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Members' activities

Aqua Publica members celebrate World Water Day 2019

WWD

On 22 March, the members of Aqua Publica Europea celebrated World Water Day through a range of different activities to raise awareness on water and on its sustainable use. 

SAL organised the final round of its water championship 'Acque e Vinci' for primary school students

SAL competitionFor the sixth time, primary schools have participated in the environmental education programme organised by SAL, the water manager of the province of Lodi, (Italy) and by MLFM (Movement for the fight against hunger in the world) with the final competition on March 22 in San Martino in Strada. 80 finalists from 4th year primary school competed and the President and the Director of SAL presented the awards to the winners. The competition focused on sustainable water practices with games on the behavior to adopt to preserve water and invite children to become the first promoters of change.

 

Scottish Government supported the event ‘Resilience to drought and low flow conditions in Scotland’ in Edinburgh

The Scottish Government supported a CREW (Scotland's Centre of Expertise for Waters) / James Hutton Institute event at the Apex Grassmarket Hotel in Edinburgh on Resilience to drought and low flow conditions in Scotland. Recent evidence indicates that climate extremes are not only becoming a reality in Scotland, but their severity and frequency is increasing. The summer of 2018 was a clear example, a summer drought particularly impacted the North and East of Scotland with record low flows observed in several Scottish rivers. This workshop focused on the resilience of Scotland to climate extremes and, in particular, provided scientists, engineers, planners and managers with a platform to share their observations, experiences, research outcomes, and innovative ideas on building resilience and adapting to low flows and drought conditions from a Scottish perspective.

 

AEOPAS co-organises in Barcelona an international conference for public and democratic water

Barcelona

AEOPAS, the Spanish association of public water operators, joined local organisations Aigua és Vida, AMAP (the association of municipalities for public water) and Red Agua Pública, in organising a day-long conference to bring together experiences of remunicipalisation from the local, national and international levels. The event included the perspectives from social movements, operators and cities, different experiences and the challenges ahead for the new model of public and democratic water management. The conference emphasised that water should not be a business or used as a merchandise; the governance of water management needs to be public, democratic, transparent, accountable and participative. Many cities in the world have already decided to "remunicipalise" their water services: Jakarta, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Paris, amongst others, and in Spain as well, and others want to bring back water management into public hands. Aqua Publica provided the European context for public water management

 

Eaux de Vienne focused on water in the world with a day of activities

Eaux de VienneEaux de Vienne (France) and its partners organised a day of activities to raise awareness on their daily actions, at local and international levels. Experiences were shared on the need for water, for whom and for what, with the Region Agency for Biodiversity of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The day included games, exhibitions, videos and learning about the water sector, notably a game organised by Mr. Abdoulaye Tontorogobo from Kaya, Burkina Faso. Finally, a roundtable on 'Water in the World' was organised with the participation of Aqua Publica Europea and Sophie Auconie, former Member of the European Parliament and current French MP. 

 

Aacque veronesicque Veronesi convenes a conference on the protection of water

The operator from the Verona province (Italy), organised, at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona, a meeting of experts for a joint reflection on the conscious use of resources and on the culture of water, a common and inalienable heritage of present and future generations. During the conference, the topic of Water Safety Plans was discussed and studies from the University of Verona on treatment of mud and bioplastics were presented.

 

VivaquaVivaqua opens to the public the construction site of its new storm basin in Brussels

For the Brussels water days, local operator VIVAQUA invited the public to attend the opening of the Petra tunnel and to visit the construction site for the new Grandchamp storm basin. The construction aims to address the issue of floods in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, with a basin with a capacity of 8.000 m³. Storm basins temporarily contain high volumes of water to regulate the flows in the sewage, avoid floods and control spillover in nature. The Grandchamp basin is realised underground with methods aimed to limit the impact on the population and on mobility.