The Netherlands pavilion was the base for most of the Dutch experts that attended the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille from March 12-17. Not only the formal Dutch governmental delegation but also the many Dutch experts that attended the forum on their own, used the hospitality of the pavilion to do their business.

Many successful meetings and presentations took place at the pavilion.

Monday March 12th

On the first day of the Forum the Prince of Orange attended the welcome reception at the Netherlands pavilion. Here seen being briefed by Christina Boomsma of the Netherlands Water Partnership on the worldwide branding of the Dutch water sector.

Tuesday March 13th

Director Nico Terra (left) of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and co-director Peter van der Linden (right) of the AKVO Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding at the Netherlands pavilion. IRC has much knowhow and experiences with water and sanitation projects in the developing world. AKVO is very active on internet and over 500 organizations are using the Akvo platform to visualize projects with a total value of over 32 million euro, reaching more than 1.9 million people. IRC and AKVO will specially join forces on monitoring all these water projects.

Jessica Graf of the consultancy firm Hystra and author of the study ‘Access to safe water for the base of the pyramid’ explained at the Netherlands pavilion that new viable business concepts are emerging for water supply in developing countries. Simple technical concepts make it easy for local entrepreneurs to start small water firms.

Film actress Famke Janssen (second right) attended the Forum as the new ambassador of Green Cross International and promoted implementation of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation. She visited the Netherlands pavilion together with representatives of the World Youth parliament for water. Representative for the Netherlands was Annerieke Sleurink (second left).

Wednesday – March 14th

The Dutch-based Unesco-IHE institute for water education organized a networking event for alumni to meet the Dutch water sector.

Thursday – March 15th

Unesco-IHE Cultural Ambassador Ap Verheggen gave a briefing on the latest developments to build a huge cooling structure in the desert that condensates the water in the air and sues solar energy to freeze the water.

Technology advisor Henk Holtslag gave a presentation on low cost water supply with smart disinfection, rope pumps and micro irrigation. Holtslag told about his efforts to set up local production facilities for water equipment with local skills and materials.

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“When the Dutch start talking about drought it gets a bite strange. They have plenty of water but it is the quality that is not always available on right time at the right location”. With these words George Constantin (middle on photo) of the Romanian ministry of environment and forests started his contribution to the session at the 6th World Water Forum on March 15th, organized by the province of Noord-Brabant.

The Dutch province is one of the partners involved in the European WaterCoRe-project. In this project provinces of seven different EU-member states share experiences finding the best solutions to prevent drought. In most cases the drought is seasonal and the measures are aimed at water retention in periods of plenty of water.

Sharp increase of extreme warm days
Since 2000 Romania sees an increase of extreme warm days leading to water shortage, told Constantin during the session on drought. ”In 2006 the water level in the Danube was to low we had to shut down our nuclear power plant. We shall have to take measures to keep the water longer in the system and we are looking at the many hydropower reservoirs in Romania”. Constantin expressed his fear for the short term. “At this moment these reservoirs are half empty and with more warm season I do not know what will happen.”

Unique combination of farmer and member of water board
Another speaker at the session on seasonal drought was Peter van Dijk (right on photo). His presence was probably unique at the forum because Van Dijk is both a Dutch farmer of blueberries as well as a board member of a regional water board. Van Dijk is the official representative for all farmers. He explained that the water board was started as a democratic organization by farmer 800 years ago and has ever since been an independent water authority with its own finance based on a special water tax and its own directly elected board.

Only room for small water retention areas
According to Van Dijk his water board participation in the WaterCoRe-project because it expects more drought. “Our only possibility is to buffer more water during the wet seasons. But in a densely populated country the Netherlands that is not easy. The retention areas must be as small as possible. We are experimenting with water farmers. They work in cooperation with the local water authorities and retain as much water on and around their farm as possible”.

More information
WaterCoRe
c/o Ministry of environment of Hessen
Wiesbaden, Germany
www.watercore.eu

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Hard water infrastructures get all the votes. Unlike natural infrastructures, like wetlands. There is a worldwide recognition to cherish wetlands because of their rich biodiversity. But only a few countries take the preservation of the special land and water ecosystem to practice.

At the session ‘Mind the gap’ at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on March 14, the organization Wetlands International took the lead in exploring the possibility to move onwards from the lip service to real preservation measures. Good water management can be the key solution as a good water quality makes a wetland an cheap supplier of food and fresh water.

Salt intrusion in dry periods
“In China there is hardly any attention for wetlands”, Chen Jin, vice president of the Changjiang water resource research institute told the participants of the session. Fish migration and the nesting of typical wetland birds are clearly manifest but according to Chen Jin the water quality is less visible. That makes it difficult to protect the ecosystem. He took the example of the Yangtze.

“China’s economy is growing fast and there is a great need for electricity. As hydropower is a clean energy source many reservoirs are being built along the river. The managers of these reservoir have no eye for the downstream wetland. So with little water come down the river, the salt intrusion in de delta of the Yangtze is a big threat to the ecosystem,” said Chen Jin.

Soft infrastructures no subject for vote getters
Vincent Sweeney coordinator of the Global programme of action for the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities (GPA) at UNEP, raised similar experiences along the East coast of Africa. “It is hard to talk about the protection of ecosystems if people need a place to life. Ecosystems are no hard infrastructure. There is no ribbon cutting ceremony for politicians to take votes. There is too little eye for the natural services delivered by the ecosystem.”

More understanding for ecosystem services
Wetlands International challenged water managers at the World Water Forum to maintain the wetland ecosystem for the natural production of food and fresh water. Many solutions are at hand but in putting them to practice there is a gap.

According to Jane Madgwick, CEO of Wetland Internationals, there is clearly a need for multidisciplinary working for ecologist, water managers and spatial planners to coordinate their plans. “The key message needs to be communicated better. We need business cases to illustrate to ecosystem services of wetlands.”

More information
Wetlands International
Wageningen, the Netherlands
+31 318 660 910
www.wetlands.org

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To organize a kind of mechanism for a country to response to the effects of a very gradually changing climate, without overinvesting. That was the ultimate question at the special session on vulnerable delta areas, organized by the Dutch government at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on March 13.

A serious rearrangement of responsibilities is needed to realize such a mechanism in all delta areas but everywhere the circumstances are different. So how can the Netherlands take the lead in developing a mechanism and establish a coalition of all deltas? Two important assets that were discussed during the session were the Deltaprogramma and the network organization Delta Alliance.

Discovering tipping points
Deltacommissioner Wim Kuijken opened the session and told the international audience about the Delta act that came in force on January 2012. The act is the juridical basis for the deltaprogramme which is a set of long term plans for the Dutch water authorities to anticipates on the expected rise in sea level and periods of both extremely high and extremely low river discharges.

“By looking into the future it is possible to look back and discover the measure you need to take now. This way we discover the tipping points. The moments that you really have to invest. This avoids over investments”, told Kuijken.

He invited the visitors of the forum to join the Netherlands in an effort to develop a joint roadmap for all deltas. “The Netherlands wants to establish long term relationships with other delta areas in order to learn from each other and do joint fact finding”

Countries with less oiled governance
John Metzger of the Global Water Partnership praised the Dutch approach with the 5 D’s (delta act, delta programme, delta fund, delta decisions and delta commissioner). “It is a good process for making good decisions. But the Netherlands has a well-oiled governance. How can we make this work for countries where the governmental decision making is less organized”, he asked himself. According to Metzger water governance is a good tool but additionally institutional arrangements are also needed.

All deltas are different
The next speaker at the session was Cees van de Guchte, Head Climate Change Adaptation & Integrated Flood Risk Management of the Dutch research institute Deltares. He pointed at international coordination it possible within the Delta Alliance. “This network organization is already active in ten delta areas and ten more are waiting to join”, he explained. The Delta Alliance has appointed coordinators in the various deltas to coordinate the joint fact finding. Van de Guchte himself is coordinator for the Dutch delta.

A joint learning process
“We find that every delta is different. Not only the scale but also the governmental and cultural settings differ. Even the learning process is not the same. Despite that we are able to exchange existing information and talk about new developments.

“Brazil has many flash floods which hardly occur in Europa. Yet, our European network members can learn from the way Brazil is now taking more preventive measures”. Van de Guchte invited all 160 relevant delta areas in the world to join the Delta alliance network.

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More information
Deltacommissioner
The Hague, the Netherlands
www.deltacommissaris.nl

Delta Alliance
Wageningen, the Netherlands
Wim van Driel, programme mamager wim.vandriel@wur.nl
+31 317 48 23 08
www.delta-alliance.org

The world is moving towards a water crisis, not the quantity is the problem but how the govern the water resources. This brought director András Szöllösi-Nagy of the Unesco-IHE in memory at the session on global water governance the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on March 13. This was one of the outcomes of the previous forum in Istanbul.

Despite numerous initiatives by UN-Water it remains difficult to agree on a global approach for water governance. During the session it proved that sovereignty is the main obstacle. An obstacle that is most manifest when riparian states discuss the up stream and down stream matters of a international river.

Difficult to reach global consensus
The UN-water agency was established in 2003 to promote cooperation and partnership among the UN agencies responsible for global and regional water initiatives. However, despite the numerous initiatives and events organized by UN Water, it has been difficult to reach a general consensus on issues related to water resources management. At the best agreements concerned a set of general recommendations and non-binding plans of action.

This lack of global water governance was addressed by a panel with Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, Francisco Nunes Correia, president of the Portuguese Water Partnership, Wim Kuijken deltacommissioner of the Netherlands and Vicente Andreu, president of the Agencia Nacional de Aguas of Brasil.

Need for a global institute on water governance
“Why is this”, asked Szöllösi-Nagi the panel members. “Why is the water management in one country part of the ministry of environment and in another part of the ministry of agriculture? Why is it that it takes the UN 27 years to come to a binding convention that is agreed up on by over 100 countries but is still not ratified?” Szöllösi-Nagy suggested to create a global institution for water governance and took the opportunity of the session at the forum to take about who such an institution should be organized.

New hydrological data needed for future investments
Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization agreed took look at water from a global level. The climate change is a global process with a tremendous impact on water systems. “We shall need new hydrological data. We need this data to make good decisions on investments for water infrastructures to last decades. Nations lack this information.”

According to Jarraud this justifies the need for global water governance. In this respect also the central collection and interpretation of hydrological data collected by satellites was mentioned. Technological developments are going so quickly, it is inefficient to monitor this on a national level.

Involve all decision makers at all levels
One of the panelist, special deltacommissioner Wim Kuijken of the Dutch government pointed out that it is important to organize water governance in a horizontal way, together with all decision making authorities at all different levels. “It takes more time”, Kuijken assured, “but the quality of the decisions improves dramatically. Especially for long term planning this is crucial. “In the Netherlands will have a special programme that links all these decision makers to a higher level.”

A own house for water
The panelists agreed on the observation that climate change is a global issue, but climate adaptation is a local matter. So water governance needs the coordination at different levels. Vicente Andreu of the national Brazilian water authority, challenged the World Water Forum to bring forward a strong statement on global water government as an input for the UN summit on environment Rio20+ in June. “Water must have its own house. It is essential that we come to a better understanding of climate adaptation”. He also advocated to involve politicians more in the decision making of river basins.

Input for Rio20+
He invited the water forum to take a strong lead in one of the nine dialogues that will be held at the Rio 20+ conference. “One of the dialogues is about water and the draft text for the convention is still very bad. We need a main proposal from this forum to give water a more prominent place, along with the other environmental issues that will be discussed in Rio de Janerio in June”. As far as Andreu was concerned, the proposal for a global water governance institute could be such a good input.

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During the official opening ceremony of the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on March 12 the Dutch prince of orange addressed the forum attendees from over 140 different countries about the good news that the UN millennium target drinking water has already been met. As Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) he felt encouraged by the recent news: . “Officially, this is the first MDG target to be achieved by the international community. We should be extremely encouraged by this news. Since 1990, two billion people have gained access to drinking water.”

Big role for piped connections
According to the prince the biggest shift was made in the use of piping water connections. The number of people in developing countries using piped water connections raised from 32 % in 1990 to 46% in 2010. “This is the ‘time for solutions’, and it is clear that utilities delivering piped supplies probably play the biggest role in solving our drinking water challenge. A good investment for the future is increasing both the human capacity and financial solvency of utilities”, told the UNSGAB chair.

Work to do in sub-Saharan Africa
Yet it is no time to sit back, said the prince. “We also know that only 11 of the 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have met the MDG drinking water target. Should we be pessimistic? I don’t think so. The MDG targets are particularly challenging to countries starting from a low 1990 baseline, especially if this is coupled with high population growth. Both apply in sub-SaharanAfrica. We did the maths and found that an astonishing 275 million people there had gained access to drinking water

Deep-rooted problems
At the openings ceremony the French prime minister Francoise Fillon underlined the role of the World Water Forum for the world community to come up with solutions . “The challenges are huge and the problems are deep-rooted. Each year, we mourn millions of dead from the health risks that this causes. This situation is not acceptable — the world community must rise and tackle it.”

On the first day of the forum the French government announced 50 million euro of additional water aid: 40 million for African countries and 10 million for a desalination plant in Gaza.

One of the first sessions to take place was about the green growth and the value of ecosystems. For the Netherlands the panel was joint by Kitty van der Heijden (middle) of the ministry of Foreign affairs.

The first session about the Water footprint made clear that in many areas around the world there is an enormous pressure on the water system. Presence in this panel was Arjen Hoekstra (left) of the Twente University.

The welcome reception at the Netherlands Water Pavilion was attended by the HRH Willem Alexander, Prince of Orange, Chairperson of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.

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