World Water Forum 2024: Training, an essential pillar for better water management
From 18 to 25 May, the island of Bali (Indonesia) will be hosting the 10th World Water Forum. The theme of this year's event is "Water and Shared Prosperity", and it will highlight a key issue for the future of our water resources: training. The International Office for Water (OiEau), as secretariat of the International Network of Training Centres for Water Professions (RICFME), has played a central role in organising the "Education and Training" thematic session.
Faced with the consequences of climate change, water management has become a major challenge.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for drinking water and sanitation, new infrastructure needs to be created and the quality of services improved to meet the needs of users. These objectives require more efficient operation and maintenance, the renewal of facilities, better governance of services and a strengthening of skills and human resources.
Building skills in the water and sanitation sector is essential throughout the world.
For more than 30 years, OiEau, a recognised non-profit organisation, has offered a comprehensive and diversified range of vocational training courses in integrated water resource management(IWRM), drinking water and sanitation, agriculture, industry, the circular economy, environmental protection and biodiversity, and innovation, serving a variety of customers and partners (institutions, local authorities, operators, NGOs or associations, industry, etc.).
Internationally, it provides the secretariat for RICFME, a network set up in 2008 to develop exchanges of experience between training centres around the world, raise awareness of the importance of vocational training in the field of water and wastewater treatment and its financing, and promote the creation of new training centres in the water sector.
To meet these challenges, three sessions will be organised at the 10th WEF, focusing on the following themes.
Increasing funding for vocational and community training in the water sector
This session will look at sustainable financial mechanisms, exploring how training funding can be integrated into infrastructure investments and organisations' budgets. The creation of dedicated funds will support international training solutions and facilities, aimed at training a skilled workforce in various water-related fields on an international scale.
Building the capacity of institutions, professionals and stakeholders in the management and use of water resources
The aim of this session is to share experiences on strengthening the organisational, institutional and legal frameworks of entities involved in water resource management (basin organisations, water users' federations, municipal water and sanitation services, consultancies, construction companies, operators, vocational training centres).
Increasing intelligent access to water education materials
This session will focus on improving education for young people, by putting in place innovative solutions to improve access to educational material. Increasing awareness of the importance of education in the water sector will help to reduce the impact of our societies on water resources and make jobs in the water sector more attractive, as shown by a French study carried out in 2021 by the Filière Eau, in which OiEau collaborated.
To this end, OiEau works with young people on a number of projects to raise their awareness of these issues, in particular through water classes and participatory science workshops, for the Bio-plateaux project and Fexte project in Bolivia, or through key figures and computer graphics.
Alongside these thematic sessions, which it co-organises, OiEau has launched with its partners the "Bali Coalition to Strengthen Training in the Water Sector", the aim of which is to promote capacity building as an essential tool for accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular access to drinking water and sanitation. More than 80 organisations already joined the coalition.
Sharing experience is essential to improving education and training in the water sector. In a world faced with the challenges of climate change, investing in human resources to improve water resource management and enhance the efficiency of water and sanitation services is becoming imperative.
To find out more about the sessions organised by OiEau on training :
Monday 20th May
- 14:50-16:20: Session 6E1 - Increasing funding for vocational training and communities in the water sector
Tuesday 21st May
- 8.30-10.00: Session 6E3 - Increasing intelligent access to water education materials
Wednesday 22nd May
- 13.00-14.30: Session 6E2 - Building the capacity of institutions, professionals and stakeholders in the management and use of water resources
Friday 24th May
- 10.20-11.50: Summary of session 6E - Education and training