A number of national, association and NGO activities are coming on line as a run up to the United Nations World Water Day on March 22, 2016. Activities of interest to E&W blog readers include:
White House Summit on Water Issues
As part of the joint White House-Department of Interior 12/15/15 roundtable discussion with national and regional water leaders, the Obama Administration announced that it will host on March 22, 2016 (United Nations World Water Day), a “White House Water Summit” to raise awareness of water issues and potential solutions to water challenges in the U.S. A primary goal of the Summit is to catalyze ideas and actions to help build a sustainable and secure water future through innovative science and technology.
The Administration is looking for opportunities to work with organizations of all types to highlight new, specific, and measurable steps that organizations can take to address key water issues, such as drought or flooding; water availability or quality; water-use efficiency; water security; relevant ecological concerns; or others. Specifically, the Administration is interested in steps that address some of the following issues through innovative science and technology, including:
- Data, monitoring, modeling, and forecasting;
- Technology development, demonstration, deployment, and scale-upddd
- Entrepreneurship in water; and
- Creation and dissemination of science-based tools and resources for decision making
Organizations interested in participating in the 3/22/16 White House Water Summit can submit their request to attend via www.whitehouse.gov by February 13th.
NACWA Winter Conference 2016: Will Compliance Concerns Derail Efforts to Innovate?
E&W colleague NACWA and their 2016 Winter Conference (San Diego, CA 2/21-2/24/16) will focus on the complexity of new regulations in the water sector, and external challenges such as drought and climate change and how these are impacting day-to-day operations of water utilities and threatening to limit the clean water community’s ability to innovate. Registration and program information for NACWA’s 2016 Winter Conference is at www.nacwa.org. Special Note: This year NACWA’s Winter Conference and the joint AWWA-WEF Utility Management Conference (www.wef.org) are co-located in San Diego (Utility Management Conference dates are 2/24-2/27/16).
Uniting the World of Water: AWWA’s ACE2016 Launches
AWWA’s 2016 annual meeting and exposition, “ACE2016 – Uniting the World of Water” scheduled for 6/19-6/22/16 at McCormick Place in Chicago is now live with both technical, exhibition and registration details at www.awwa.org/ace16. The technical and workshop program currently boasts a slate of over 500 presentations and a nearing capacity of exhibitors for the show floor.
NAWC Public-Private-Partnerships (P3s) Annual Gathering: Where Public & Private Meet
NAWC’s 2016 P3 Conference and Expo (3/7-3/9/16, Dallas TX) is gearing up to be one of the largest gatherings of development professionals in the country, featuring three days of in-depth learning, business development, and networking opportunities with an elite mix of owners and industry professionals engaged in P3s across the country.
The conference will discuss the state of the US P3 industry, and highlight the various types of P3s underway in not only the water and wastewater sectors, but infrastructure, transportation and energy as well. The conference will also examine how public agencies are determining the optimal delivery model for public projects, and what they’re thinking when considering a P3 opportunity. At present, some 40 in-depth sessions will be covered over the three day event. Detailed program and registration information can be found on the NAWC homepage (www.nawc.org).
U.N. Water
UN-Water is the official global sponsor of World Water Day (March 22 each year). UN-Water is the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues, including sanitation. It was formalized in 2003 by the United Nations High Level Committee on Programs to provide the platform to address the cross-cutting nature of water and maximize system-wide coordinated action and coherence. UN-Water promotes coherence in, and coordination of, UN system actions aimed at the implementation of the agenda defined by the Millennium Declaration and the World Summit on Sustainable Development as it relates to its scope of work. The scope of UN-Water’s work encompasses all aspects of freshwater, including surface and groundwater resources and the interface between fresh and sea water.
UN-Water’s website, www.unwater.org, is currently being updated with information regarding UN activities and outreach in connection with this year’s World Water Day on March 22nd.