World Water Week: Eye on Asia

Stockholm, Sweden : 23 August 2011

Background

Asia's water crisis is a crisis of governance. Many cities are still struggling to provide clean and reliable water supplies and are faced with common problems such as high non-revenue water, intermittent supplies, and poor water quality. Asia's cities also suffer from inadequate sanitation system or lack sewerage networks. A large majority of Asia's population still depends on rudimentary on-site sanitation facilities and septic tanks, causing health risks and pollution in surface and groundwater sources.

Poor management of water resources, aggravated by impacts of climate change poses a threat to water security. Problems such as non-availability of investment funds, lack of creditworthiness of utilities, unwillingness of politicians to charge for water, low capacity of service providers in the public sector, and weak water resources management are symptomatic of weak governance. The Eye on Asia day at the World Water Week 2011 will highlight some good practices in addressing these challenges.

Since 2008, ADB has been organizing a day-long series of activities for World Water Week that highlight issues and challenges in the Asia-Pacific water sector, along with efforts of governments and development agencies to address them.

World Water Week is hosted and organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute and takes place each year in Stockholm. The World Water Week has been the annual focal point for the globe's water issues since 1991.

Objectives

Eye on Asia aims to share knowledge on recent developments in the Asia-Pacific's water and sanitation sector. It showcases reforms and innovations that reveal new or improved solutions to longstanding issues, and identify remaining challenges in the region.

Sessions

Time

Event

Presentations

09:00-12:30

Morning Seminar: ADB, IWA, JICA, and USAID ECO-Asia
Partnerships for Water:  Is Asia Doing Enough?
Partnerships are essential to comprehensively reform governance in the sector.  Such partnerships take many different shapes and forms but should be targeted at one common goal – to improve the governance of water as a service that must be delivered efficiently and as a resource that must be managed sustainably. This session will showcase examples of partnerships that are working and those that are still being tested but are already showing results. 

WaterLinks: A Partnership for Lifting Performance of Water Utilities in Asia
Mai Flor, USAID Eco-Asia

Asia Wastewater Revolution:  Building a Coalition for Sustainable Solutions
Anand Chiplunkar, ADB

Accelerating Sanitation in Metro Manila: Partnership in Action
Ramon Alikpala, MWSS

12:45 - 13:45

Lunch Side Event: ADB and IUCN
Spotlight on PRC’s Songhua River
The 557 thousand square kilometer Songhua River Basin in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the third largest river basin after the Yangtze and the Yellow river. It is home to two large cities—Changchun and Harbin with a combined population of 62 million. The basin includes the country's largest oil fields and a large agricultural and industrial base. It is also one of the four most polluted river basins in the PRC.  Using a video documentary as spring board, this session will discuss the achievements and lessons learned in improving water resources management in the Songhua River Basin, particularly how governance has played a critical role in undertaking a major clean-up program.

Cleaning Up the Songhua River (Video)

14:00 - 15:30

Afternoon Seminar 1: ADB, GWP, JICA, WWF, and WSP
Driving Change in Asia’s Water:  Is Asia Ready?
Rapid urbanization, increasing population, climate change, and many other location specific factors are driving the changes in the way Asia’s water is managed. Water must be viewed in the broader development perspective and a shift in management paradigm is in order.  Understanding water-food-energy nexus and its implications for water governance is crucial. This session will highlight various initiatives aimed at helping facilitate paradigm shift.

 

Economics of Sanitation Initiative: Looking at Sanitation Differently
Almud Weitz, WSP

Water Footprint in Urban Water:  Tightening Spatial and Sectoral Linkages,
Stuart Orr, WWF

Urban Water and IWRM:  Why the Need for Broader Perspective
Mikio  Ishiwatari, JICA

16:00 - 17:30

 

Afternoon Seminar 2: Asia Pacific Water Forum (AFWP) and ADB
Leader's Dialogue: Ensuring Water Security in the Asia-Pacific Region
Eye on Asia will conclude with a panel discussion among leaders from government, civil society and academia on water security in Asia-Pacific region. The panel and participants will discuss the role of leadership in ensuring sustainable delivery of urban water services in the face of water stress and climate change. The panel will also present a framework document on water and climate change adaptation, which was developed by the APWF Steering Group on Water and Climate Change to provide further advice to leaders.

Presentation
Professor Toshio Koike,
Chair of the APWF Steering Committee on Water and Climate Change

 

Organizers

"Eye on Asia 2011" is being convened by ADB and the following partners:

  • Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF)
  • Global Water Partnership (GWP)
  • International Water Association (IWA)
  • Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
  • United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ECO-Asia
  • Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
  • WWF