Date: 29 November 2021, 9:30-11:30

Venue: 5F, Auditorium, EXCO

Welcome Remarks

• Gabriel Eckstein , President, International Water Resources Association
• Deghyo Bae , President, Korean Water Resources Association
• Hong Jeong Kee , Vice Minister, Korean Ministry of the Environment
• Kwon Young-jin , Mayor of Daegu, Daegu Metropolitan City
• Jae Hyeon Park, President & CEO, K-water

High Level Speakers

• H.E Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Minister of Water and Sanitation, Republic of Senegal
• Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment, European Union (rec)
• H.E. Mr. TIAN Xuebin, Vice Minister, Chinese Ministry of Water Resources (rec)
• Gilbert F. Houngbo, Chair, UN Water / President, International Fund for Agriculture Development (rec)
• Armida Salsiah, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations / Executive Secretary, UN-ESCAP (rec)
• Loïc Fauchon, President, World Water Council
• Aziza Akhmouch, Head of Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development, OECD (rec)
• Sasha Koo Oshima, Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, FAO (rec)
• Jennifer Sara, Global Director, Water Global Practice, World Bank
• Shin Bongwoo, Director, UNESCO i-WSSM

World Water Envoys

• Georgina Mukwirimba (Zimbabwe) – Water Supply
• Deepesh Jain (India) – Safety water and sanitation
• Maria Almonte (Dominican Rep.) – Urban river management
• Bayan Khalaf (Palestine) – Agrochemical pollution
• Pallavi Pokharel (Nepal) – Groundwater pollution Closing Remarks
• Gary Jones , Chair, International Scientific Committee of XVII Congress

Moderator: James E. Nickum, Editor-in-Chief, Water International

Panelists

• Gabriel Eckstein, President, International Water Resources Association (In-person)
• Lesha Witmer, Advocacy, Women for Water Partnership (In-person)
• Yoonjin Kim, Planning Director, the Korea Water Forum (In-person)
• Bassel Daher, Assistant Research Scientist, Texas A&M Energy Institute; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University (In-person)
• Georgina Mukwirimba, IWRA’s World Water Envoys (In-person)

Session Summary

Looking into the next 50 years, what water challenges are likely to be with us in 2071, or at least for decades to come? Especially, what ones are out of the COP-SDG spotlight but nonetheless critical? Are there sleepers or new issues on the horizon, or problems that are right in front of our eyes but not being addressed? What role can IWRA play in addressing these challenges?

Objective of the session

To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of IWRA and to look at the challenges in the water sector in coming decades, as well as the possible ways IWRA can engage in meeting those challenges.

Session Programme

Moderator: Rabi Mohtar, Professor, American University of Beirut

Panelists

• Serigne Mbaya Thiam, Minister for Water and Sanitation, Government of Senegal (In-person)
• Nara Lee, Assistant Representative, FAO Partnership and Liaison Office, Republic of Korea (In-person)
• Jong Jin Lee, Vice President and Chief Global Office, K-water, Republic of Korea (In-person)
• Bassel Daher, Assistant Research Scientist, Texas A&M Energy Institute; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University (In-person)

Session Summary

This session focuses on unlocking new potential for addressing the interconnected resource challenges of the SDGs by bridging accumulated experiences in practice, policy, and science with theories and practices to support SDGs implementation. Using pilot implementation projects (case studies) from several SDG hotspots around the globe, panel members will share lessons learned about the related science, practice and policy approaches. They will address the use of these and other, relevant case studies to achieve convergence and increased stakeholder understanding of the trade-offs associated with implementation of the SDGs. The panelists will showcase innovative methods, approaches, and practices to address the SDGs as a system of interconnected goals. It will highlight the value of bridging policy and practice in the physical and social sciences, and present ways in which to optimize existing resource use to achieve the SDGs. These shared experiences and discussions will contribute to efforts to operationalize systems-level solutions as we move toward innovative, interdisciplinary, and sustainable implementation of the SDG agenda. Documentation will include a white paper summarizing the discussions and will identify the session’s specific conclusions and recommendations.

Descrption

Growing pressures to meet demands for water, energy, food, health, education, and equity in quality of life, are driven by the risks of climate change, increasing global populations, rapid urbanization, changing diets, and economic growth. Primary resource security is central to healthy, sustainable economies, however, these pressures are exacerbated by interdependency of tightly interconnected resource systems. Planning future allocation and management of these resources must account for these interdependencies and address their potential trade-offs. Failure to do so risks the unintended consequences likely to result from attempting to address them as singular sets of the challenges, and such failure is likely to negatively impact the achievement of the Sustainbale Development Goals.

During the coming 15 years, 193 United Nations member states are committed to work to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water, energy, food, other human securities, and those related to economic growth, sustainable consumption, health, climate, and more. The 17 Goals include specific targets and local indicators to monitor progress toward their implementation. Our community of nations has a unique opportunity to leverage momentum toward achieving the SDGs. As we work to do so, we must be aware of the extent of interconnectedness and potential competition between the 17 goals. To ensure achieving the goals by 2030, and to avoid unintended consequences, action plans must be developed that promote an understanding of the interconnections between the physical resource systems and the stakeholders involved in their consumption. These innovative plans must cross multiple scales and will benefit from a framework for a structured approach that promotes and guides interdisciplinary collaboration. In 2016, a consortium of partners was established and works to catalyze constructive dialogue regarding ways in which to collectively address the challenges. The consortium builds upon key milestones from Stockholm (WWW 2016), Cancun (WWC 2017), Brasilia (WWF 2018), Boston (ASABE, 2019) and New York (ICSD, 2019).

This special session will share data, knowledge, tools, and lessons learned about the SDGs as a system of interconnected goals. The partners will showcase innovative methods, approaches, and practices to address the challenges to implementation of the SDGs through bridging policy and practice with the physical, social sciences. They will present ways in which to optimize existing resource use to achieve the SDGs, showcasing pilot implementation projects that address various SDGs hotspots globally.

The specific session goals are to:
1 - Share lessons learned from the science and practice communities toward SDGs implementation across both scale and sector;
2 - Discuss ways to improve scientific understanding, governance, and institutional structures to more effectivly respond to the challenges of operationalizing solutions for SDGs implementation; and
3 - Discuss ways in which focused dialogue on state-of-the-art technological, social, and policy interventions can be catylzed among multi-sectoral stakeholders and interdisciplinary research groups to better
address the identification of research needs, priorities, and effective implementation of lessons learned.

Session Programme

Moderator: Tom Soo, Executive Director, IAHR

Panelists

• Eric Tardieu, Director General, International Office for Water
• Dominique Berod Head, Earth Systems Monitoring Division, WMO
• Waqas Burney, Partner Manager, Google Search (APAC)
• Pauline Mufeti, Head of Hydrological Services, Namibia

Session Summary

The acceleration of the information age and our capacity to harness data and technologies is impacting the way that humans are able to understand and implement solutions in water resources management in unprecedented ways. The current trends in data, artificial intelligence, connectivity, remote sensing, real-time access and modelling give rise to opportunities to improve our decision making. Opportunities to work at impactful scales with a widening variety of stakeholders and platforms, including innovations and entrepreneurship are augmenting our data and technological potential. Data harmonisation, inter-operability and our ability to interpret and utilise information in a concrete manner from national sources as well as the multitude of potentially useful other sources remains an important challenge. In addition, a key limitation in developing countries remains the continuing lack of basic water resources data. Despite the steady and rapid rise of Information and Communications Technologies uptake on a global level, developing countries still lag far behind. The digital divide and appropriate data technologies remain an important problem that is further exacerbated by insufficiencies in capacity to collect, assess, use and share the necessary data to enable improved outcomes for safe water supply, sanitation and society´s ability to sustainably harness water resources to drive socio-economic development. New opportunities are created through emerging technologies and a new, unified, data policy of the World Meteorological Organization (to be approved by WMO Congress in October 2021), without forgetting the Water and Climate coalition in the framework of the SDG 6 accelerator.

Objective of the session

The purpose of the Panel will be to address the required paradigm change to tackle the continuing challenges and future opportunities of water related data, technology and capacity for developing countries from different perspectives; the Panel shall be also be invited to make reflections and recommendations on potential ways forward.

Programme

Date: 2 December 2021, 14:30-16:00

Vanue: 5F, Auditorium, EXCO

Congress Summary & Conclusions

In recent years, membership associations, including those in the water space, have had to adjust their operations and activities in response to various factors, most notably the information age. In fact, the value of some associations has been called into questions given that data and information is now so readily available via the Internet, and in-person conferences and discrete, hard-bound publications are being replaced by email exchanges, Skype calls, Zoom chats, open access publishing, online resource databases, and much more. So, what is the role and value of membership associations, and specifically water-focused association, in this new age? What value and benefits do these organizations offer their members in the 21st Century? And, how might they adapt to the new realities to ensure that they stay relevant? This session will feature various leaders from some of the top water-focused membership associations globally. The program will be moderated as a discussion panel that will facilitate conversation between the panelists as well as with the audience.

Moderator: Date: 2 December 2021, 16:30-18:00

Venue: 5F, Auditorium, EXCO Auditorium, EXCO

Congress Summary & Conclusions

• Gary Jones, Chair, International Scientific Committee of XVII Congress
• XVII World Water Congress Declaration Adoption

World Water Envoy Reports

• Georgina Mukwirimba (Zimbabwe) – Water Supply
• Deepesh Jain (India) – Safety water and sanitation
• Maria Almonte (Domincan Republic) – Urban river management
• Bayan Khalaf (Palestine, West Bank) – Agrochemical pollution
• Pallavi Pokharel (Nepal) – Groundwater pollution

XVII-XVIII Congress Handover

• Chinese handover ceremony for the following XVIII Congress with Korean co-hosts, IWRA representitives & Yuanyuan Li, 2022-2024 IWRA president

Co-host thanks and takeaway message

• Vice Mayor of Daegu City
• Chair of NOC

Closing Session

• IWRA President
• Photo time
• Wrap up