Oxford gears up for World Water Week

As delegates prepare to descend on Stockholm, we preview Oxford’s involvement in the annual global water gathering.

Next week (28 August – 2 September) Stockholm will host World Water Week. The week-long forum is a major date in the water conference calendar, drawing participants from across the globe to discuss some of the critical water issues facing humanity. Attendees are diverse, including stakeholders from civil society, government, business, and academia. This year, a number of Oxford University’s staff and alumni will travel to Stockholm, to participate in events taking place over the week.

A full programme for WWW, which this year explores the theme of Water for Sustainable Growth, can be accessed here. Below is a brief summary of Oxford’s involvement in WWW outlining staff and alumni participation. All times are local (CET).

Monday, Aug 29
Prof Jim Hall sets the scene from 14:05 as part of the Water as a driver for sustainable growth seminar in FH 202 (14:00-15:30).

In the second part of the same session (16:00-17:30), Dr Katrina Charles will deliver a talk entitled Water-related economic drag: sector-level analysis in Ethiopia from 16:40.

Kevin Wheeler will deliver a talk entitled Possibilities and technical challenges of coordinated hydropower reservoir management in the Eastern Nile Basin as part of the Nile Basin: land and energy investments and changing hydropolitical landscapes session in NL 357 from 16:00 – 17:30.

Tue, Aug 30
Alice Chautard is co-organising a seminar in collaboration with the Water Research Commission, We Effect, ICIMOD, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. The seminar, entitled Ecosystem degradation and livelihoods: moving from vicious to virtuous cycles will take place in NL 357 between 11:00-12:30.

Dr Rob Hope and Dr Alex Money, of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, will participate in the Financing water infrastructure for sustainable growth sessions in FH300. Dr Hope will talk about Performance-based finance for drinking water security in Africa at 11:50, while Dr Money will address Bridging the gap from 14:00.

Wed, Aug 31

IWRA will host a launch event for the Special Issue of Water International titled “The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Legal, Political and Scientific Challenges” at the SIWI booth from 17:00 – 18:00. Kevin Wheeler will also talk at this.

Thurs Sept 1
Dr Dustin Garrick will moderate the Building resilience for water scarcity and drought session, convened by the Australian Water Partnership and US Water Partnership. The session will take place at the FH Little Theatre from 14:00-15:30. Online registration is available here.

Alumni participation

A number of alumni from Oxford’s Water Science Policy and Management (WSPM) MSc will also be in attendance:

Sunday, Aug 28
Daniel Shemie (WSPM 2008/2009), Strategy Director of Water Funds at the Nature Conservancy will present a case study on Investing in watershed health through PPP in the Nairobi/Tana Valley at 14:15 as part of the Forests, water and sustainable growth of cities session from 14:00-15:30 in the NL Auditorium/Aulan

Tuesday, Aug 30
Jennifer Möller-Gulland (WSPM 2009/2010) is involved in the How water scarcity is altering the global economy and stranding billions of investor dollars session convened by Circle of Blue and Stockholm International Water Institute. This event will be streamed online at 15.00 CET.

Thursday, Sept 1
Hannah Leckie (WSPM 2013/2014), Policy Analyst at the OECD, will present a Policy perspective at 14:58 as part of the Addressing emerging pollutants to achieve SDGs session in FH Congress Hall A from 14:00-15:30.

Robin Rotman (WSPM 2004/2005), will be in attendance as an Editor for the Global Water Forum.

The event provides a great opportunity for Oxford staff and alumni to reconnect both on a professional and personal level. There are plans for a staff/alumni get-together on the evening of August 30. Those wishing to attend can find further information on the WSPM Facebook page or contact Katrina Charles directly.

If you are planning to attend WWW, have an Oxford connection, and would like to let the Oxford Water Network know what you’re up to, you can tweet to @oxfordwater.