7th WWF day 3

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 3

After visiting a session at the EXCO, today was the one day I was able to visit the political process in Gyeongju, some 100 km East of Daegu. The WWF had organized hourly buses between these towns, and as we missed a returning connection to Daegu we had the opportunity to visit the HICO venue in Gyeongju.

Session T.4.4.2 Water cultures and cultural diversity - Indigenous perspectives and solutions on Water issues in 2015

This session was organized by the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and the Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace. It provided a look into how indigenous people perceived water, its essence and its uses, and how the current legal documents leave no room for their perspectives. 

Agenda:

1. (10 min) Introduction Moderator: Darlene Sanderson, Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace, Canada and Alexander Otte, International Hydrological Programme, UNESCO

2. (15 min) Energy, Water and Indigenous Peoples: Mona Polacca, Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace, USA 

3. (15 min) Examples of cross-cultural cooperation: Local-scale water management in the context of IWRM: Jumpei Kubota, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan

4. (15 min) Indigenous Laws, Values and Practice: Tomas and Adan Alarcon

5. (15 min) Perspectives from the Latin American water culture projects: Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Munoz, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco

6. (15 min) Local and Indigenous knowledge systems in Indonesia: Rampisela Dorotea, Pelangi, Indonesia

7. (30 min) Discussion with the audience, participants of the Citizens Forum and other thematic sessions: Panelists, public and moderators

8. (5 min) Concluding remarks: Moderators

Objective: Indigenous peoples and project leaders from diverse regions will share in this session indigenous perspectives on salient water issues and promote the equitable involvement of indigenous communities in decision-making and management, in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The session will provide a platform for discussion about practical applications of how we can collectively care for water and what we can learn from traditional teachings in today’s world.

Session excerpts:

Sanderson: "We want to introduce the vision of our elders of taking care of nature with traditional teachings on water".  

Polacca: "Our perspective is often not understood or recognized. If you think about your own existence and where you came from, and where you live now, and where you will go to, think about water. The place that means beauty, refreshment, clarity, purity, clenching thirst. If you think about your own existence and need for water. This morning we all woke up and went to water. It is not indigenous, it is an everyday practice of each and every one of us. Think of your relationship with water, and you will have a sense of what we are talking about when we say water is life, water is sacred, water is like a mother, always present and making us feel good".

Munoz: "There is no integral policy to take care of the biodiversity hotspots. Native people in Mexico are also decreasing. Even though there is much rainfall, most people don’t have access to drinking water or energy. Native people aren't recognized as people. If we lose the knowledge of nature/culture, we lose opportunities".

Tom Goldtooth from the Indigenous Environmental Network said that many indigenous people share a concept of mother Earth. "My ancestors are from an area now called the Great Lakes, crossing the border between Canada and the US. Peoples in Ecuador, Mozambique, Morocco, and the Arctic relate to the sacredness of mother earth in the same way. Men are keepers of fire, women are keepers of water. We have grown impatient because people aren't listening to us. How do we work together and work in a governance structure that doesn't recognize us? Sometimes we are killed, or get no access to water. It is a political issue, in addition to a cultural issue. What is your relationship to mother earth, what is your relationship to water? Water in itself has rights, we don’t give water rights. We can speak to the water, to the river. How can we recognize the intelligence of water? We don’t have a vehicle for expressing what we are talking about. The concepts of the inherent rights of water itself may be radical thinking to you. But these are directions we must embrace, our ethics and values to water. Systems change, we need a new paradigm and change property rights from companies to people and nature".

 Sanderson: "In New Zealand there is a law that recognizes water’s right to life."

Goldtooth: "Indigenous people have been to WWFs many times but haven’t met one another. We are in a world that doesn't relate to spiritual philosophy, with different cosmologies. Many people have a fear of the wild, a fear of native people, and they have concepts of dominion and only take from the planet, and enslave mother earth. This is a world that values consumption patterns and asks: should we put a price on nature and ecosystem services and water? Water is already traded in a system that doesn't value life".

Q&A: How can we help indigenous people, through research on spirituality and ethics, in bringing people together? We need to establish a classification under UNESCO that water is a cultural and spiritual reserve, that indigenous lands and territories need water on the surface and ground water aquifers established as reserves so we can see and feel our value systems and cultural traditions preserved. The spiritual value should be protected in a territory, but the sacred places also need to be respected as places where life is born. We are not talking about the collective rights of water, we are privatizing all water rights, so instead we should push for this initiative to protect sacred water.

I found that this type of discussion was reminiscent of my master's internship to functions in river systems. In a case study area where people also identified what is often described as intangible functions of an area, such as natural beauty, artistic inspiration, religious or spiritual aspects etc., when it came down to defending the right to use an area for these type of functions all people resorted to confining spaces for those uses. In this case also the need for experiencing traditional values and honoring water people resort to having an area where they can experience their valued functions. 

Session INR.1.3.AP Climate change adaptation and mitigation in Asia-Pacific

This session was organized by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), the International Centre for Water Hazard ad Risk Management (ICHARM), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Water Youth Network. There were four different topics of types of water related hazards in Asia presented in this session, and in combination with the critical questions and discussion, the participants were able to understand these topics and approaches and how they might be applied in their own countries.

Participants:

Chair: Dr David Molden, Director General, ICIMOD

Mr Ravi Narayanan, Chair, Governing Council, Asia-Pacific Water Forum

Mr Hisaya Sawano, ICHARM

Ms Priyanka Dissanayake, Global Water Partnership 

Moderator: Dr Ramesh Vaidya (ICIMOD), Session Coordinator

Dr Arun Bhakta Shrestha, ICIMOD

Mr Harshvardhan Dhawan, Arghyam Foundation 

Ms Su Yufang, ICRAF/Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Dr Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, United Nations ESCAP 

Professor Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Advisor and Former Director, ICHARM

Objectives:

The objective of the session is to share evidence-based case analyses and their policy implications with the scientific community and state-level decision-makers in the region. Five case studies from the region will be presented during the session. These case studies indicate that in order to build resilience, it is essential to ensure effective risk governance by building a supportive interface between government policies and programs and the climate adaptation initiatives adopted by communities at the local level. These studies also shed light on the adaptation measures of building resilience to floods (e.g. evidence-based risk assessment and end-to-end systems to convey early warning messages to the last mile), and to droughts (risk-pooling through innovative weather insurance products and diffusing scientific knowledge to help design better adaptive responses). 

Session excerpts:

Dr. Molden opened the session by explaining we are not as prepared as we should be. "Climate change will make things worse, and this session will highlight what we can do about it, namely: weather based insurance against drought, evidence based risk assessment, spring hydrology, and governance against drought. We should link climate change with local adaptation plans". Next, he presented the work of ICIMOD in mountain regions titled “Building Resilience to Water-Related Disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region”.  

Ravi Narayanan, Chair of the Governing Council of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum presented on the topic of “Building Resilience in the Asia-Pacific Region: Last Mile Challenges” and stressed the links between vulnerability and poverty.

Hisaya Sawano presented “Evidence Based Risk Assessment for the Enhancement of Flood Resilience”. He first explained the interlinking concepts of risk, hazard, exposure and vulnerability, and which types of indicators are required for evidence-based risk assessment. Next he showed examples of flood risk assessment models such as Rainfall Runoff Inundation models applied in the Chao Praya river basin in Thailand and the Integrated Flood Analysis System applied in the Indus river basin in Pakistan. He also showed two examples of heavy rain Japan, namely in Tokai and Fukuoka, with assessments that identify the saved costs of implemented anti-flood measures.  Finally, he argued why flood risk assessment is necessary, and how ICHARM can assist developing countries in this matter.

Priyanka Dissanayake from the Global Water Partnership presented the topic of “Building Resilience to Floods and Droughts: Flood Water Harvesting Practices” and introduced the concept of rainwater harvesting for times of droughts.

During the mid-session discussion, Iwami asked Dissanayake about how to harmonize the harm and benefits of floods, and how to deal with the uncertainties of climate change. He responded that in Sri Lanka, we transfer risk from one basin to another. Monsoons are predicted reliably so countries can prepare for water diversion/harvesting.

An audience member questioned Sawano about how the loss of lives is considered in the calculations, and what aspects of vulnerability that are considered in the risk assessment. Sawano answered that we are assuming a base ratio, which differs place by place depending on the local conditions. Sometimes people are accustomed to the conditions, or people who don’t have disaster experience will have higher mortality. We need to gather the data in local areas to determine the mortality. We are also trying approaches in Japan to count economic activities, but some social activities cannot be counted in such a way.  

In the second half of the session, Dr. Arun Bhakta Shrestha from ICIMOD presented the topic “Building Resilience to Flash Floods in the Mountains”, featuring the prediction difficulties of flash floods. 

Next, Harshvardhan Dhawan from the Arghyam Foundation presented the topic “Building Resilience to Drying Springs In the Mountains”, which are important as 80% of the people depend on springs for their survival.

Su Yufang from ICRAF/Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced “Good Water Governance and Building Resilience to Water Stresses in China (Yunnan)”.

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Srivastava from the United Nations ESCAP presented the topic “Building Resilience to Droughts: Scaling Up Weather Insurance in China, India, and Thailand”.

Professor Takeuchi, Advisor and Former Director of ICHARM concluded the session by stating that Asia is such a hazardous area, and without speaking up, maybe the world may not know this. "Whenever you have a meeting, representatives from this region are often low. We have to repeat this message everywhere. Asia has more than 80% of all disasters and 90% of all people affected are in Asia. We have to repeat it. Asia has a special culture or tradition of social capital. We have a great social capital, people are very kind to each other. Personal care may cover the institutional lack. In other countries the social capital may not be so much, they may have social contracts. Sawano presented tools, these are so important. We have to invest under the benefit cost ratio. We need risk assessment, this is a matter of data and methodologies. We do have the RRI and IFAS models, which are workable under poor data. The vulnerability index should be improved, as we are behind. Do we have the steps to achieve the targets of the SFA? I urge the resilience building group in AP come together and build a roadmap to achieve the substantial reduction of mortality, affected people, and damages. We have to respond to this target".

HICO venue and Hyundai hotel