Third World Centre for Water Management

MEETINGS 2009

Special Session on Water Management beyond 2020 for a Rapidly Changing World, March 17, 2009, World Water Forum, Istanbul. Global conditions, throughout history, have always changed. However the rates of these changes during the past 2 to 3 decades have steadily accelerated, especially when compared to the historical past. The current indications are that these rates of changes are likely to accelerate dramatically during the coming two decades which will make water management processes and practices increasingly more complex than ever before witnessed in human history. We thus need solutions for "business unusual" conditions.

Water management is an integral part of the global system. It has always been affected by the changes in other development sectors like food, energy, environment and industrialization. In turn, water sector affects developments in all these sectors. Future water management thus must be seen within the context of an overall framework on accelerating changes and increasing interrelationships between the relevant development sectors, institutions and actors.

What are likely to be very different during the next 20 years will be new issues like globalization; free trade; rates of technological advances in areas as diverse as biotechnology and desalination; information and communication revolution; demographic transitions; migration (both intra- and inter-country), HIV/AIDS, concurrent quests for food, energy and environmental security at the national and regional levels; changing development paradigms, and increasing uncertainties that will be brought about by issues like evolving societal needs and public attitudes and perceptions and also climate change. All these and other related factors will affect water management through numerous pathways, some direct but others indirect, some known but others unknown, some measurable but others intangible, and on which the water profession is likely to have limited or no control in the future.

Leading international experts from different sectors and disciplines are specially invited to review and assess the changes that are likely to occur by 2020 and beyond, which must be considered and addressed to adequately by the water profession. How should water management change in order that these future problems and implications can be handled successfully, efficiently, equitably, and also simultaneously to ensure that human and ecosystems needs for an expanding and more resource consuming global population can be met? Such a future-oriented session has never been organized within the context of not only any of the previous World Water Forums but also at any other global meeting.

This Special Session is sponsored by the Third World Centre for Water Management, Middle East Technical University (METU), International Centre for Water and Environment (CIAMA) of Zaragoza, International Water Resources Association (IWRA), State Hydraulic Works (DSI) of Turkey and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of Singapore. Session Programme, Summary

Partners' Forum Water Governance in the MENA Region: Policies and Institutions, June 7–11 2009, Dead Sea, Jordan. InWEnt, Capacity Building International, Germany, and the Arab Water Council are implementing an 8-year programme (2005–2012) on capacity building in the water sector for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, with special emphasis on Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. The first phase of this Programme ended in 2008. The Second one covers the period 2009–2012. The Third World Centre for Water Management has been providing expert advice to InWEnt and the Arab Water Council on the formulation and implementation of this programme from its very beginning in 2005.

The first Partners' Forum, under the Second Phase of the programme: "Water Governance in the MENA Region: Policies and Institutions" was organised in Dead Sea Marriott Hotel, Jordan, 7-11 June 2009, where participants from the eight focus countries were present. The participants represented different disciplines and water sectors, and also appropriate governmental institutions, research and training organisations, private sector and NGOs. Programme, Policy Brief, Conference Report

International Workshop on Water Governance, June 25, 2009, Singapore. Within the overall context of the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW), a workshop is being organized on water governance at the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy, by the School and the Third World Centre for Water Management.

It is now being increasingly recognized that the world has enough water to meet its needs, provided the available water resources are governed efficiently. However, poor water governance in most parts of the world, both in developed and developing countries, are creating serious water-related problems. These problems can be successfully analysed and solved with existing knowledge, technology, management and experience. However, because of poor water governance practices of the past have already contributed to the development of many serious water problems in most parts of the world. Most unfortunately, the governance practices are improving only incrementally in most countries. If the world’s water problems are to be solved, business unusual practices have to be formulated and implemented. One of the main prerequisites has to be rapid improvements in the level of existing water governance.

The proposed workshop reviews the current concepts of water governance, their strengths, weaknesses and constraints, and how best governance practices can be improved in terms of water resources management in general and urban water management in particular. Session Programme, Summary, Brainstorming Session Report

III International Expert's Meeting on Water Quality Management, November 9–11, Zaragoza, Spain. During the past decade, considerable global attention has been given on potential physical scarcities of water to meet various global needs in the coming years. Many have argued that by 2030, much of the world’s people will be living in regions having serious water stress. Research conducted at the Third World Centre for Water Management indicated that this scenario is incorrect. The world has adequate water, if this resource can be properly managed. If the world faces a water crisis in the future, this will most likely occur not because of physical scarcities of water, but due to continued neglect of water quality. According to the work carried out by the Centre, only about 10% of the point sources of pollution in Latin America are at present adequately treated and then disposed of in an environmentally safe way. The situation is likely to be similar in developing Asian countries, and probably somewhat worse in Africa. The non-point sources of pollution in the developing world are now basically neglected. Consequently, water bodies in developing countries in and around urban centres are heavily contaminated. Appearance of dead zones in estuaries of major rivers, even in developed countries, like the Mississippi in the United States, has already became a most serious issue because of non-point sources of pollution. Despite considerable rhetoric during the past decades, water quality management is still not receiving adequate attention. The Workshop considers different aspects of water quality management from different parts of the world, from different perspectives, including emerging issues like endocrine disruptors. It considers social, economic, environmental, legal and institutional aspects of water quality management, both of the present and the future. The governance aspects of water quality are receiving special attention. The Workshop is being sponsored by the International Centre for Water and Environment (CIAMA), Zaragoza, Spain, the Third World Centre for Water Management and the International Water Resources Association. Programme, Conference Report

International Workshop on Governance of Transboundary Water Bodies of Latin America (rivers, lakes and aquifers), November 23-24, 2009, Campo Grande, Brazil. It has often been fashionable in recent years to speak of water wars and political and social conflicts over water. The hypothesis of this meeting is that through proper inter-institutional coordinating mechanisms, the countries sharing the same water bodies can benefit significantly more through cooperation rather than through conflicts. Even though management of transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers are considered important at present, a comparative and objective study of the efficacy of the institutions to manage such basins efficiently is still conspicuous by its absence. It is thus necessary to conduct a systematic and comprehensive objective analysis of the existing transboundary river and lake basins organisations and transboundary aquifers management institutions to determine their relative successes and failures, and the reasons thereof. Through this process, a community of good practices for sustainable water resources management can be reliably identified, and their potential replicability could be considered for case-specific situations of transboundary water management in Latin America. A few examples from outside Latin America are also discussed to consider their potential application in the region

During the workshop, 8–10 major transboundary freshwater bodies are analysed from the appropriate Latin American countries. While considerable efforts have been made in the past to analyse the transboundary water bodies of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East (for example, Ganges, Indus, Mekong, Salween, Nile, Zambezi, Rhine, Danube and Jordan), commensurate emphasis has not been given on the study of the Latin American transboundary water bodies. To the extent these have been studied in Latin America, the primary focuses have been on the major rivers like the Amazon or the Plata: smaller transboundary rivers, lakes and groundwater bodies have not received adequate attention. Programme

MEETINGS 2008

International Conference on Water Governance in the MENA Region: From Analysis to Action, Marrakech, June 9–13. Sponsors: InWEnt, Capacity Building International (Germany), GTZ, National Organisation of Drinking Water (ONEP, Morocco) and Arab Water Council, with the support of the Third World Centre for Water Management (TWCWM). Policy Brief, Conference Report

MEETINGS 2007

International Conference on Water Governance in the MENA Region: Critical Issues and the Way Forward, Cairo, June 23–27. Sponsors: InWEnt, Capacity Building International (Germany) and Arab Water Council, with the support of the Third World Centre for Water Management (TWCWM). Policy Brief, Conference Report

International Hydropower Association (IHA) World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower, Antalya, Turkey, 29-31 May, 2007. Dr. Cecilia Tortajada is a member of the IHA Executive Board. Following is a Summary of the World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower. Summary

International Expert Meeting: 30 years of Mar del Plata: achievements and expectations, Zaragoza, Spain, 12-14 March, 2007 - The United Nations Water Conference was organized in Mar del Plata in March 1977. Its main objective was to promote a level of preparedness, nationally and internationally, of the problems of the world in relation to water.

One of the main achievements of this Conference was that the period 1981-1990 was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the International Decade for Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation. The objective of this Decade was not only to try that all the people of the world could have access to clean water and sanitation, but to transmit the message to the world that millions of people did not have access to these basic services, and that the political will and investments were essential to improve this unacceptable situation.

2007 is is the 30th Anniversary of the Conference of Mar del Plata. The Government of Aragon, through the Ministry of Environment, the Aragon Water Institute and the International Centre for Water, in collaboration with the Third World Centre for Water Management and with the support of the International Water Resources Association, organized an International Experts Meeting 12-14 March in Zaragoza.

The objective of this meeting was to look back to the past 30 years and objectively and critically assess what were the expectations at Mar del Plata, what we have achieved and what we have not achieved. We reviewed the reasons for the successes and the failures, and attempt to identify ways through which the various constraints could be overcome.

Participation to this workshop was by invitation only and included ministers, key individuals from the Mar del Plata Conference, and leading international water, environment and development experts from different parts of the world.

International Workshop on Reservoir Inundation Related Issues, Cairo, Egypt, 12-13 February, 2007. Conference Report

International Workshop on Hydropolitics and Impacts of the Aswan High Dam
Conference Report

LIST OF MEETINGS ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE SINCE 1998, PDF Document