CSE @ International Water Association World Water Congress and Exhibition, 2022

Date : September 11-15, 2022
Venue: Copenhagen, Denmark
This event is now completed. 

International Water Association World Water Congress & Exhibition was held in Copenhagen from 11-15 September, 2022. It was an opportunity to engage with stakeholders and key contacts within the conventional water sector and beyond. It bought together core water sector groups, such as those focused on urban water and urban water services, as well as participants from industry and agriculture, architects and urban planners, soil and groundwater experts and hydrologists, social scientists, the ICT sector, the financial sector, and others. With a strong representation and contribution from India and other developing countries, the IWA Congress & Exhibition was a vital opportunity to learn about the water challenges and solutions, including participation in technical site visits.

Centre for Science and Environment organized and participated in the following events at IWA Congress.  

CSE Workshop on Upscaling Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) to City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS): Experiences from India and Global South

The Workshop aimed to contextualise and deepen the understanding of City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) for Global South countries and cities. It provided an opportunity to deliberate on emerging priorities, and network with partners engaged in urban sanitation work. The workshops also aimed to identify research, policy and capacity development agendas for collaborative engagement.

The workshop hosted sessions on Shit Flow Diagram as to tool for faecal sludge management and beyond, CSE’s sanitation work in the State of Uttar Pradesh and it’s two focus towns and including lessons learnt from global South countries Bangladesh and South Africa.

Mr DepinderKapur, Director, CSE set the context of the workshop by explaining about the aim and objectives of the workshop, introducing CSE’s water programme and concept of City Wide Inclusive Sanitation in principle. This session was followed by the session on SFD as a tool for implanting CWIS presented by DhruvPasricha, Deputy Programme

Manager, CSE. Explaining about SFD, experiences in India and Global South and applications, he described the linkages of SFDs in advancing from FSM to CWIS in mapping inequity and deficiencies.Dr SumitaSinghal from CSE presented the CSE’s experience in sanitation from the state of Uttar Pradesh through her presentation on Upscaling CWIS in the state of Uttar Pradesh (India), challenges and priorities. Bangladesh journey in FSM throughout the years, challenges, policy environment and transitioning to CWIS was well presented by Hasin Jahan, Country Director, WaterAid, Bangladesh through her session on “Towards CWIS – Reflections from Bangladesh”. CWIS in South Africa, policy framework, drivers of CWIS and its integration as a concept in water cycle was well presented by Jay bhagwan, Water Research Commission, South Africa. CWIS and FSM – Shifting from single intervention to systems change by Jennifer Williams, Executive Director, FSMA. She explained why transitioning from FSM to CWIS need system change thinking and implementation. The workshop was moderated by Mr DepinderKapur, CSE.

Every session was captivating, immensely informative and beautifully captured the CWIS experiences from Global South and had learnings for framing our CWIS strategy going ahead. 

NFSSM Alliance Workshop on Collaborative Approach to Resilient and Inclusive City Sanitation: Best practices for a multi-stakeholder ecosystem, 14 Sept., 2022, 15:45 – 17:15 CEST, Room C0

Depinder Singh Kapur, Director, CSE participated in a workshop anchored by NFSSM alliance. He shared his views about the importance of collaborative efforts from various partner organizations towards resilient and inclusive city sanitation through his experiences. 
The workshop brought together a number of WASH experts—from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nepal's Ministry of Water Supply, the Centre for Policy Research, WaterAid Bangladesh, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), ITN-BUET, and the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi—to share the insights  from South Asian countries that demonstrate how multiple stakeholders, including local representatives, communities, administration, private-sector stakeholders, and development partners, all need to interact with each other in order to deliver citywide inclusive sanitation services. 

Paper / Pitch Presentation on Realising Local Green Infrastructure Opportunities: Stormwater Harvesting in Public Parks and Open Spaces in Delhi, TS: Nature-based solutions, sponge-cities and blue-green infrastructure, 14 Sept., 2022, 15:45 – 17:15 CEST, Room B3b

DhruvPasricha, CSE was invited to present the findings of the study carried out by CSE to access the potential of storm water harvesting in public spaces in Delhi to mitigate urban flooding and groundwater depletion. This research demonstrates the need for cities to adopt water-sensitive urban design and planning (WSUDP) approach. This includes sustainable urban drainage interventions, which realigns urban water infrastructure towards a circular economy, aiming to mimic the natural water cycle to fix the water systems.

Session Chair on Holistic urban water management planning: 15 Sept., 2022, 13:30 – 15:00 CEST, Room B3b

DhruvPasricha, CSE chaired a session with other esteemed experts and also participated in the discussions on holistic urban water management planning. 

Besides excellent panel discussions and sessions, learning and sharing, this event was also an opportunity to deliberate on emerging network with partners engaged in urban water and sanitation work, to identify research, policy and capacity development collaborative engagement.