Facing increasingly severe extreme weather events in the future, Water Resources Agency (WRA), MOEA, hosts the "Taiwan International Water Week - International Forum 2022" at TICC from October 12 to 14, and specially set the topic of "Innovative Strategies for Water Sustainability" to organize one Water Leader Summit and 12 forums targeting water-related issues on "environment," "economy," "technology," and "culture," strengthening stability of water supply and enhancing flood resilience through discussion of innovative water strategies, in aim to construct water environment of sustainable development.
"Water Leader Summit - Innovative Strategies for Water Sustainability" took center stage today (12). At the very beginning, the summit specially invited Kuo Chiao-yun from Tainan Municipal Heshun Junior High School and Lee Yuan-che from Tainan Municipal Haidian Elementary School to share with all attendees "Next Generations' Vision of Water." The students opened the summit by calling for people to treasure and protect water resources; in addition to government effort, we also need the collective hard work of all citizens. Then, Director-General Lai Chien-hsin of WRA pointed out in his opening remark that, to face climate change, we must emphasize organization, infrastructures, and enhancement of social and economic resilience. Distinguished Professor Jay R. Lund of Environmental Engineering, University of California - Davis, Executive Director Kala Vairavamoorthy of International Water Association, and Managing Director Niven Huang of KPMG Sustainability Consulting Co., Ltd., were invited to give keynote speeches, and joined over one hundred local and international experts, including Representative Guido Tielman of Netherlands Office Taipei, to discuss innovative water strategies.
Director-General Lai Chien-hsin of WRA pointed out that climate change is no longer a scientific term; it is now constantly knocking on our doors. After suffering one of the worst droughts in a century, Taiwan has deeply felt the threat of climate change. Facing extreme climate, we cannot avoid the challenges, and building resilience is an important way to realize sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary for us to continually enhance resilience and strengthen adaptability in aspects of organization, infrastructures, society, and economy, and gradually implement nature-based solutions(NBS) for water from thinking, action to system, through the process of resilience enhancement to achieve SDGs through nature sustainability.
Under the topic of "Promoting Sustainability and Carbon Reduction in Water Management," Professor Jay Lund talked about the mutual influences of use and management of water resources, carbon emissions of society, and sustainable development, which often times involve personal interests and major decisions. It is necessary to coordinate decision-making through a mechanism of integration in order to enhance adjustment flexibility of water resources system and ensure continued supply of water resources, satisfying life's eternal need of water.
Executive Director Kala Vairavamoorthy gave a speech on "Scarcity as a Prompt to Pivot to a New Water Paradigm" in which he talked about the necessity of utilizing technology to drive productivity in the face of increased uncertainties of water resources and future prospects caused by climate change, including digitalization of reclaimed water processing technology that can effectively enhance water efficiency, and integration of water, climate and circular economy into an innovative water use paradigm. This new water use model will bring tremendous development opportunity to newly developed industry parks and cities.
Talking on the subject of "ESG, Net Zero, and Water Resilience," Managing Director Niven Huang focused on how ESG will become an important indicator assessing an enterprise's potentials of sustainable development under the influences of climate emergency and COVID-19 pandemic. He specifically pointed out that water pricing, just like carbon pricing, will become the next global focal point; especially, in Taiwan where water resources should be very much affected by climate change, ESG and voluntary and transparent disclosure will give enterprises greater resilience in their strategies of utilizing water resources.
According to WRA, in addition to Water Leader Summit, the three-day "Innovative Strategies for Water Sustainability - International Forum" still features a total of 12 forums over tomorrow (13) and the day after (14), in which experts from Taiwan, as well as U.K., U.S., Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Israel, will discuss important topics the world is most concerned with, including diverse water sources, flood prevention, disaster prevention and response, public-private partnership, ESG, NBS and more, and welcomes everyone from the industry, government, and academia to participate onsite or online (https://2022twf.org/videos/), jointly caring for and constructing water environment of sustainable development.
WRA Spokesperson: Deputy Director-General Wang, Yi-Fung
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: (02)37073000/Mobile: 0933-012183
Organizer: Deputy Chief Hsieh, Wen-Yuan, Planning Division
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: (04)22501128/Mobile: 0932-657649
Sources: MOEA
