- Adapting to Climate Change / Risk Management
- Protecting Resources, Livelihoods and Biodiversity
- Financing Water Infrastructure and Services
- Improving Management of Water Services and Resources
- Improving Water Governance
- Innovation and Water Technologies
- Equity, Education and Ethics
- Health, Sanitation and Water Supply
- Food Security, Water for Food and Ecosystems
- Water for Energy — Energy for Water
- Water Basin Management
1. Adapting to Climate Change / Risk Management
Issues:
- Global impacts of CV and CC on water resources and water services (social, economic and environmental)
- Regional vulnerability assessments
- Extremes, disasters, including droughts, floods and hurricanes/storms
- Accellerating trends (sea level rise, snow cover melt)
- Local adaptation measures
- Early warning
- Structural — storage as a coping mechanism
- Non-structural — land use, spatial planning
2. Protecting Resources, Livelihoods and Biodiversity
Issues:
- Threatening of water catchments areas: erosion, vegetation and urbanization
- Threatening of water quality: organic and non-organic pollution
- Disappearance of wetlands: size and quality, increasing flooding
- Unbalance between water demand for economic development and natural habitats, and water availability: economic population growth
- Lack of coherence in management of different users and usages
- Unadapted storage solutions and threaten the water resources and environment and livelihoods
- Irresponsible collective and individual behaviours threaten the ecological balance of water sources
- Over exploitation of groundwater threaten the sustainability of water resources
- Misuse of water for irrigation can lead long-term degradation of soil and environment
- Degradation of ecology accelerates environmental migration
3. Financing Water Infrastructure and Services
Issues:
- Need for world guide to water financing
- Addressing the specifities of water infrastructure financing
- Creating the appropriate public environment to attract finance, and building local capacity building for water operators
- Tariffs-billing subsidies. What works where? Who will decide? How can transparency be encouraged?
- Modalities for financing the PeriUrban — access for the poor
- Continue the Gurria task force. Make the Financing for All web site better known
4. Improving Management of Water Services and Resources
Issues:
- Ground water in transition (threatened state)
- Urban water management systems
- Integrated water resources management (including reuse)
- Improving managers — capacity building (training on the basis of a shared value system)
- Agricultural water management
5. Improving Water Governance
Issues:
- Lack of framework convention to structure governance:
- International standards are needed
- Develop principles to define roles and responsibilities at different levels
- Too much overlap and duplication, especially at international level
- Disequilibrium: agriculture/irrgation uses the most water but urban/human hosehold water and sanitation is the focus of the political process
- Cultural uniqueness and social context must be recognized in water governance
- Recognize local authorities as key players — capacity building must target elected officials at all levels
- Groundwater use and governance raises different issues that are not effectively managed at national level
- “Shared stewardship” concept must be nurtured:
- Conflicts between urban and agricultural use
- Conflicts among Ministers for Natural Resources, Finance and Development
- Disconnection between water supply, development and Conservation Strategies
- Better data on line will bring a revolution in transparency
- Corruption must be addressed
- High priority institutional deficiency is lack of a global Framework Agreement for Transboundary Waters
6. Innovation and Water Technologies
Issues:
- Demand management and sectoral competition
- Basin-wide management for development, including demographic, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions
- Participatory management focused on both water quantity and quality aspects
- Institutional fragmentation and lack of legislation
- Also of note:
- Transboundary water management
- Groundwater management
7. Equity, Education and Ethics
Issues:
- Education for water and sanitation; water rights and legislation
- Education in water management
- Right to water for poor people
- Water management
8. Health, Sanitation and Water Supply
Issues:
- Accelerate the implementation of water supply and sanitation MDGs, include waste water disposal
- Sustainable financing of water supply, sanitation and waste water disposal
9. Food Security, Water for Food and Ecosystems
Issues:
- Integration of irrigation into a river basin management policy (quantity + quality aspects)
- Listening to the voice of the farming community (water users associations. etc) (with a gender perspective)
- Reconciliation of water for agriculture and water for other uses (ecosystems) appropriate industrial setup
- Financing irrigation infrastructure
- Food security vs. energy security (bio-fuels production)
- Use of marginal (brackish, reuse...)
- Focus on Subsaharan Africa and countries in conflict
- Involving other players in the food chain community (agro industry, retailers)
- Securing land for agriculture/food security
- Improving water productivity and efficiency in the whole food chain
- Virtual water issues, international trade, agricultural subsidies
- Rain fed agriculture
- Time and space for water for agriculture at the Forum
10. Water for Energy — Energy for Water
Issues:
- The role of water in renewable energy
- Transboundary cooperation for water and energy
- Climate change and renewable resources on water and energy
- Good practice in social and environmental issues in water and energy
- HP for sustainable development needs in Africa
- Financing of renewable resources of water and energy
- Technical innovations in water and energy
- Multipurpose characteristics of water for energy
- Renewable energy for water (groundwater, desalinization, cooling, sanitation)
- Millennium Development Goals relating water and energy
11. Water Basin Management
Issues:
- Demand management and sectoral competition
- Basin-wide management for development, including demographic, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions
- Participatory management focused on both water quantity and quality aspects
- Institutional fragmentation and lack of legislation
- Also of note:
- Transboundary water management
- Groundwater management
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