Our very own bloggers at the famous Golden Horn: Adèle Skogsfors, Michael McWilliams, Karin Lexén

Lively networking: Michael Moore on the front

Let the discussion flow: Environmental Flow Network's meeting at the IUCN booth

Curious group welcomed at the SWH booth

The weather in Istanbul is improving. Still cold and a little windy but more sun than early on in the week. The spirit is still high but towards the end of an intense week participants are starting to look a little drained.

Despite going towards the end of the Forum, yesterday’s and today’s session on transboundary waters brought up a lot of emotions and resulted in intense discussion. Acting as a co-chair of the introducing transboundary session on basin management and hydrosolidarity it almost felt as if I was caught in the cross-fire. Seemingly semantic questions on whether to use terms such as ‘international waters’ or ‘transboundary waters’, ‘sharing water’ or ‘sharing benefits’ were areas for passionate debate. The organizers of the transboundary theme of the week – UNESCO and INBO – certainly face a challenge in summarizing the key results and outcomes. One does not envy them.

Last night I also chaired a session organized by the Palestinian Water Authority in which an option for an inclusive (including all five riparians – Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory) Jordan Basin future may look that, over time, will put all parties better off in terms of water availability. While the concept is thought-provoking and received positive responses from various parts of the basin the idea may well be hostage to political developments. This event will be followed up at a seminar during the World Water Week in Stockholm in August.

Today I talked at a session organized by the Euphrates Tigris Initiative for Co-operation (ETIC) about so called ‘track two’ initiatives and presented the Transboundary Waters Opportunity (TWO) Analysis that SIWI has been developing with colleagues in Namibia (PRA) and South Africa (CSIR). The presentation gained a positive response and the conceptual framework of the TWO analysis will be utilized in by the ETIC network.

Tomorrow - the final day of the Forum – coincides with the UN World Water Day with the theme – Shared water – shared opportunities where SIWIs Executive Director Anders Berntell will take part.
The days here start early and have a tendency to end very late. I do not foresee that this day will be any different. I am quite happy that it is only one day left…..
 

by Anders Jägerskog, Project Director, SIWI

Today The Swedish Environmental Flow Initiative participated in one of the sessions within Theme 3: Managing and protecting water resources and their supply systems to meet human and environmental needs. The specific topic of the session we participated in was called "Spreading the wealth: How to share the benefits of nature?"

Mission: manage and protect water resources

This session was a little different to other sessions that we have attended in the way that it was highly participatory and interactive. The conveners and sub-conveners had selected a series of statements and discussion topics that was presented to the audience with a short background to key questions by key note speakers followed by a presentation of the actual statements and additional questions to be discussed given by various speakers, of which we where one. The audience then participated in round table discussions for about 45 minutes. Each presented topic was given two tables and each table was asked to come back with three recommendations. The total six recommendations for each topic were the ranked by the whole audience during a voting session. The three highest ranked recommendations will then be included in the report coming out from the thematic session. It really felt like this format fostered a good and lively debate on the issues, and people where highly active despite the fact that we where given a rather late spot in the day.

Another thing we have been active in is a discussion series hosted by IUCN on Environmental Flows and Human Well-being. This series has run through out the week and is based on the various topics and chapters we are covering in an upcoming report on this very subject. The discussions are very informal, starting with a short background of about 20 minutes and then followed by a discussion with the audience participating. The number of participants has varied over the week, but we have had quite a good turn out every day, and what is especially nice to see is that a core group of people has come back every day to take part in those discussions.

by Birgitta Renöfält,
Cluster Group Leaders for The Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative
 

It’s a cold rainy day here in the ancient city of Istanbul as the 5th World Water Forum heads into its second half.  The media has served a dual role as observers and participants in the proceedings, often injecting well-informed questions to spark discussions at main sessions and side events alike.

The Swedish Water House delegation has certainly gotten its share of attention. 

Readers of this morning’s edition of the Daily News & Economic Review – Turkey’s highly regarded English language newspaper - read of comments by SIWI Executive Director Anders Berntell at yesterday’s panel on Food, Water, and Energy. The article titled “Better Management of Water” also featured a prominent solo photo of Anders as he made his remarks. Earlier in the day, Anders recorded an interview about trading water with Radio Free Europe to be broadcast today at several times across most European countries. On Monday, Anders sat with a lead economic writer for The Economist to inform a major focus feature now in development at the London-based publication.
 

SIWI's Anders Berntell in the panel on Food , Water and Energy. Photo by Mehmet Kacmaz © NarPhotos

Dr. Anders Jägerskog arrived here in Istanbul late yesterday, and had barely stowed his gear when he sat for a lengthy recorded interview with the Middle-East correspondent for The World – the popular news and analysis radio program jointly produced by PRI for National Public Radio in the United States and by the BBC. Anders engaged the correspondent in a lively, wide-ranging discussion about the role that water plays in many of the region’s issues.

Four days down, four more to go. We expect the focus to sharpen as the forum moves toward its conclusion.

by Michael McWilliams, Communications Director, SIWI

A beautiful setting on the banks of the Golden Horn, tight security, and an opening session involving the President of Turkey and other royal and political guests punctuated the opening day of the largest gathering of the water world at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. After years of preparations, the Forum brings together many thousands of people with a stake in how we use, manage and govern our water resources. Amid protests outside and inside the venue, the opening plenary keynote speakers highlighted the path to Istanbul and the achievements that have been made since the first Forum in Morocco in 1997. Water prizes were awarded, introductions by the hosts and organizers were provided and an official welcoming from the President of Turkey was given.


© Celine Dubreuil

As the opening plenary ended, so started a week of topic sessions, side events, exhibitions, high level summits, and of course valuable networking time. One of the more impressive components of the Forum is the level of high level political buy-in. Heads of State and Ministers from a number of countries are present to discuss and debate water-related issues, with one aim to develop a Ministerial Declaration by the end of the week. Given the size of the venue which stretches across the water, the number of participants and the ever-enticing charms of the surrounding city, we at the Swedish Water House and SIWI hope that we can make all those connections, capitalize on linking with our partners, talk with many visitors to our Swedish Water House booth and of course learn some things along the way.

The week has started well for the Global Environmental Flows Network, or Eflownet, which had its inaugural steering committee meeting in the IUCN booth. Members of the steering committee met to formalize the structure of our network and agree on the way forward to ensure that the network continues to grow and develop. Commitment is key from all the partner organizations involved, as is making the most of venues such as the World Water Forum and World Water Week to bring in new perspectives and partners. Stay tuned to www.eflownet.org!
 

by Michael Moore, project manager for the World Water Week in Stockholm

Äntligen på plats i Istanbul och väl framme vid utställningsytan i det stora utställningstältet (ja det är faktiskt ett tält eftersom de inte hann bygga klart lokalerna i tid) var där en kaotisk byggarbetsplats, detta dagen innan (läs sön) konferensens öppnande.

Väl tillbaka på måndag morgon trodde vi inte våra ögon. Hur många hade egentligen jobbat hela natten för att lyckas färdigställa detta kaos? Nej visst, allt var inte på plats men det var så gott som färdigt. Efter en dag med många nyfikna besökare känner vi oss mycket nöjda och hoppas på fortsatta intressanta möten.


Buzzing SWH/SIWI booth in Istanbul.

av Adèle Skogsfors och Annika Börje

I onsdags deltog jag på ett seminarium där Naturskyddsföreningens ordförande Mikael Karlsson diskuterade EU:s handelspolitik med Sveriges handelsminister Ewa Björling. Jag var inte ensam utan salen var i princip full av folk från myndigheter, departement och frivilligorganisationer. Moderator var Swedish Water House chef Karin Lexén och fokus för seminariet var frågeställningen om EU:s handelspolitik kan stödja utvecklingsländerna att möta klimatförändringarna och behovet av utveckling?

Som grund för debatten fanns den nya rapporten ”Global Europe and Sustainable Development”. Jag hade inte läst rapporten innan men Jens Andersson som skrivit rapporten inledde med att kort referera det viktigaste i innehållet. Först det kanske själklara konstaterandet att klimatförhandlingar och klimatavtal har stor betydelse för utvecklingsländerna. Klimatförhandlingarna kommer att avgöra vilka åtaganden om att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser som utvecklingsländerna eventuellt måste göra. De kommer också att styra hur finansieringen av klimatsmart teknik och anpassning i utvecklingsländerna ska gå till. Men minst lika avgörande för utvecklingsländerna är rätten och möjligheterna att själva välja utvecklingsväg. Både Jens och Naturskyddsföreningen menar att handelsavtalen har en direkt inverkan på detta.

Mikael Karlsson betonade i sina inlägg vikten av att utvecklingsländerna ges goda möjligheter att på olika sätt stärka motståndskraften mot klimatförändringarna. Han betonade att handelsavtalen måste ta hänsyn till klimatförändringarna och utvecklingsländernas egna utvecklingsmöjligheter. Jag, liksom många med mig, som hört om hur handelsförhandlingarna går till, höll med Mikael när han betonade att formen för hur EU bedriver förhandlingarna måste förbättras. Jag blev nästan lite förvånad när handelsministern Ewa Björling helt höll med om detta och medgav att förhandlingarna, som EU drivit för de så kallade EPA-avtalen, hittills inte skett på ett bra sätt. Hon betonade att utvecklingsländerna har både brist i resurser och kompetens att driva fram rättvisa avtal. Handelsministern berättade hur hon träffat alla Afrikanska ambassadörer för att diskutera handelsavtalen och att hon vill ha mer dialog kring frågorna. Detta gjorde mig mycket mera hoppfull. Handelsministern konstaterade att hon tyckte det är bättre att låta förhandlingarna ta mer tid är än att landa i avtal som ingen kan vara nöjda med. Hon försvarade dock avtalens centrala innehåll och Sveriges hållning till dem.

Mikael Karlsson betonade dock i sin avslutning att Naturskyddsföreningen är djupt oroad över hur förhandlingarna drivits och hur avtalens innehåll innebär att fattiga länders handlingsutrymme minskas och att deras möjlighet att anpassa sig till klimatförändringarna försämras.

Med på seminariet fanns även Peter Kleen, Trade Policy Consultant och Gunnel Axelsson-Nycander, Svenska Kyrkan som avslutade seminariet med att ge sina personliga och ganska olika reflektioner kring vad som sagts.

En dokumentation av seminariet kommer att läggas ut på Naturskyddsföreningens hemsida inom kort. Rapporten och en svensk översättning av rapportens förord finns att ladda ned på:

http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/natur-och-miljo/klimat/klimatpolitik/eus-handelspolitik/
 

 av Anneli Nordling, Klustergruppledare, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

Hi all.

This is a first report from the Swedish Environmental Flow Initiative. We are now at the second last day of the International Conference on Environmental Flow Allocations in Port Elisabeth, South Africa.The theme of the conference has been on implementation. Over the last 15-20 years the scientific field has developed enormously, and many methods to asses how much water a water shed needs to keep the desired ecological status has been developed. South Africa and Australia have been pioneers in the work of developing methods that aims at preserving the whole ecosystem and the whole range of important flow variables. Despite a lot of good science and a lot of commitment, the implementation process has been slow, though.

Waves of Environmental Flow have arrived at Port Elizabeth...

Jackie King from South Africa, who is one of the leading experts in the field, held one of the very first plenary talks, summing up her long and committed work for a more equitable water allocation between users, including the ecosystem. The South African water act only gives right of water to two users; the ecosystem, or in South African terms the Reserve, and for basic human consumptive use. Water can be allocated to other uses, like such as industry, irrigation and hydropower production only when those two needs are fulfilled. Many of the South African rivers are over- allocated or on the brink of being over- allocated. Jackie recognised the fact that actual implementation of the results from Environmental Flow Assessments has been too slow, but also stated that due to the fact that the law has changed on who has the right to water, the hand out of permits to take out any more water has stopped or slowed down substantially. This “stop loss” of water from the system is one important step in re-allocation.

Before the meeting there was a pre-workshop on the “nuts and bolts” of flow re-allocation, with the question of what is the most effective way to re-allocate water. The way to re-allocate water is predominantly done either through regulation, cooperation between users, or through market based approaches with water being sold on a market. This is a very interesting discussion that is likely to go on for some time. Many countries are now looking at a more market based approach to buy up water for environmental use from those that holds the right to this water. In some cases, such as in the Columbia River Basin, in the US, this seems to have been quite successful. What works best in what situation is likely to be both country and site specific and dependant on pre-conditions in the basin though.

We, Anna and I, presented a paper on environmental flows and human well -being. This topic was highlighted in many talks as being a very important step forward, and it feels like we are within a very important debate on the topic of environmental flows. Jackie King mentioned in her talk that we do really need to start to look much more closely at the cost for many poor subsistence users when they losevital ecosystem services, such as availability of fresh water fish. There are also other aspects of human well being that are connected to rivers, including a spiritual connection to these systems. This was really shown by Professor Jay O’Keefe, who works with UNESCO-IHE to produce Environmental Flow Assesments for the Ganga River in India, a river with great spiritual value for many, many people. The Indian government was in the process of starting to build a dam in the head waters that would affect the main stem of the river. One of the freshwater ecologists, who works within that project, and is also a devout Hindu, has been fasting for a long time in protest of those plans to the point where he was so weak he could no longer travel around or work. On Tuesday Professor O’Keefe showed an e-mail he had got from the project that the Indian government has, at least for the moment, stopped the plans for the dam.

The conference has been very good so far, and also very intensive, so this is just a first report of what is going on here. When we get back home, we will try to write up a more comprehensive report on what is gong on in the world of environmental flow allocations.

by Birgitta Renöfält & Anna Forslund,
Cluster Group Leaders for The Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative