« Side-Event » of the AquaforMed network at the 3rd Istanbul International Water Forum

MEDITERRANEAN NETWORK OF WATER TRAINING CENTERS

Provisional Program

« Side-Event » of the AquaforMed network

May 28^th, 2014 - Haliç Congress Center - Room : Eyup- 13h-14h

3rd Istanbul International Water Forum Topics of the 2014’s edition : Water Security and Water Law: confronting risks and challenges, seizing opportunities

Actual members of the AquaforMed network
	MOROCCO : IEA Institute for Water and Sanitation
	TUNISIA : CITET Tunis International Center for Environmental Technologies
	ALGERIA : ESMRE High School of Water Resources Management
	FRANCE : International Office for Water
	FRANCE : AgroParisTech

Supported by the Ile-de-France Region

Means of the Event

1.       AquaforMed in the 3^rd Istanbul International Water Forum :

According to the UN experts who gave a definition of the concept in 2013^[1], water security is “the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”

It’s possible to underline two key-points in this definition. First, referring to a population own “capacity”, a society is both the object and the actor of its water security. Secondly, vulnerability of water infrastructure is the contrary to water security for each aspect of this definition. Vulnerability affects water quantity and quality, it puts ecosystems in danger, it leads to unexpected events or water related disasters, and it slows down socio-economic development, etc.

For these two reasons, in a situation of either scarcity or profusion, “water security” cannot be achieved without the capacity building of professional staff in the fields of water and sanitation. Their daily commitment to maintain infrastructures is directly contributing to reduce “vulnerability” and consequently promote “water security”. In order to achieve their missions, Water and Sanitation Services call on specific “Knowledge” and rather specific “Know-How”. Such skills need an appropriate training. And this training is able to have a real impact on the infrastructures’ sustainability. This is why the AquaforMed network, which gathers vocational training centers from Mediterranean countries, is supporting this side-event.

2.       Objective:

While the 3^rd international water forum elicits numerous meeting points between water security and law, this “side-event” aims to emphasize on the potential of vocational training to raise water security, showing how it can be promoted by efficient juridical tools. According to the following correlation (cf. next scheme), we can see that appropriate national rules for financing vocational training is able to enhance water security. To demonstrate this causality, it is needed to show the impact of law on training, and consequently the impact of training on quality of service and infrastructures’ durability. It’s precisely the subject of both studies currently developed by the AquaforMed network. Their first conclusions will be discussed during the side-event.