Eleven sessions on World Water Forum Key Priority 2.3, Harmonizing Water and Energy, will be hosted by these organisations, focusing on issues encompassed within this theme, including:
• Increasing urban water service energy efficiency and developing wastewater as an energy resource
• Increasing energy efficiency in desalination
• Providing water for energy services and energy services for water in remote off-grid communities
• Increasing scientific understanding of the energy impacts on water by contributing to the conceptual evaluation framework being launched at the Forum
• A commitment to increasing awareness and the promotion of existing sustainability tools for advancing hydropower sustainably
• Increasing scientific understanding of water management in the oil & gas sector
• Increasing scientific understanding of water management in the biofuel sector
• Becoming observers to the Water-Energy Policy Network that will been launched at the Forum
Examples of initiatives that will be presented during the sessions include:
• The launch of a cutting edge programme to reduce the energy requirements of the desalination process
• Details the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol
• The launch of an international Policy Network on Water and Energy that will work to integrate water and energy policy decision making over the next 3 years
With regards to the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, iha will also facilitating a session entitled: The Hydropower Power Sustainability Assessment Protocol: A Global Framework to Promote Good Practice, on 14 March 2012, from 11:00 to 13:00.
IHA will be represented at the 6th World Water Forum by IHA Vice Presidents, Roger Gill and Gil Maranhão-Neto, Executive Director, Richard Taylor, Programme Directors, Cameron Ironside and Tracy Lane, Water Specialist, Kristin Schumann, Sustainability Specialist, Simon Howard, and Thor Windham-Wright, Communications.
The World Water Forum has been held every three years since 1997. This year’s event brings together around 140 ministerial delegations, 800 speakers, NGOs and public and private sector representatives, with a view to finding solutions to the world’s many water related challenges, and raising water issues higher on national and international political agendas.
