Any Interest? Session on 'Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) & WaSH Nexus'

I floated this idea on Twitter the other day; here is the whole enchilada.

The American Water Resources Association's (AWRA) 2014 Summer Specialty Conference, Integrated Water Resources Management - From Theory to Application, 30 June 30 - 2 July, Reno, NV, is seeking abstracts (due 17 February 2014) and special session proposals (due 30 December 2013). John Tracy, Director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute at the University of Idaho and AWRA President-Elect (as of 1 January 2014) is the Reno Conference Chair and I am the Technical Chair. This conference is a follow-up to the one I chaired in June 2011.

Through this post I am gauging interest in a special session dealing with the IWRM-WaSH (or WatSan) nexus. WaSH (or WASH) is an acronym for 'Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene' and WatSan is 'Water and Sanitation'. These acronyms are widely used in the development and hydrophilanthropic sectors. Many practitioners assume that the 'water' in WaSH and WatSan refers to water for direct human consumption/use (i.e., household use). This does not have to be the case and could actually be addressed in the session). 

Still unsure about WaSH and WatSan? Think about work in developing countries to give people access to sustainable clean water, sanitary conditions, and hygienic practices.

IWRM means many things to many people, but here is my working definition from the Global Water Partnership: 

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment. 

Sounds like 'mom and apple pie' right? Also sounds like IWRM subsumes WaSH.

 

I do not have a particular agenda for this session except to try to bring together members of the IWRM and WaSH communities. My sense is that they do not overlap too much, but may learn otherwise. Here are some topics I would like to see addressed:

 

1) Are WaSH and IWRM principles mutually inclusive or incompatible?

2) Do WaSH and IWRM inform each other?

3) Are they really distinct concepts?

4) Can/should WaSH and IWRM be better integrated and implemented?   

5)  Are there barriers to (4)?

6) Are some aspects of IWRM and WaSH better integrated than others? 

7) Can time and money be saved by working together?

8) Case studies of IWRM - WaSH projects

9) Are 'next steps' needed? If so, what are they?

10) Is all this a waste of time? (preferably answered soon)

 

Speaking of working together, here is an interesting publication that might provide some guidance: Freshwater Conservation and WASH Integration Guidelines: A Framework for Implementation in sub-Saharan Africa

 

So what do I want from you, dear reader?

 

1) Do you have any interest in such a session to the extent that would you be willing to submit an abstract and give an oral presentation? 

2) Do you have any comments on the enumerated items above?

3) Do you want to be a co-convenor?

 

If so, please let me know ASAP as I need to decide by 30 December whether I am going to proceed with a proposal. You do not need to submit an abstract now, but giving me a title would help. You can leave a comment below, or send me an email: [email protected].

 

Disclaimer: if you decide to attend the IWRM conference you or your organization are responsible for your own expenses; neither AWRA nor I can subsidize your expenses. 

 

I also must confess that I am looking ahead to such a session at the 7th World Water Forum in South Korea in March 2015. It would be apropos, since the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which cover access to clean water and sanitation (Goal 7), come due in 2015.

 

Thank you!

 

"IWRM is easy to talk about but hard to implement." - a practitioner in Latin America

 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.” - African proverb

Comments

[Michael]

Hi, Paul.

Thanks for your comments - all of them. I greatly appreciate all you have made throughout the years.

The AWRA is a professional society and like most professional societies, addresses issues of interest to those beyond our membership. We don't make policy, although we might make recommendations. If some policy-making body chooses to consider them, then the public can provide its input at a public forum.

That said, people are free to participate in our conferences to give their two cents. But they'll have to pay the registration fee, just like AWRA members have to do. People are also welcome to submit an abstract and present it at the meeting; membership is not a prerequisite.

See you in Reno, perhaps?

[PAUL F MILLER]

Any Interest? Session on 'Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) & WaSH Nexus …. How and when do “we” choose to design these sessions, meetings, events, symposiums where the PUBLIC is authentically invited and made a part of it … where their voice is heard & made a part of the record … it seems totally inconceivable to me that America can achieve WATER sustainability when “we” choose to exclude that sector of our nation without whose “buy-in” any chance for sustainability falls flat on its face…