Hello, everyone.
This is Kana, a co-representative of Water Working Group.
I'm one of the members who are participating in IWA (International Water Association) World Water Congress & Exhibition.
I will report about the second day of the conference. If you want to have basic information of this conference, please check this URL(http://www.iwa2010montreal.org/).
Day 2
1. Breakfast for YWP (7:00-8:00)
As BB said bofore, we had workshop for Young Water Professionals on 19th. At this morning, from 7:15 (so early for me), breakfast was served for YWP. About 30 people came to the breakfast and enjoyed taking. Also, we could get information of sightseeing in Montreal there!
2. Technical session (9:15-15:45)
From the second day, technical sessions started. There are 18 kinds of streams at the same time from morning to evening. In each stream, people who are from companies, universities, governments and international institutes give presentations. The topics of the streams are very wide ranged, climate change, water reuse, water management, sanitation, for example.
Each of us is joinning presentations which we are interested in.
My interests are disasters and health problems related to water, so on this day, I joined streams related to water disasters. Let me introduce some presenrarions that I saw.
Session1: Safety and security , including flooding (9:15-10:45)
"Developing a new approach to the management of urban drainage systems-the UK response to recent severe surface water flooding" (by Elliot Gill from Defra, UK)
Mr. Gill explained that each part of drainage systems has different possesor in UK, like private sectors have underground part and UK environmental agency or local authorities have watercourse part, so deciding each possessors'role is important for surface water management. Also, he did risk assessment of annual cost for recovery from flooding and made a risk map considering effects of climate change and urbanization in order to find vulnerble area against flooding.
Other presentations in this stream were about good monitoring system and risk assessment for water security. Even if all things above become success, there is another problem how to show this result effectively and clearly to people involved.
Session2: Disaster preparedness-training and education (11:15-12:45)
"Emergency response for water supply utilities based on managed by objectives after earthquake disasters"(by Nagahisa Hirayama from Kyoto University, Japan)
Dr. Hirayama said that everyone knows that we need to restore the system like water supply as soon as possible after earthquake, but there is no clear objectives so far. To make clear objectives after earthquake, he simulated pipeline damage ratio and emergency restoration period using some patrameters and previous data. He said this will be a help to decide what to do then for recovery.
In this stream, there were some case studies about capacity building in developing countries. Also, there was presentation about water paradigm shift. The presenter said "Not only drinking water and tap water but all water is important."
Session3: Drinking stormwater-a feasible path? (14:15-15:45)
"Twenty years of stormwater harvesting in urban catchments-Singapore's experience"(by Mong Hoo Lim from PUB, Singapore)
Mr. Lim said that in Singapore, there is a project about stormwater harvesting called Sungei seletar and Bedok water scheme. There are two resevoirs, Seletar and Bedok reservoirs and they made new system of stormwater harvesting: if it rains, first flush will go to sea and remain will be stored in the reservoirs. By using this system, water quality in these reservoirs become better than resevoir in other places. Also, this system was said to be good in that we can separate sewage and stormwater completely.
This stream was about quality and treatment cost of stormwater. As a result, stormwater harvesting was thought to be feasible. But there is still psychological problem and that will decide whether this kind of water spread as drinking water.
3. Poster session (17:00-18:30)
There were more than 500 posters at the exhibition hall.
I talked with man from membrane company in Singapore. That company is producing RO membrane for desalination. He found the most energy-efficient thickness of the membrane when doing water treatment. He said that RO membrane itself is expensive, so it's nice to reduce running cost by using their membrane. In addition to his research, we also discussed about Japanese technology of membrane. He recommend me to spread Japanese technology to other countries more. Yes, I want to! Developing new technology is important, of course, but we have to see and find what are highly needed in the world. I think if we broaden our views, we may find many technologies that already exist in Japan but still remain to be used for other ways. Also, especially during this conference, I deeply feel that binding technical people and practical people are important for continuous improvement in every fields.
4. YWP reception (19:00-22:00)
We had reception for YWP at the Hilton hotel. During this conference, there are lots of networking sessions. Many YWPs were there and we had great chance to meet and talk with them. After the reception, we went to bar jazz also!
That's all for my part.
Thank you for reading!
This is Kana, a co-representative of Water Working Group.
I'm one of the members who are participating in IWA (International Water Association) World Water Congress & Exhibition.
I will report about the second day of the conference. If you want to have basic information of this conference, please check this URL(http://www.iwa2010montreal.org/).
Day 2
1. Breakfast for YWP (7:00-8:00)
As BB said bofore, we had workshop for Young Water Professionals on 19th. At this morning, from 7:15 (so early for me), breakfast was served for YWP. About 30 people came to the breakfast and enjoyed taking. Also, we could get information of sightseeing in Montreal there!
2. Technical session (9:15-15:45)
From the second day, technical sessions started. There are 18 kinds of streams at the same time from morning to evening. In each stream, people who are from companies, universities, governments and international institutes give presentations. The topics of the streams are very wide ranged, climate change, water reuse, water management, sanitation, for example.
Each of us is joinning presentations which we are interested in.
My interests are disasters and health problems related to water, so on this day, I joined streams related to water disasters. Let me introduce some presenrarions that I saw.
Session1: Safety and security , including flooding (9:15-10:45)
"Developing a new approach to the management of urban drainage systems-the UK response to recent severe surface water flooding" (by Elliot Gill from Defra, UK)
Mr. Gill explained that each part of drainage systems has different possesor in UK, like private sectors have underground part and UK environmental agency or local authorities have watercourse part, so deciding each possessors'role is important for surface water management. Also, he did risk assessment of annual cost for recovery from flooding and made a risk map considering effects of climate change and urbanization in order to find vulnerble area against flooding.
Other presentations in this stream were about good monitoring system and risk assessment for water security. Even if all things above become success, there is another problem how to show this result effectively and clearly to people involved.
Session2: Disaster preparedness-training and education (11:15-12:45)
"Emergency response for water supply utilities based on managed by objectives after earthquake disasters"(by Nagahisa Hirayama from Kyoto University, Japan)
Dr. Hirayama said that everyone knows that we need to restore the system like water supply as soon as possible after earthquake, but there is no clear objectives so far. To make clear objectives after earthquake, he simulated pipeline damage ratio and emergency restoration period using some patrameters and previous data. He said this will be a help to decide what to do then for recovery.
In this stream, there were some case studies about capacity building in developing countries. Also, there was presentation about water paradigm shift. The presenter said "Not only drinking water and tap water but all water is important."
Session3: Drinking stormwater-a feasible path? (14:15-15:45)
"Twenty years of stormwater harvesting in urban catchments-Singapore's experience"(by Mong Hoo Lim from PUB, Singapore)
Mr. Lim said that in Singapore, there is a project about stormwater harvesting called Sungei seletar and Bedok water scheme. There are two resevoirs, Seletar and Bedok reservoirs and they made new system of stormwater harvesting: if it rains, first flush will go to sea and remain will be stored in the reservoirs. By using this system, water quality in these reservoirs become better than resevoir in other places. Also, this system was said to be good in that we can separate sewage and stormwater completely.
This stream was about quality and treatment cost of stormwater. As a result, stormwater harvesting was thought to be feasible. But there is still psychological problem and that will decide whether this kind of water spread as drinking water.
3. Poster session (17:00-18:30)
There were more than 500 posters at the exhibition hall.
I talked with man from membrane company in Singapore. That company is producing RO membrane for desalination. He found the most energy-efficient thickness of the membrane when doing water treatment. He said that RO membrane itself is expensive, so it's nice to reduce running cost by using their membrane. In addition to his research, we also discussed about Japanese technology of membrane. He recommend me to spread Japanese technology to other countries more. Yes, I want to! Developing new technology is important, of course, but we have to see and find what are highly needed in the world. I think if we broaden our views, we may find many technologies that already exist in Japan but still remain to be used for other ways. Also, especially during this conference, I deeply feel that binding technical people and practical people are important for continuous improvement in every fields.
4. YWP reception (19:00-22:00)
We had reception for YWP at the Hilton hotel. During this conference, there are lots of networking sessions. Many YWPs were there and we had great chance to meet and talk with them. After the reception, we went to bar jazz also!
That's all for my part.
Thank you for reading!