By Dr. Ger Bergkamp, Executive Director, The International Water Association.
Water security has emerged as one of the most critical issues facing developing countries and emerging economies, as a driver for economic growth, societal wellbeing and a central pillar of environmental sustainability.
That water is high on the agenda for all countries and their cities is creating new opportunities for collaboration beyond traditional boundaries. There are very real challenges ahead, increasing competition for water resources between sectors, including energy and agriculture, combined with a growing population, changing climate and land use, pose grave risks.
However, momentum is growing to ensure that competition for water becomes cooperation over water. Governments, industry, agriculture, basin authorities, utilities (both water and energy), and civil society at large are converging around water-related risks and are seizing opportunities to create common agendas for change. This will be the central theme of the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition, held in Jordan (October 18-22).
This unique event has always been an important signpost for water professionals working in low- and middle-income countries, to gauge progress and set the course for addressing the water challenges of our time. In Jordan, a country with severe water challenges, water professionals will be joined by those from other sectors, and from across political divides, to foster cooperation, break down silos, share ideas and be inspired to collaboratively work together.
Water professionals are critical to solving cross border water challenges, but these goes beyond the water sector and require wider ‘water diplomacy’. A special West Asia and North Africa Summit, organized as part of the Congress programme, will form a starting point for discussions to strengthen cross-border cooperation across the water profession, government, business and science.
The WANA Summit will bring the socio-economic and political together, and highlight the need to accelerate innovation through connecting science, technology and practice. In doing this, the Summit will stress the importance of cross-border knowledge sharing by water professionals as a key ingredient of building economic and social wellbeing. This will be complimented by a workshop organized by one of our Strategic Partners – The Middle East and North Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence – looking at scaling up research that has impact across the region.
Professor David Grey of Oxford University, one of the lead authors of the recent OECD report, Water Security for Better Lives, and one of the thought leading keynote speakers at the Congress, will set the scene for a number of subsequent workshops and technical sessions covering aspects of water security from different perspectives; including the water-food-energy nexus, urban water planning, improving institutional dialogue over shared water risks to strengthen water security and more.
For many of the water professionals, politicians, business people and academics gathering in Jordan, Sustainable Development will be at the forefront of their minds. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will have been agreed at the United Nations only a month earlier, and the water community will be embarking on transformational pathways to 2030. In particular, the proposed target for reducing the amount of untreated wastewater discharged in to open water bodies without treatment, gives new global impetus to a previously missing component of global water targets.
Realizing this target implies moving beyond wastewater as a waste and adopting ‘used water’ to emphasize the opportunities to re-use, recover and recycle, water, energy, nutrients and materials from the grey and black water streams. This transformation is ongoing and presents for many service providers an opportunity to diversify revenue streams beyond tariffs and reduce costs for energy. The used water transformation is unfolding at many levels, from households to industrial end-users, from local utilities to regional cooperatives.
A range of technologies are involved that all require infrastructure, institutions and investments to come together in one form or another. The programme in Jordan will address these issues and provide new insights to how we scale-up and expand tested approaches; explore the role of public policy regulation and planning; and identify successful business and cooperation models that involve public and private parties in developing and delivering new services.
Strategic Partners at the Congress, including UNESCO-IHE, BORDA, JICA, SIDA and GIZ, bring a wide range of expertise and different perspectives that will provoke debate and build partnerships for change.
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The International Water Association is the global network of water professionals working on the most pressing water issues. A unique knowledge hub for the water sector and anyone concerned about a sustainable water future, the IWA brings people together to share knowledge, experience and know-how and to innovate new solutions to water challenges. The IWA connects scientists, practitioners and communities so that pioneering research can underpin new solutions; it fosters technological innovation, supports sustainability and drives best practice through international frameworks and standard.
Information: www.iwa-network.org
