The International Conference on Water Resources Policy in South Asia was held in Colombo from December 17-20 at the Taj Samudra. The conference inauguration took off with a grand opening in the presence of 150 guests including special invitees from Sri Lanka.
The programme began with a short speech from the Convener who laid out the objectives of the Crossing Boundaries Project at SaciWATERs and the importance of the conference in trying to bring people from all walks of life together on a common platform to hear about their views on various issues related to the water resources situation in South Asia and its policy implications. Prof. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, President of SaciWATERs Hyderabad Board welcomed all the participants and the keynote speakers, Dr. Amita Baviskar, Dr. Madar Samad to the conference. He also provided the regional relevance of the conference to the participants. Dr. Amita Baviskar spoke about 'putting cultural politics into Water Policy' while Dr. Samad spoke in the context of "Building a Resilient Water Economy in South Asia through Better Agricultural Water Management". Prof. Munasinghe, another keynote speaker was unable to attend the conference but had sent his recorded speech - Sustainable water resource development and climate change - an integrated policy framework. This was followed by a brief explanation about the e-journal South Asian Water Studies (SAWAS) and the details of the website by Prof. Vishwa Ballabh, who clearly highlighted on the importance of the website in trying to disseminate knowledge and information about the water sector to the larger masses and urged all water professionals to contribute and actively involve themselves in this endeavor. He also highlighted the main features of this website which was inaugurated shortly afterwards by Dr. Baviskar. The e-journal is hosted by SaciWATERs. The book on "Droughts and IWRM in South Asia"was released right after this event by Dr. Samad. This was followed by a cultural programme by an amateur cultural troupe who sang water songs in Singhala and English. This was followed by dinner. The next three days of the conference were characterized by about 80 presentations by persons in various capacities from universities, research institutes and civil society organisations. The second day had two special sessions, one where world experiences were presented by three women water professionals working in Chile, South Africa and European Union. Another session brought bureaucrats from Srilanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan on a common platform for a panel discussion after which the discussion was open to the floor for further interaction. The third day was characterized by 4 parallel sessions, where a wide range of issues were presented and discussed. The last day of the conference was featured by a special discussion on Water Education Policy in South Asia, where studies conducted in the partner institutes and those conducted at the regional level were presented. The purpose of the session was to realize the status of water education in South Asian institutes and to what extent the pattern and curriculum aims at an IWRM approach. The session was open to debate and discussion when feedback was sought from all participants regarding what could be the next step forward or what kind of education policy should be attempted at to achieve an IWRM paradigm. The last session was conference plenary which summed up all the sessions in a nutshell and finally concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Dibya Ratna Kansakar (Executive Director, SaciWATERs). He also announced the winner of the Best Young Researcher Paper, the prize for which was handed over by Peter Mollinga to Ms. Sonia Binte Murshed of Bangladesh.
- Report by Sreoshi Gupta, SaciWATERs
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