October 10 to 12, 2007

6th Dialogue on Science:   Water - Private or Public Good?

Water has all the aspects of a commodity - at least in regions with abundant supply. At the same time, the notion of water is shrouded in myth, starting with the Deluge and Noah's ark.

During the conference, we will mainly focus our discussion around the economic aspects of water consumption for human use. This includes extraction, conditioning, transportation, distribution networks, sewer systems and purification plants. All or some of these activities can be executed by either private or state-owned enterprises. What system provides high availability, security and quality at a reasonable price? Like other utilities such as electricity or transportation services, water has entered the debate of globalisation and privatisation.

But due to its importance for our daily life and existence, economic aspects alone will not lead to a generally agreed and accepted policy for rendering water related services. For instance, irrigation is often heavily subsidised for political reasons, with negative side effects like overexploitation of aquifers and distortions in the supply prices of agricultural goods. In many regions close to the sea, this has led to salination and has rendered ground water useless for drinking or irrigation. How sustainable are some of our water extraction methods and is technology coming up with any alternatives to our current ways of providing water? As in past conferences, young sciences will prepare one session and report their findings on the future of water supply in their respective countries of origin. They will also present a project proposal for further activities under the umbrella of the Academia Engelberg.

We look forward to interesting and inspiring presentations and discussions.

The Programme in detail as PDF

Wednesday, October 10 2007

Prof. Gerd Folkers, Director of Collegium Helveticum

"That excuse won't hold water", the Englishman says if he doesn't accept your explanations for being late.   As shown in this linguistic example, the notion of "water" comes in a large variety of uses. Our daily experience of being highly dependent of water, but also being threatened by it influenced very much our language and hence reflects the habits towards water. Apparently simple to understand and to handle water accompanies us, often unconsciously. "Fresh-water" serves for both, description of pureness or clarity as for naivety or unsophistication. "High-water" is always something awkward, aqua alta in Venice floods the Marcus Square, "hell or high-water" are the alternatives in a tight situation.

While the use in language is fundamentally related to cultural background, water as a phenomenon in science is a fascinating topic for the global community of scientists. Trying to understand its physicochemical properties correlated to the simple molecular structure turned out to be a demanding task. HOH is rather defined by its interactions than by its formula. Able to build-up complex dynamical networks, hence trying to interact and interfere with every surface, water has become the most hated lab companion in fields that have to fear corrosion, oxidation, hydrolysis, etc.. Many biochemical reactions in our cells have to exclude water or to use only one water molecule, for achieving their proper yield and evolution has done its best in creating complicated protein structures to fulfill those tasks.

On the other hand, emerging from this special properties, water's unmet abilities of cleaning, dissolving, to conduct electricity and sound, to reflect one's image as narcissus experienced falling in love with his own reflection in Echo's pond, has led to ritual acts based on water. The lecture will cover many of these aspects of water in trying to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue.

Prof. Wolfgang Kinzelbach, Institute of Environmental Engineering

His introductory presentation gives an   overview over many aspects of water. How much is available, how much can and do we use, areas with a water problem (quantity, quality, seasonality). It will indicate areas with an unsustainable consumption pattern (groundwater).

Janet Hering, EAWAG

How can and do we exploit, collect, treat, distribute water for human use and handle waste water. Energy input and infrastructure involved, and corresponding cost brackets for one cubic meter of water for different production technologies (incl. desalination).

Bernard Barraqué, CNRS

This presentation gives a basic understanding of water economics, costing and pricing and how to value water? And an answer on what are the social and cultural influences on the behaviour of people's consumption patterns? What has to be done to change them successfully?

Workshops

The previews presentations provides input for the subsequent Workshops

Open Evening (in German) with Introduction by Barbara Bleisch and Stefan Fischer 

Thursday, October 11

Fabio Mauricio Segura, Project Manager

Project update - Forst Policies Project

Our Water Future - Members from Youth Encounter on Sustainability

Presentation covers availability of water for human use in each of the chosen countries in the past, present and future.

The presenters:

1. Australien: Alexander Marks/Christopher Hedemann
2. Egypt: Sarah Youssef / Sara El-Sayed
3. South Africa: Jess Schulschenk/Kathryn Lannas
4. Bolivia: Carla Gomez / Georgina Catacora

The following workshops will also be moderated through this young Scientist.

Working Groups

What has to change and how can we make it possible

Jack Moss, AquaFed

View of   private water suppliers who believe and have arguments for privatization of   water services. Successes and shortfalls to date in real cases with different levels of service provision.

Manuel Ramon Llamas

Spain has various water problems (scarcity, quality, salination), an the government is subsidising water services heavily, mainly for agricultural production. Goal of the presentation is to sensitise people regarding state intervention in the provision of water (costs are much higher than prices charged). Spain has also a long history of good water management (for instance in Valencia). Aquifers in coastal areas and some islands suffer from salination due to unsustainable use of ground water.

Kurt Rüegg, ewl

Arguments why water provision should be in the public domain.

Panel discussion

Friday, October 12

Christian P. Frutiger, Nestlé S.A.

Challenges for the civil society are reflected in industry planning and behaviour. How does a company depending on agricultural raw material prepare for the next decades?

Prof. Thomas Bernauer, Center for Comparative and International Studies

Can problems arise   in a catchment area when water resources are used upriver and downriver riparians are deprived of this utility? Where are conflicts most likely? Ways how water management is used as a strategic weapon.

Mark W. Rosegrant, International Food Policy Research Institute

Are there lessons we can learn from the past? What are the issues we have to tackle and change, and how?   Does the world have enough water for human use? What has to be done to achieve a sustainable water consumption level? Will climate change modify rainfall and water availability patterns?

Closing Remark and Outlook