Bonjour everyone,
It is BB, a member of the team to World Water Congress and Exhibition 2010 in Montreal. Today, 19th of September was the first day of the congress and four of us joined the YWP (young water professionals) forum for whole day. So here through the blog, I wanted to share with you some information and discussion raised by the guest speakers and my own thoughts and findings throughout the first day of the congress.
Morning session: water quality
YWP forum was divided into two sessions as morning and afternoon. The morning session was started by the president of YWP, Mr. Adrian giving welcome greetings and introduction speech and followed by three presentations focused more on water quality and water financing issues as below.
1. “Influence of water quality in non-water borne diseases” by Ms. Jo Burgess from Water Research Association of South Africa.
Important points discussed:
① Took HIV/AIDS as an example of non-water borne disease and explained how AIDS and water borne diseases are connected to each other. In South Africa, children who have AIDS infected parents and older family member, are needed to take care of them even if they are five or six years old.
② This problem becomes the main reason of daunting and insecure to immunity which consequently makes them vulnerable to diarrhea in which 88 percent is because of low sanitation. They had found out that improvement in the water quality slows down the progression of AIDS.
2. “What we eat is what we drink: influence of human nutrition on water quality” by Ms. Katerine from Vienna University of Technology
Important points discussed:
① She explained about the relationship between water quality and nutrition at the first by pointing out increased use of phosphorus, nitrogen and pesticides or fertilizers in agriculture sector where nutrients are produced.
② She also introduced one project called “Healthy nutrition as key to Sustainability” which came up with a conclusion that if the people in developed countries change their diet into 1/3 for animal nutrition (meat) and 2/3 for plant nutrition (vegetable) which is actually reverse at this moment, the agricultural area would be reduced by 25-30%, use of fertilizer by 30% and nitrogen and phosphorus by 25%. So they believe that such a healthy diet can lead to an improved water quality.
3. “Financing water supply and sanitation projects by Mr. Jose Tomas Frade”, Deputy director of Water and Environment Protection division of European Investment Bank
Important points discussed:
① He gave a basis on how water sector is related to economics and financing. As he himself working for the project financing on water, he explained why they need to invest in this sector and how money is needed for water. It is because water is getting polluted, so it is needed to be treated properly by treatment plants which are needed to be maintained and preserved in the long run. So the sector is very much resource and capital intensive industry.
Presentation during the YWP forum
Afternoon session: Career development for YWPs
In this session, there were five guest speakers from international organization, private company, IT industry and international NGO who all are working on the water sector while promoting the development of young professionals. Below please find their names and homepages for more offerings for career development which I found them quite important and useful.
1. Water for People, a project by Canada Polytechnique mostly focused on African countries http://www.waterforpeople.org/about/careers/
2. UNICEF: NETI (New and emerging talent initiative) in which they offer some chances for YWP to work for the water related projects in developing countries for one year term. http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_46145.html
3. East Gippsland Water, Australia
http://www.egwater.vic.gov.au/AboutUs/tabid/57/Default.aspx
4. IWA WaterWiki: just like Wikipedia where you can get info on WATER; where you can get articles; just like facebook where you can find many friends and professionals on WATER; where you can do networking and communication etc. http://waterwiki.net/index.php/Welcome
5. Engineers Without Borders, Canada (EWB) experience in Africa http://sites.ewb.ca/
Greeting by IWA President
And in the evening session, the congress official opening ceremony and welcome reception were held and we had good chance to meet with lots of talented people who are totally engaged in WATER.
Thanks for reading. Merci beaucoup de votre attention.
BB, 2010.09.20 2.20am.
It is BB, a member of the team to World Water Congress and Exhibition 2010 in Montreal. Today, 19th of September was the first day of the congress and four of us joined the YWP (young water professionals) forum for whole day. So here through the blog, I wanted to share with you some information and discussion raised by the guest speakers and my own thoughts and findings throughout the first day of the congress.
Morning session: water quality
YWP forum was divided into two sessions as morning and afternoon. The morning session was started by the president of YWP, Mr. Adrian giving welcome greetings and introduction speech and followed by three presentations focused more on water quality and water financing issues as below.
1. “Influence of water quality in non-water borne diseases” by Ms. Jo Burgess from Water Research Association of South Africa.
Important points discussed:
① Took HIV/AIDS as an example of non-water borne disease and explained how AIDS and water borne diseases are connected to each other. In South Africa, children who have AIDS infected parents and older family member, are needed to take care of them even if they are five or six years old.
② This problem becomes the main reason of daunting and insecure to immunity which consequently makes them vulnerable to diarrhea in which 88 percent is because of low sanitation. They had found out that improvement in the water quality slows down the progression of AIDS.
2. “What we eat is what we drink: influence of human nutrition on water quality” by Ms. Katerine from Vienna University of Technology
Important points discussed:
① She explained about the relationship between water quality and nutrition at the first by pointing out increased use of phosphorus, nitrogen and pesticides or fertilizers in agriculture sector where nutrients are produced.
② She also introduced one project called “Healthy nutrition as key to Sustainability” which came up with a conclusion that if the people in developed countries change their diet into 1/3 for animal nutrition (meat) and 2/3 for plant nutrition (vegetable) which is actually reverse at this moment, the agricultural area would be reduced by 25-30%, use of fertilizer by 30% and nitrogen and phosphorus by 25%. So they believe that such a healthy diet can lead to an improved water quality.
3. “Financing water supply and sanitation projects by Mr. Jose Tomas Frade”, Deputy director of Water and Environment Protection division of European Investment Bank
Important points discussed:
① He gave a basis on how water sector is related to economics and financing. As he himself working for the project financing on water, he explained why they need to invest in this sector and how money is needed for water. It is because water is getting polluted, so it is needed to be treated properly by treatment plants which are needed to be maintained and preserved in the long run. So the sector is very much resource and capital intensive industry.
Presentation during the YWP forum
Afternoon session: Career development for YWPs
In this session, there were five guest speakers from international organization, private company, IT industry and international NGO who all are working on the water sector while promoting the development of young professionals. Below please find their names and homepages for more offerings for career development which I found them quite important and useful.
1. Water for People, a project by Canada Polytechnique mostly focused on African countries http://www.waterforpeople.org/about/careers/
2. UNICEF: NETI (New and emerging talent initiative) in which they offer some chances for YWP to work for the water related projects in developing countries for one year term. http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_46145.html
3. East Gippsland Water, Australia
http://www.egwater.vic.gov.au/AboutUs/tabid/57/Default.aspx
4. IWA WaterWiki: just like Wikipedia where you can get info on WATER; where you can get articles; just like facebook where you can find many friends and professionals on WATER; where you can do networking and communication etc. http://waterwiki.net/index.php/Welcome
5. Engineers Without Borders, Canada (EWB) experience in Africa http://sites.ewb.ca/
Greeting by IWA President
And in the evening session, the congress official opening ceremony and welcome reception were held and we had good chance to meet with lots of talented people who are totally engaged in WATER.
Thanks for reading. Merci beaucoup de votre attention.
BB, 2010.09.20 2.20am.