We were happy to see so many in attendance at Swedish Water  House's “Mingle-seminar” last Friday.

 
 After a short introduction by Göran Ek of Naturskyddsföreningen of the launched policy brief " Adapting Water Management of Climate Change" (Att säkra vattenresurser i ett förändrat klimat) prepared by Swedish Water House's Cluster Group for Climate, Water and Vulnerability, opening remarks and response to the main issues raised in the policy brief were made by Elin Einfors, Stockholm University and Bo Kjellin, Stockholm Environment Institute. They stressed the importance of encouraging adaptive capacities of vulnerable people and ecosystems to the effects of current climate variability and future climate change and the need to focus on climate - water issues especially in the context of the upcoming climate negotiations at COP 15.

Short comments were also made by the parliament members Sofia Arkelsten (M), Per Bolund (MP), and Birgitta Ohlsson (FP) of their thoughts, expectations and hopes regarding mitigation and adaptation issues. They stressed the need for global unified action and the importance that Sweden takes action in a concrete and influential manner. But they also expressed concern that different countries and governments may prioritise other issues before climate.

Open statements and questions from the floor further penetrated the issues of how to increase awareness and prioritise water and climate issues and how we, at different scales and in different contexts, within Sweden and the EU, can work positively to meet the climate-related challenges ahead of us. 
 
 by Julie Wilk, Ph. D at SMHI

This morning I left a seasonably warm and sunny Stockholm for a yet much warmer, sunnier and drier part of the world – the Middle East. Currently I am sitting on the KLM flight from Amsterdam en route to Dubai, promising a nice (or maybe not so nice) 38 degrees, for a two-day conference entitled Water Investments World – Middle East 2009. The Middle East region and the oil wealthy Gulf states in particular has been in the forefront for deploying some of the new technologies relating to desalination and
other water technologies during the last decades. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the ultra-dry United Arab Emirates (UAE) has one of the highest per capita water consumptions of the world, despite the lack of almost any natural water resources. Thanks to large oil reserves the UAE has been able to manage high water demand through desalination.

The conference I am headed for will focus on issues such as investments in water infrastructure, the challenges facing the water sector in the region as a result of the ongoing financial crisis, and how to strike a balance between supply and demand in the region.  I have been invited to act as chairperson the first day of the conference, take part in a panel focusing on the regional outlook on natural water resources, and to deliver a key-note on “Demand management as an essential and effective water policy tool in the Middle East”.  My presentation will draw on one relatively recent SIWI policy brief:”On the Verge of a New Water Scarcity: A call for Good Governance and Human Ingenuity” as well as an article that I co-authored with Håkan Tropp as a background paper for the UNDP 2006 Human Development Report: "Meeting the Water Scarcity Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa". Hopefully it can stir some useful debate around the question of supply oriented approaches and more demand oriented approaches, much needed in at least part of the Middle East region.

The lion’s share of participants in the conference is coming from the private sector and public companies. It seems that I’ve been invited to provide a slightly different (and hopefully complementing) perspective, focusing on policy development, and the water challenges facing the Middle East region. The coming days promise lot’s of interesting and informed discussions about the future of the region’s waters as well as the possible scale of investments in its water sector.
 

by Anders Jägerskog, project Director, SIWI