Beat the Heat at Stockholm’s World Water Week, August 26-31

World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, is an annual focal point for the globe’s water issues.  It is organized by SIWI — Sweden’s Development Agency.  This year, World Water Week will address the theme “Water, ecosystems and human development.” It is a huge gathering; in 2017, over 3,300 individuals and around 380 convening organizations from 135 countries participated in the Week.  More information and registration info is available here.

Despite the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accord, this year’s program includes a number of U.S. academics and also several presentations by U.S. government representatives from the U.S. Bureau of  Reclamation, the U.S. Department of State, US AID, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  For example, on August 28, the US Bureau of Reclamation, the US Department of State, and the US Water Partnership will present a panel titled Nation to Nation: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives into Water Resource Management.  According to the program blurb:

“Throughout the early 20th century, when the Bureau of Reclamation was developing and building water supply projects in the western United States, there was little awareness of the unintended consequences of infrastructure on ecosystems and watershed management, and water development decisions were made with minimal stakeholder input. Today, Reclamation is working with tribal nations and other stakeholders to establish innovative programs and processes to collaboratively address integrated ecosystem and watershed management. This effort is particularly prominent in the Pacific Northwest, where Reclamation is working with 19 tribes and the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington to develop a comprehensive plan for operations of 14 federal dams within the Columbia River Basin. The Columbia River has its headwaters in British Columbia, Canada and flows through seven U.S. states to the Pacific Ocean. The management of the river must consider concerns ranging from hydropower production to fisheries protection and restoration, while also balancing responsibilities to tribes for whom the river is culturally and economically important.”