority of management studies for both water management and water use works financed by the State Water Committee (or by the bodies that succeeded it), as well as those financed by other institutions. The studies carried out were developed based on methodologies that Andrei Filotti had either developed directly, or in the finalization of which he had an essential contribution. In addition, he directly contributed to the solutions proposed in the various projects, especially in the selection of reservoir sites.

The dynamic view of water management

Until 1959, water management had a static vision. It focused on investments, having as its object the choice of water management works necessary to achieve a certain effect. After the selection of the works, the task of the water manager was considered completed, the next stage, that of carrying out the works, was up to the hydrotechnical constructors. According to this approach, at certain periods, after the commissioning of a group of hydrotechnical works in a hydrographic basin, a new intervention of the water managers was necessary, for the selection of new works.

Filotti was one of the strongest opponents of this static approach. In the new concept he introduced, the selection of works was only the beginning of a cycle in water management activity. The next stage was to establish the functional parameters of the component constructions of the designed systems, and further, after the commissioning of the works, water management became the determining activity in the exploitation phase of the works. Even if the built infrastructure did not change during exploitation, there were important changes both in the hydrological conditions and in the socio-economic development, which required the continuous adaptation of the exploitation method.

Although the dynamic approach was applied in all branches of water management, it appeared particularly important in high water management covering all flood control operations, including defense plans, flood forecasting and alarming, operation of works during periods of high water, intervention in flood situations and post-flood rehabilitation works.

Water management computer systems

A consequence of this dynamic vision was the need to take permanent management decisions in the exploitation of water management systems. The complexity of the decisions required a hierarchical decision-making system. Filotti introduced the concept of water management information systems that served to collect all the necessary information, some of which, historical, had to be stored and processed statistically, and others, operative, reflected the current situation. Within the IT systems, the information was processed and made available to the decision-making bodies. The same computer systems then served to transmit decisions to the decision-making bodies and report the execution of the decisions to the follow-up bodies. He also initiated the design of the first informational-decisional water management systems in Romania.

Projection

The design activity within IPACH started with the development of Water Management Plans. In the first stage, of the elaboration of development plans for hydrographic basins, Filotti was tasked with the development plan of the Siret basin. After that, he had the responsibility, as project head, of the National Water Management Plan in Romania, which identified solutions for the development of Romania's hydrographic basins until the full potential was used and selected the works that were to be executed in a first stage of 15 years.

In the following period, Andrei Filotti coordinated the design units having the responsibility of detailing the water management elements of the works included in the investment plans, establishing the proportions and parameters of all the works, studying their technical opportunity and analyzing their economic opportunity. If at first the main focus was on meeting water requirements, studies soon covered other aspects of water management, especially those related to flood control.

Filotti's activity was not limited to coordination, he had a direct contribution to the choice of solutions for important water management systems, among which can be mentioned the Paltinul system on Doftana, the system of reservoirs in the Bahlui basin for the defense of the city of Iași, the system development of the lower Siret and the main Siret-Bărăgan canal, the Tărlung reservoir for the water supply of the city of Brașov, the system of water management in the middle Jiu basin, based on the Rovinari reservoir, the flood control systems in the upper Mureș and Bârlad basins, the water management system in the Miercurea Ciuc area and others.

Research

Attacking new fields of activity was only possible with a considerable research effort, for the development of study methodologies. Most of these researches were carried out in parallel with the design activity, being directly coordinated by Filotti. The concentration of both concerns in the same unit ensured an immediate applicability of the research and directed the research in the directions where the need for innovation was greater.

Mathematical modeling in water management

One of Filotti's most important methodological achievements was the introduction of mathematical modeling in water management. The first models were operational in 1960 and their application was made to the CIFA electronic computers built at the Institute of Atomic Physics in Măgurele. Water management was the first field in which mathematical modeling in Romania went beyond the experimental framework and was extended to large-scale practical applications. Starting from 1961-1962, the mathematical models developed under the leadership of Filotti were used as a standard method in all water management studies in Romania.

In addition to mathematical simulation, Filotti was concerned with modeling the stochastic nature of water management processes. For this he defined the probability of satisfaction of uses and initiated the use of Monte Carlo methods in economic processes.

In the period between 1962 and 1975, Andrei Filotti developed these models and expanded their scope, which also became possible thanks to the increased capabilities of the new electronic computers. The mathematical simulation models developed during this period were still used in Romania after the year 2000.

Economic calculations in water management

Until the mid-1950s, in all countries with a communist regime, investment decisions were made exclusively on political criteria, without taking into account the criteria of economic efficiency , considered at that time to be specific to capitalist regimes . After Stalin's death in 1953, this approach began to be contested by various economists in the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania and other socialist countries.

The water management works required important investment funds so that the use of economic criteria in substantiating the solutions could have important consequences. Since the development of development plans, Filotti has adapted the economic theories related to the economic efficiency of investments to the field of water management and made great efforts to ensure their adoption. Although initially criticized by the party organs as an attempt to introduce capitalist methods, with the support of the Economic Research Institute of the Romanian Academy, the method for the economic calculation of investments proposed by Filotti and Mircea Stănculescu was finally approved.

Like many other supporters of the principle of substantiating the economic efficiency of investments, Filotti saw in this principle not only a calculation methodology, but also a tool to curb the arbitrary political nature of decisions regarding economic development in general and water management in private. In the 1960s this hope was partly fulfilled, and in subsequent periods the trend continued in other countries with socialist regimes. However, in Romania, especially in the 1980s, the results expected by Filotti were not achieved. He gradually returned to arbitrary political decisions; although, in theory, the methodologies were still in place, the figures were manipulated to demonstrate that political decisions also reflected economic foresight.

Filotti also developed the method of apportioning the costs of water management works with multiple uses to the beneficiaries, whose investments and operating expenses had to be covered by each of them. The methodology proposed by Filotti took into account the interests and constraints of each of the beneficiaries, without favoring any of them at the expense of the others. It was accepted by all parties involved, being adopted as a standard method.

Also in the economic field, Filotti adapted the theory of decisions under conditions of risk and uncertainty to water management. Starting from the premise that water management processes, especially those related to large water management and flood control, had a random character, with more or less long periods between the occurrence of catastrophic events, Filotti sought to find mathematical methods to quantify economic risk. And these methodologies have been applied to various investment projects he handled.

The last area that Filotti addressed is the application of vague logic in water management. However, the results of these researches were not generalized after his departure from the institute.

Contributions to the creation of a research section in the field of water management

After accepting the status of water management as an independent discipline, in 1964, the Bucharest Institute of Hydrotechnical Studies and Research decided to establish a research section in the field of water management, led by Constantin Pârvulescu. For the initial period of organizing the section and starting the first researches, the Institute appealed to external collaborators, including Andrei Filotti. As an advisor, he defined the department's general guidelines and work plan for the first years of activity.

Didactic activity

In parallel with the design activity, in 1971, Filotti was appointed assistant to Prof. Ion Teodorescu at the Department of Dams and Regularization of Riverbeds and Water Management of the Faculty of Land Improvements within the Nicolae Bălcescu Agronomic Institute in Bucharest. The following year, after the transfer of Ion Teodorescu to the Bucharest Construction Institute, Andrei Filotti took over the chair, teaching the course on dams and regularization of riverbeds, as well as the course on water management. This was the first water management course from a higher education institute in Romania. In the following years, Filotti published his two courses. He continued his teaching activity until 1979.

Apart from this, Filotti also taught mathematical modeling courses in water management at the postgraduate courses organized by the Construction Institute in Bucharest.

International actions

Filotti participated as a representative of the Romanian Government at the Conference on Water Problems of the Economic Commission for Europe (EEC) of the United Nations, organized in Geneva in 1968 . At this conference, Filotti was tasked to draw up a synthesis report of the methodologies used in the CEE countries for the development of hydrographic basins and to make proposals for the unification of the methodologies, a report that was presented the following year.

Research papers in the United States

In 1982, Filotti emigrated to the United States, where he continued his research activity. He dealt with wind engineering problems, devising a method for sizing the glass facades of very tall buildings subject to wind action. In the 1970s, there had been a series of accidents in the Boston area when, during strong winds, all the glass panels of some skyscrapers were torn off. The National Institute of Standards considered it necessary to revise the rules in force. Within a contract with the National Institute of Standardization, Filotti developed a new calculation methodology that took into account the suction forces created by the air vortices, determined by tests on models in wind tunnels.

Advisor to the United Nations

At the end of 1983, Filotti was hired as the chief technical advisor of the United Nations. In this capacity, he was responsible for coordinating various projects in Southeast Asia.

Introduction of systems analysis in India

The project assisted the Government of India in setting up a unit specializing in mathematical modeling and the use of electronic computers for water management within the Central Water Commission. The project was carried out with the support of Prof. Warren A. Hall from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. Filotti was in charge of staff qualification actions and the development of a first set of mathematical models.

The approach to mathematical modeling in India was completely different from that in Romania. While the mathematical models that Filotti had dealt with in Bucharest had been developed as an ancillary activity within the Design Institute, with little support from the National Water Council, in India, the Central Water Management Commission had established a specialized unit, which provided sustained support. The results were not visible during the project, but after an interval of several years, India managed to become one of the countries where the development of software, not only for water management, became extremely developed, while in Romania the respective activity stagnant. The project that Filotti coordinated is an example of using foreign technical assistance for sustainable development, opening new areas of activity, which the country's government supports even after the end of the technical assistance program.

World Food Program assistance in Bangladesh

Groundbreaking ceremony for a water diversion canal in Tetulia District, Panchagarh District , Bangladesh . From left to right: Tetulia Mayor, Tetulia Council of Elders President, Tetulia District Member of Parliament of Bangladesh, Chief Engineer of the Regional Water Management Unit and Filotti, United Nations Chief Adviser (1987)

Following a drought in the late 1970s and an acute food crisis in Bangladesh, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) initiated a food aid program for the country. Given the country's population of approximately 100 million, the program soon became WFP's largest assistance program, which requested the assistance of the United Nations for the technical management of the program. Appointed as the United Nations Chief Technical Advisor for this technical assistance, Filotti sought to define the objectives of the program so as to transform it from a humanitarian assistance program to an integrated development assistance program. The objectives of the program were defined as the following:

• Covering the country's chronic food shortage by making available to the government some amounts of wheat from WFP resources;
• The use of these resources through a "Food for Work" program in which to carry out labour-intensive works, the labor being paid in food. In this way, there was a guarantee that the food reached to ensure the food needs of the most disadvantaged layers of the population;
• Reducing chronic unemployment in Bangladesh by providing jobs for unskilled workers;
• The use of labor for development projects so that the food resource made available becomes a resource for development; for this purpose, hydrotechnical embankment works (generally reprofiling of dykes or unclogging of irrigation or drainage canals), executable by manual labor, were identified to be executed within the program. Since the government's budgetary resources were insufficient for the execution of these works, the program enabled the water management bodies to carry out the necessary maintenance works and avoid the degradation of the existing infrastructure; in addition, part of the resources were used for new water improvement works;
• As a long-term objective, the program aimed to change the eating habits of the population, by reducing the consumption of rice and increasing the consumption of wheat (traditionally extremely low). This objective was important because, at the population density in Bangladesh, the necessary food could only be provided by two or even three harvests annually. The reduced water resources of the dry season were only sufficient to irrigate small areas in the case of rice crops, but allowed much larger areas to be cultivated with wheat, which required less water. Changing food habits was the only way in which one could tend to cover the food needs of the population from domestic production, under the natural conditions of Bangladesh.

In addition to earthworks, damming or irrigation and drainage systems also required reconstruction or new hydrotechnical constructions, generally weirs and pumping stations, which could not be carried out exclusively by manual labor. Filotti opposed obtaining the necessary funds through the monetization of food resources, as this would have reduced the social advantages of the program. After the negotiations, a collaboration of several international agencies was set up through a set of correlated assistance programs, namely:

• The World Food Program made the wheat resources available and dealt with the logistical problems of transporting and distributing the wheat and tracking how it was distributed so as to avoid wasting resources;
• The World Bank provides, through credits, the necessary funds for the annex hydrotechnical constructions of the embankment works financed by WFP food;
• The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) financed the technical assistance necessary for the identification of the systems to be executed, the evaluation of their technical and economic viability and for the sizing and evaluation of the works as well as for the technical follow-up of the execution;
• The United Nations, through the Department of Technical Cooperation for Development (DTCD) ensures the technical assistance financed by the UNDP and the technical coordination of the various components of the program; this component was led by Filotti;
• The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provides technical assistance for the design of hydrotechnical constructions financed by the World Bank.

Filotti's contribution was essential both in the conception of this complex program and in its implementation. By the time he left the project, receiving other assignments, the project had grown to exploiting $30 million worth of wheat resources annually (1990) and employing a workforce of 500,000 people. The project was considered the most complex project that the World Food Program had executed up to that time and a model for future programs.

Adviser to the General Secretariat of the United Nations

In 1990, Filotti was promoted to the position of advisor to the General Secretariat of the United Nations in New York City, New York for water management and environmental issues. He held this position during the terms of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Boutros Boutros-Ghali, until August 1994.

As an advisor to the General Secretariat, Filotti's main responsibility was to, at the behest of the Secretary General or one of the Deputy Secretaries General, carry out various missions, related to his technical expertise, to the governments of United Nations member countries. Among these are the missions carried out in Morocco, Syria, India, Madagascar, Romania and other countries, in order to identify the assistance needs of developing countries and to formulate projects to be financed by the United Nations or other organizations of international assistance.

Filotti also participated, as a representative of the United Nations, in various international conferences, among which the conferences of the donor states for the definition of technical assistance programs for Nigeria, Laos, the Republic of Moldova and others can be cited. In addition to these assignments, he also had the responsibility of coordinating and supervising the execution of projects financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) or other international bodies and executed by various United Nations agencies.

The projects whose execution Filotti followed directly were also in the field of water resource management. Among them are more representative: Lake Chad Basin Management Plan, Senegal Water Management Plan, Bangladesh Hydrological Information System, Madagascar Rural Water Supply and others. In the studies he coordinated, Filotti tried to introduce new modern concepts, even if sometimes they had to be adapted taking into account the needs of developing countries.

Chad basin development plan

Filotti (right), UN representative at the Conference of the African Organization for the Management of the Fouta Djallon Massif, Conakry (1992)

The development plan for the Lake Chad basin was executed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) based in N'Djamena, in which Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria participated, and then the Central African Republic, led with a competence especially the head of the project, Yaya, an expert from Burkina Faso. LCBC – led by Executive Secretary Abubakar B. Jauro has attached great importance to this plan.

As such, the Chad basin management plan overturns traditional concepts, water management moving from a passive role, reactive to some external demands, to an active role. Although this vision was clearly adapted to an extremely arid area, where water played an essential role, it can also be applied to other conditions. The development plan did not neglect the traditional point of view either, but it included only one proposal for water management facilities, namely the derivation of some flows from the Oubangui river basin towards the Lake Chad basin.

To illustrate the new approach to water management, some of the recommendations of the development plan can be cited:

• In order to ensure the survival possibilities of the population in the Sahel area, periodically subject to strong droughts, the development plan recommended giving priority to the creation of local irrigation systems, based on the traditional agricultural technique in the area, which would serve every village in the basin and to ensure sufficient production for the food of the population. The plan provided for the necessary measures to ensure the participation of the population in the implementation of the respective projects.
• Correlating the design of modern irrigation systems with other requirements in the area, especially with the traditional methods of raising cattle, which in the dry season, retreat to the equatorial zone in Cameroon and Nigeria, and in the rainy season migrate north, generally to Chad and Niger. The passage of these herds twice a year over the irrigated lands destroyed not only a good part of the agricultural production, but also the network of irrigation canals; therefore, it was recommended to create some corridors to allow the migration of cattle and set up some points along the route for watering them. Also, in order to ensure the production of milk and meat with minimum water consumption, the plan showed that the tendency to bring cows from the breeds used in Europe had to be abandoned and to focus on the long-horned African cow that resists better to the climatic conditions and needs smaller amounts of water.
• Correlation of territorial development with ecological requirements. An example of such a requirement was related to the delimitation of reserves for elephants which in the current situation were too small to meet the requirements of the elephants. Because expanding their reserves was difficult the plan recommended establishing elephant migration lanes between reserves so as not to destroy irrigation systems along the way. Other measures considered the habitat of sitatunga antelopes.
• The development plan showed that an essential condition to give communities the means to develop local irrigation and water supply systems is the development of a network of banking stations. Other economic analyzes highlighted the difficulty for the regional economy caused by the differences between the monetary systems of the various countries, some of them using the African franc linked, at the time, by a fixed exchange rate to the French franc, while other countries they had a system where the exchange rate varied according to the laws of the market economy.

This plan constituted a break with the traditional principles of development plans, corresponding to a new vision of water management. Instead of focusing on the choice of works needed to meet given or forecasted water requirements of national economies, the Chad Basin Plan analysis sought to highlight the interaction between water management and other economic branches and to define in particular the measures that needed to be taken by the other economic sectors to ensure a rational use of water.

Fouta Djallon Massif development plan

Filotti in front of the Presidency of the Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek (1998)

The development plan was an initiative of the Organization of African Unity. The Fouta Djallon massif is located in the western part of Africa, occupying the greater part of Guinea, as well as smaller parts of neighboring states. The precipitation brought in the dry season by air currents from the Atlantic Ocean is concentrated on this mountainous massif, the massif being the area from which the main watercourses in West Africa originate: Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Konkoure and other smaller ones, the resources of which are vital for the whole area. However, due to the tropical climate, the natural balance of the massif is precarious and the regeneration capacity of the vegetation is relatively low.

The expansion of the population's traditional agricultural practices, as a result of demographic growth, risks destroying this balance and affecting the economy of all downstream countries. The development of the plan was coordinated by a specialist from the Ivory Coast for the hydrological part and Filotti for the water management part. The role of the plan was to identify new land use practices and to sensitize the population in their application, the new techniques having to meet both the economic requirements of the population and those of environmental protection. The plan, presented at an OAU conference held in Conakry, identified a series of pilot projects in which the new techniques would be experimented with the collaboration of local communities.

After Guinean President Ahmed Sékou Touré severed political ties with France in 1965 and adopted a socialist orientation, Guinea obtained aid from the socialist countries of Europe. As part of this assistance, in the early 1970s specialists from Czechoslovakia had drawn up development plans for all Guinea's watercourses. These development plans followed broadly the same basic principles as the Development Plans of the hydrographic basins in Romania. However, none of the identified works had been carried out, due to financing difficulties. At the time of developing the study for the Fouta Djallon massif, none of the proposals of these development plans could be capitalized. The requirements of the new stage required an approach that did not focus only on the development of water resources, but on a coordinated development of different economic sectors. In the new perspective, the development of the watershed had at least the same importance as the development of watercourses.

Filotti when he was director of operations at SWIPCO (1998)

The above is presented only to illustrate the new approach to layout plans. Comparing the Development Plan of the Chad basin and the development program of the Fouta Djallon massif, with the development plan of the Romanian Waters, all coordinated by Andrei Filotti, one can see the evolution of his thinking, from a multi-purpose development of water resources to an integrated economic development of the entire watershed.

In this vision, water management is no longer focused on government investment programs, but is concerned with identifying ways for all the components of society to work together for a more efficient use of water. An important role in this case belongs to the associations of interested factors in achieving a common effect. Such associations may be user associations, especially for irrigation or water supply systems. They can also be watershed management associations that are concerned with the ways of using the surface of the watershed to achieve effects such as the reduction of flood waves, the reduction of soil erosion, the entrainment of alluvium and the clogging of riverbeds, etc. Such actions require an extensive program of orientation of the population so that they understand the importance of the problems and get directly involved in solving them. In Filotti's view, such actions do not eliminate the need for investment works in water management, but they are an essential condition for them to achieve their effects. Since the training of broad sections of the population in participating in water management is much more complex than the execution of hydrotechnical constructions, the attention of water management bodies must be directed primarily to these actions.

Activities as a consultant

After his retirement from the United Nations Organization, Filotti continued to work on his own account, being also the head of his own consulting firm. In this capacity he continued to work for the United Nations, carrying out missions in Uzbekistan (to assist in defining the Aral Sea regeneration program), in Jordan, Guinea-Bissau and others.

Evaluation of the environmental protection program of Russia

Filotti in Alexandria, Virginia on the Potomac River (2004)

In the post-Cold War thaw, the United States initiated a program of technical assistance on environmental protection issues. The collaboration agreement was signed in 1996 by Al Gore, then vice president of the United States, and Victor Cernomîrdin, then prime minister of Russia, being known in specialist circles as the Gore-Cernomîrdin program. To evaluate the project, after the first phase of execution and to formulate recommendations for the next phase, the United States government appointed a commission of three specialists, in which Filotti was the expert for water quality management issues. The commission made extensive field investigations in Moscow, Volgograd and Nizhny-Tagil, the sites where the project works were carried out.

Formation of water user associations in the Kyrgyz Republic

In the process of transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, the government of the Kyrgyz Republic requested the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to organize water user associations to take over the maintenance and operation of the water distribution network. irrigation canals. Filotti was hired as project manager to initiate this action. The project activities also covered legislation issues related to association statutes, as well as the transfer of ownership of distribution systems to associations. Also, the project provided for the organization of pilot associations in three different areas of the country and the qualification of the staff of the regional and district water agencies in the issues of coordinating the formation of associations.

Anti-corruption activities

After his return from the Kyrgyz Republic, Filotti was appointed director of operations for SWIPCO, which assisted various governments in strengthening anti-corruption efforts. The firm SWIPCO, which was associated with the international organization Transparency International, specialized in methods of tracking government procurement activities.

The methodologies developed within SWIPCO provided for a continuous follow-up, through independent bodies, of the procurement process, starting from the evaluation of procurement needs, the elaboration of specifications, the definition of the conditions for the qualification of bidders and the organization of tenders, the evaluation of offers, the contracting of works =, tracking execution and deliveries and establishing terms for subsequent contracts, including maintaining supplier lists. The methodology developed by SWIPCO allowed potential problems to be identified before decisions were made and corrective measures to be taken before expenditure was incurred. It thus differed from traditional audit methods that analyze situations after all operations have been completed and therefore do not allow avoiding unnecessary expenses.

Considerable efforts were also directed to training courses for the salaries of various government agencies in the application of anti-corruption methodologies. Apart from the coordination tasks that were inherent in the position he occupied, Filotti directly handled a number of projects, among which it is worth highlighting the increase in the procurement activities of the Government of Uganda, the tracking of contracts for the controls of the customs services in the Republic of Congo and the tracking of contracts of services of the Central Hospital of the city of Washington, DC, United States.

Activities after retirement and death

Filotti retired permanently in 2003. He continued to be active within the United Nations Organization as the secretary of the Washington branch of the Association of Former International Civil Servants (AFICS - Association of Former International Civil Servants).

He also maintained contact with water management specialists in Romania and presented various scientific communications.

Among these, the evocation of "Memories about Dorin Pavel", presented by Professor Mircea Bejan at the XVII International Multidisciplinary Conference with the theme "Professor Dorin Pavel, the founder of Romanian hydropower", organized by the General Association of Romanian Engineers ( AGIR), Cluj branch in Sebeș on June 2-3, 2017.

In the same period, Andrei Filotti held a series of conferences organized by the Romanian Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the Romanian Academy:

• Attitudes towards natural hazards caused by water
• Moments from the history of water management in Romania – water course development plans
• The use of the theory of adaptive complex systems in the field of water management
• A romantic view of adaptive complexes

In 2022, Filotti was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy of Technical Sciences (ASTR). On this occasion, he published the volume "Experiences from water management activity - confessions provoked" presenting a discussion generated by Professor Florin Teodor Tănăsescu . After retirement, Andrei Filotti also published works of fiction. Of these, the volume of memoirs "Overseas and countries, Memories of former diplomatic life" and the tetralogy of adventures "Moments of pain, Moments of love" including the volumes "O vacanță la mare", "O vacanță de winter in the Carpathian Mountains", "A trip from Dobrogea to Banat" and "New times".

In 2023, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the development of the National Water Management Plan in Romania, Filotti presented at the "Gheorghe Ionescu-Sișești" Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences the conference "Moments from the history of water management and agriculture in Romania" in which he evoked Ioan Bernachi and professor Ion Teodorescu, personalities who made an essential contribution to the development of water management from Romania but which, at present, are practically forgotten.

Death

Filotti died on October 14, 2024 at the age of 93 in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. - 13 days short from his 94th birthday.

Published works

• Water management, Bucharest, 1965
• Distribution of Investment Beneficiaries, 1966
• Water management, Bucharest, 1972
• Reservoirs, Bucharest, 1976
• Flood prevention and control, Bucharest, 1980
• Water management course, Bucharest, 1978
• Bed regularization course, Bucharest, 1977
• Memories about Dorin Pavel - The 17th International Multidisciplinary Conference "Professor Dorin Pavel, the founder of Romanian hydropower". (Sebeș 2017) - Science and Engineering, No. 1 2017; No. 2, 2017.
• Attitudes towards natural hazards caused by water - Romanian Academy, Romanian Committee for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, NOEMA, Vol. XIV, (2015)
• Moments from the history of water management in Romania - water course development plans - Romanian Academy, Romanian Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, NOEMA, Vol. XV, (2016)
• The use of the theory of adaptive complex systems in the field of water management - Romanian Academy, Romanian Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, NOEMA. Vol. XVI (2017)
• A romantic look at adaptive complexes - Romanian Academy, Romanian Committee for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, NOEMA. Vol. XVI (2017)
• Various articles in the magazines: Hidrotehnica y Meteorologia; Hidrologia y Gospădărirea Apelor.