I am writing this editorial from the City of Daegu in the Republic of Korea (or South Korea as it is more commonly known). Daegu will be the host city of IWRA’s XVII World Water Congressplanned for May 2020. IWRA is here on the occasion of the 3rd Korea International Water Week (KIWW). We are represented here by a record number of people from our Executive Board and Office: Patrick Lavarde (President), Gary Jones (current ISC Chair), Gabriel Eckstein (former ISC Chair), and IWRA Board members Henning Bjornlund, James Nickum, Jun-Haeng Heo, Ahmet Mete Saatçi, are here, supported by myself, and three of my team (Ignacio Deregibus, Stephanie Kuisma and Heather Bond). Read more
XVII World Water Congress
IWRA is glad to formally announce its next XVII World Water Congress to take place in Daegu, Korea from May 11th to May 15th in 2020. This congress will be jointly organised with the Ministry of Environment of Korea, Daegu Metropolitan City, K-water and the Korea Water Resources Association.
Access the complete list of the International Scientific Committee members by clicking here.
More information is available at:
www.worldwatercongress.com
IWRA Oceania Chapter’s Webinar on “Water Challenges of Oceania: Today to 2025”, 22 August
IWRA’s webinar explored on this opportunity Water Challenges of Oceania: Today to 2025. This 90 minute webinar was based on themes being discussed by IWRA’s Oceania Chapter. It brought together presenters, members and supporters from our regional chapter to highlight the work our Chapter is doing and laid out an action plan for the future. Our panel engaged across disciplines, including social science, on-the-ground advocacy, and engineering perspectives. They discussed the specific risks to water management in the area, particularly given the hazards caused by climate change related floods, storms, and droughts. The panel also pointed out to the importance of using traditional knowledge as a means to address the uncertainty caused by climate change, but recognized the special challenge this can play in the public policy sphere. For more information please visit: www.iwra.org/oceaniachapterwebinar.
IWRA was present at UN-Water’s 29th Meeting that was convened in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of August 2018. This was prior to SIWI’s 2018 World Water Week. More than 70 water-related participants were present in total, including UN agencies and programmes, international organisations and funds, governmental institutions, as well as NGOs and associations. This biannual meeting provides an opportunity to better engage with and understand UN-Water’s work, as well as its partners’ activities; including the outcomes of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) held in New York (9-18 July), the High Level Panel on Water “Making Every Drop Count”, the Water Action Decade Campaign, and the World Water Data Initiative. It also helped with preparations for the 2018 World Toilet Day on “Nature-Based Solutions” and the 2019 World Water Day on “Leaving No One Behind”. Finally it allowed for the launch of the World Water Development Report 2018. IWRA is actively contributing to many of these initiatives. Find out more at: www.unwater.org
IWRA presented on the Smart Water Management (SWM) project at Stockholm World Water Week on Thursday, August 30th in a highly interactive session jointly hosted by K-water, Xylem, IVL, IWA and SIAAP. The session involved real-time audience participation using the online platform Mentimeter, which facilitated the discussion on how to define SWM, the current barriers to SWM implementation, how trustworthy smart data is, how SWM can help to achieve the SDGs, along with the audience providing their thoughts on the next best steps for SWM. If you missed the session, you can view the presentations and audience responses here.
This year, IWRA had a strong presence at KIWW 2018 with seven Board members and four Executive Office Staff in attendance, including IWRA’s President, Patrick Lavarde, and its Executive Director, Callum Clench. Both IWRA representatives and staff participated at KIWW events, as well as many preparatory meetings for the next XVII World Water Congress, to take place also at EXCO in Daegu from May 11th to 15th May, 2020. The XVII Congress is jointly organised with Korean co-hosts: the Ministry of Environment (MOE), the Korea Water Resources Association (KWRA), Daegu Metropolitan City, and the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water). More info
IWRA Session on Smart Water Management Case Study Lessons from Around the World at KIWW 2018
IWRA launched the joint Smart Water Management (SWM) Report’s Executive Summary with K-water at KIWW 2018 on Friday, September 14th, in a highly engaged session with speakers and panellists from IWRA, K-water, IWA, the University of South Australia, and Gomal Damaan Area Water Partnership. The session presented the key findings from the SWM Project, including sharing four case studies from the report. The report itself showcases examples of SWM projects from around the world, from both developed and developing countries, alongside the lessons learned, the enabling factors and barriers to SWM implementation and the links to the SDGs. The full SWM report, including policy recommendations for future successful SWM implementation, will be published online on IWRA’s website in October 2018.
IWRA Session on What Wicked Problems Face Water Quality Management over the Next 20 Years? at KIWW 2018
In line with IWRA’s focus area of water quality, IWRA organised a KIWW session on this topic on Thursday, September 13th. The session fell under the Water for Socio-economic Development focus of the TIP Platform. In order to target sound water resources management and policy responses, this session built on the IWRA 2018 Question of the Year to suggest water quality governance problems identified by experts and open a dialogue with the water community in Korea. More info
IWRA Publications Water International
www.iwra.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/IWRA-WEFNexus_PolicyBrief_final-2.pdf
www.iwra.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/PB-N10-august-2018-web.pdf
IWRA launched the SWM Case Study Reportdraft Executive Report at Korea International Water Week 2018. This report showcases 10 SWM case studies from around the world, and 9 upcoming SWM projects from both developed and developing countries, to demonstrate the potential for SWM in these countries. The report provides an in depth look at how these SWM projects were implemented, the enabling factors and potential barriers faced, and how SWM can assist with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Based on cross case analysis, the report looks at the potential for SWM replication and scalability, and provides 15 policy recommendations to assist decision-makers with supporting future SWM implementation. The full report will be published online from October. Please keep an eye on www.iwra.org/swm for more information.
During IWRA’s Water Quality session at KIWW 2018, the upcoming report Developing a Global Compendium on Water Quality Guidelines was announced, along with the release of its draftExecutive Summary. This report collects and examines examples of existing recommendations for influent water quality, as applied to various human and ecosystem uses. It provides examples and analysis of existing water quality guidelines. Building on these case studies, the report explores new perspectives, and raises pertinent questions for future work on the topic, including what an online compendium of such guidelines might look like. Keep an eye out for the release of this publication in November 2018! For more information please visit www.iwra.org/waterquality.>/p>
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