8th World Water Forum in Brazil: ICPDR contributes to the rigorous discussion surrounding regional processes and this forum’s theme: “Sharing Water”.
Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 March 2018 in Rio de Jenerio (Brazil), the ICPDR had the opportunity to provide essential input in 3 different sessions at the 8th World Water Forum. The overarching agenda involved engaging in fruitful debates surrounding topics such as the overall theme of the Forum "Sharing Water" and the Sustainability Process; the debate in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the additional water-related targets and the Paris Climate Agreement. The ICPDR was able to contribute to this debate by providing real-world examples of regional processes in the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea.
On Tuesday March 20th ICPDR 2018 President Helge Wendenburg chaired a session about “European Ecosystems: Bridging Systems and Services,” where he highlighted ICPDR experiences with: managing and restoring ecosystems for water services and biodiversity, water and land use, ensuring water quality from ridge to reef, and natural and engineered hydrological systems in Europe.
A keynote address by 2017 ICPDR President Peter Gammeltoft, as well as useful commentary from the Heads of Delegation of Bulgaria (Ms. Atanaska Nikolova) and Slovenia (Mr. Mitja Bricelj), who served as panellists, helped to construct a comprehensive and multidisciplinary perspective of these topics. Together they were able to paint a more complete picture, which included public policy, technology, economic, environmental, and social angels of these issues. Ultimately, this session provided attendees with examples of successful ICPDR case studies, which contained key lessons, messages and recommendations to disseminate globally.
On 20 March as well, Bulgarian Head of Delegation to the ICPDR, Ms Atanaska Nikolova participated together with Minister Galarza Contreras (Minister of Environment, Peru) and Minister Faye (Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senegal), UN Special Envoy Peter Thomson and Group Executive Voice-President of Suez, Ms Frederique Raoult at a High Level Panel on Source to Sea Management. .
Ms Nikolova made a statement on the legal and institutional framework of the cooperation between the ICPDR and Black Sea Commission, and offered the world community to share lessons learned on this cooperation and benefits for the Black Sea ecosystem.
On Wednesday 21 March, ICPDR Executive Secretary Ivan Zavadsky was able to illustrate other successful examples and case studies at an additional session. This session highlighted the dynamics and different regional experiences in transboundary cooperation, from the initial goal setting and activities to the eventual results and successes.
Another session focused more acutely on the economic development of hydrographic basins and the safety of hydrographic infrastructure. In this session, concentrating primarily on risks, monitoring and preventive actions, ICPDR President Wendenburg presented ICPDR activities and its successful arrangements in addressing flood risks, accident prevention control, and AEWS. His presentation managed to attract the attention of several practitioners from different continents dealing with similar issues, who will hopefully find the ICPDR experience useful to finding solutions in their respective regions.
All in all, the 8th World Water Forum. provided the ICPDR representatives with a golden opportunity to add the perspective and experiences of the Danube Basin as an inspiration for other regions to successfully achieve their aims, because sharing information is the first step in achieving this year’s World Water Forum theme of “Sharing Water.”
To find out more about the 8th World Water Forum Brazil, please see the World Water Forum page.
Source and Editorial: ICPDR, Photo credits: ICPDR
Photo caption: Bulgarian Head of Delegation to the ICPDR Ms Atanaska Nikolova (middle, speaking)
