World Water Week
World Water Week is hosted and organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and takes place in Stockholm. The World Water Week has been the annual focal point for the globe's water issues since 1991.
The theme in focus at this year's event is 'energy and water', placing hydropower at the centre of the conversation. IHA will be collaborating with partners and members during the week to host sessions exploring hydropower's role in meeting the world's water and energy challenges.
Below we have picked out some of the key sessions that feature hydropower on the agenda. You can explore the full event programme here.
Sunday 31 August
Does Water Footprint Assessment Enhance Sustainable Management of River Basins?
9am–12:30pm, room K22/23
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an IHA partner, is one of the organisations hosting this seminar on new approaches to river basin management.
The seminar explores, through practical examples, how emerging tools are being used to investigate the conflicts, trade-offs and synergies between water uses within specific river basins.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Water and Energy: Expounding on the 2014 World Water Development Report
9am–12:30pm, room K11
This seminar is based on the principle findings and main messages of the World Water Development Report 2014, Water and Energy, by the authors and representatives of the report's lead agencies.
It will focus on the further development and refinement of common solutions across the water and energy domains and their direct impact on sustainable development.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Tackling Tradeoffs between Water and Energy across Sectors and Scales
2–5:30pm, room K22/23
The Swiss Water Partnership is joined by several international organisations and academic institutions to highlight the main challenges in achieving water, energy and food security.
The seminar will discuss existing and promising future solutions (demand side, supply side and creating shared benefits) across different sectors and scales.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Monday 1 September
Producing Electricity with Less Water: New Perspectives for Renewables in a Water-constrained World
2–5:30pm, room K16/17
IHA partner organisations the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the World Bank are among the convenors of this seminar, which aims to elaborate on the use of water in the electricity sector in the light of the ongoing energy system transformations.
The seminar will discuss different scenarios and case studies for power system transformations, focusing on the impact on water use.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Water & Energy Nexus: Smart Investments to Help Realise Human Rights
12:45–1:45pm, room K24
This side event will bring together leading experts to discuss an important measure in the effort to realise the human rights to adequate sanitation and a safe and healthy environment: wastewater reuse for energy production.
Speakers include representatives of WaterLex, Frost & Sullivan, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Prana Renewable Water.
Find out more about this side event here.
Partnerships for Achieving Energy-Water-Food-Nature Balance at the Basin Scale
2–5:30pm, room K22/23
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and WWF are among the hosts of this seminar exploring the balance of water, energy, food production and ecosystem conservation at the basin scale, and highlight innovative programs that hold promise for delivering optimised outcomes.
The audience will hear case studies from organisations that are implementing programmes on the ground to optimise for energy, water and food.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Tuesday 2 September
The Water-Energy Nexus in Latin America: Understanding the Upstream and Downstream Systems
9am–12.30pm, room T3
Several organisations are collaborating to host this seminar, including IHA member companies Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) and Itaipu Binacional, and our partners such as the TNC, the World Bank and WWF.
The seminar will shine a light on water resources management in Latin America, addressing the upstream challenges and opportunities of basin management, as well as the complex dynamics of the different uses of water downstream.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Sustainable hydropower – the search for common ground
9am–12.30pm / 2–5.30pm, room K11
For this workshop IHA is teaming up with EDF and WWF as well as event organisers SIWI to examine how sustainable hydropower development can be assured through constructive engagement among stakeholders with contending views.
The workshop will explore new ways of engagement between water and power managers with both innovators in the market and critics from the socio-environmental arena.
Find out more about this workshop here.
The Power of Flows: Negotiating Sustainable Hydropower through Environmental Flows
2–5.30pm, room T2
Several organisations, including IHA member Itaipu Binacional as well as TNC and WWF, convene this seminar which will examine how sustainability can be grounded in resilient ecosystems and the natural flow regime while providing sufficient energy for dynamic, growing economies.
The seminar will actively define sustainability for hydropower by engaging speakers and attendees, confronting tools, cases, policy, and science to energise the practice of managing flows for power and ecosystems.
Find out more about this seminar here.
The Water-Energy Nexus in the Context of Green Growth
2–5.30pm, room T4
New IHA member K-Water joins with The National Committee for the 2015 World Water Forum Korea and World Water Council to present this seminar.
It will focus on identifying and discussing policy instruments that can effectively coordinate water and energy sector policies in the context of green growth. The OECD, World Bank, ADB, IUCN and K-water will share lessons from their experiences at the international, regional and national levels.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Wednesday 3 September
Energy and Water: A Producer's Perspective
9am–12:30pm, room K21
IHA members E.ON join Fortum, SIWI, the Swedish Energy Agency , the Swedish Water House and Vattenfall to examine water and energy perspectives from the side of the producer in this seminar.
Discussions will include bridging the gap between water experts and energy producers, looking at common definitions and challenging the way both communities relates to concepts within their traditional fields.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Nexus in a transboundary context: building partnerships to bridge cooperation
2–5.30pm, room K2
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and SIWI host this seminar, which will look at solutions for nexus governance and transboundary co-operation.
It will unfold the water, agricultural and energy sectors and what is needed to have more inter sectorial cooperation from a legal, policy and institutional perspectives.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Combining Water Footprint and Water Risk for Improved Water Stewardship
5.45–6.45pm, room T4
IHA member GDF Suez hosts this seminar with two objectives: to demonstrate that water footprinting assessments and risk analysis at company level are strong tools to define a water strategy and associated action plans, and to reveal the benefits of combining water footprint with risk analysis.
The seminar will share experience on the operational implementation of the two approaches and discuss the benefits of a combined use.
Find out more about this seminar here.
Thursday 4 September
Building effective regulatory frameworks for hydropower: lessons from water governance
9am–12.30pm, room K11
In this seminar we partner with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and IUCN to ask: how effective is the existing regulation of hydropower investments in reducing risks to a wide range of stakeholders?
The workshop will bring together different perspectives concerning voluntary versus regulatory transparency and disclosure to reduce risk for investors, and to ensure better hydropower projects for local communities and downstream ecosystems and other water users.
Find out more about this workshop here.
Water as Energy Storage for Better Integration of Renewables
2–5.30pm, room T4
We join with the Centre for Environmental Design of Renewable Energy (CEDREN) and United Nations University - Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-Flores) to host this seminar on renewables integration.
It will focus on how we can better use reservoirs of water to improve integration of renewables, at the same time serving crucial society needs for secure supply of drinking water and water for irrigation.
Find out more about this workshop here.
Hydropower in Transboundary River Basins: Private Investments and Regional Cross-sector Cooperation
2–5.30pm, room K21
A nexus approach can help to increase the benefits from hydropower and enhance sustainable resource utilisation, while avoiding or minimising potential negative side-effects.
This seminar brings together representatives from the private and public sector as well as from river basin organisations and their member states to develop an innovative perspective and a joint message on integrated water and energy development and management in transboundary river basins.
Find out more about this seminar here.