The first part of the BoG meeting was addressed to the administrative and governance issues of the WWC. The WWC President, Mr. Ben Braga presented the Activities Report for February-May 2013, which was approved by BoG. Mr. Henk Sterk was adopted by BoG for the position of Executive Director of the World Water Council.
Hydropolitics: At the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly, held in New York in September 2010, governments called for accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs, and for thinking about ways to advance the UN development agenda beyond 2015. In response, the UN undertook several initiatives aimed at developing a Post-2015 Development Agenda and invited WWC to contribute to this process. The WWC BoG agreed to form a Task Force on Water for Inclusion in Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It was agreed that Task Force will conduct global consultations using a number of incoming events in 2013:
The WWC has been invited to be part of the High-level Conference on Water Cooperation organized in August 2013 by the Government of Tajikistan jointly with UN institutions. The BoG appointed Mr. Jerome Delli-Priscoli to represent WWC at this conference and highlight issues towards SDGs.
The WWC has engaged in organizing the Budapest Water Summit together with the United Nations System, which will be held in October 2013. It was agreed that Task Force will submit in Budapest concept on Water for Inclusion in Post-2015 SDGs.
Exploring New Ideas and Concepts: The BoG agreed to conduct the following Programmes under umbrella of WWC:
- Water and Green Growth - will be led by Dogan Altinbek. Dr. Hong Il Pyo suggested and BoG agreed to include the Aral Sea Basin project initiated by GGGI and GWP CACENA as a case study to the programme.
- Water, Food and Energy - will be led by Xavier Ursat
- Water and Food Security - will be led by Ricardo Andrade
- IIASA Future Water Scenarios - will be led by Bill Cosgrove
- IWRM - will be led by Torkil Jonch-Clausen. Torkil and Vadim Sokolov have suggested and BoG agreed to invite GWP to lead this programme.
BoG agreed to start consultations on the above-listed programmes during coming events - the 1st World Irrigation Summit in Turkey and Stockholm Water Week
Following up The 6th World Water Forum. The Governors discussed the projects financed with remaining funds from the 6th Forum as well as on what type of investment and follow-up is needed for the Platform of Solutions and Commitments. It was agreed that the Council analyze the existing solutions and investigate the ones proposed from a technical viewpoint as well as a political one. The Task Force was created and will report back at the next Board meeting.
The 8th WORLD WATER FORUM The Board of Governors had previously approved the following four candidate countries to 8th Forum: Brazil, Denmark, Qatar, and the Russian Federation. On 5 March the Secretariat received a note from the representative of Qatar about withdrawing their candidacy, therefore the Selection Commission conducted the informational sessions with the representatives of Brazil (1 representative), Denmark (5 representatives) and the Russian Federation (3 representatives). The Commission is tentatively planning to conduct the site evaluations in July and report back to the next BoG meeting.
The 7th WORLD WATER FORUM: The International Steering Committee (ISC) was formed including 16 persons. Four commissions for the 7th WWF preparations were formed under umbrella of WWC:
- The Political Process Commission Co-Chairman: András Szöllösi-Nagy - UNESCO- IHE
- The Thematic Process Commission Co-Chairman: Mark Smith - IUCN.
- The Regional Process Commission Co-Chairman: Torkil Jonch-Clausen - Danish Hydraulic Institute
- The Science and Technology Commission Co-Chairman: Glen Daigger - International Water Association.
The next Board meeting is planned to be held in October jointly with the Budapest Water Summit.
