Panel Discussion on Adapting Governance and Infrastructure for Water Resilience on May 23
Climate change causes an increase in extreme weather events in many countries of the world. This has drastic impacts for instance on food security, infrastructure and health, and challenges the very basis of human development. Many countries have been experiencing such challenges for a long time, but events such as the 2021 floods in Germany’s Ahr valley, only about 50 km from Bonn, show that we need to adapt here in Europe, too.
The Bonn Water Network, the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the UN-Habitat/Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance (GWOPA) and the city of Bonn are hosting a panel discussion on the occasion of the 5th global WOP’s congress. The panel on “Adapting Governance and Infrastructure for Water Resilience” will take place on May 23rd 2023, 18:30 to 20:00 at the premises of the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). The special event focuses on water resilience as a comprehensive approach that includes engineering resilience in water supply infrastructure, but also more integrative and ecologically‐centered approaches and institutional and governance dimensions.
The event will address the challenges with the following speakers:
- Opening remarks by Ines Dombrowsky, Head of Program Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability, Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
- Opening remarks by André Dzikus, Chief of Urban Basic Services Section at UN-Habitat
- Panel discussion: Adapting Governance and Infrastructure for Water Resilience with
- Ignatius Jean, Chairman of the Caribbean Waste and Water Association and steering committee member of GWOPA
- Georg Johann, Managing Director of the flood competence center/ HochwasserKompetenzCentrum e.V.
- Mariele Evers, Acting Director of the Department of Geography at Bonn University and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Human-Water Systems
- Moderation: Annabelle Houdret (Senior Researcher at IDOS, speaker of the BonnWaterNetwork)
- Closing remarks by Melanie Grabowy, Deputy Mayor of the city of Bonn