HELP International Symposium 2011 "Building Knowledge Bridges for a Sustainable Water Future"

Water is a fundamental resource for development. Since 2010 having access to clean drinking water has become an official basic human right. Yet, a growing portion of the world’s population suffers from water shortages.  Water-related challenges go on to issues such as climate, food and energy, quality and human health, life support systems,  governance and conflict,  education, etc.

As the single most precious and essential item to sustain life, we need to ensure a sustainable water future. To do this, we need to count on knowledge. Sharing research results and lessons learnt from experience, new tools and innovative practices, ways of implementing more effective mechanisms of action for change and policy integration –these provide us the right path to follow. Scientific knowledge must be pertinent to issues on the ground and be shared effectively and rapidly, so that everyone may make a difference in reducing the impact of major water problems.

With this motivation, the International Hydrological Program’s crosscutting initiative HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy) would like to invite you the Global Symposium for 2011, Building Knowledge Bridges for a Sustainable Water Future. This will be held in Panama City, Republic of Panama, from November 21 to 24, 2011.

The HELP International Symposium takes place every four years.  The last of such events took place in South Africa on 2007, with great success.  With more than ten years of experiences, the 2011 Symposium at Panama offers the world community a great opportunity to exchange and take a close look of ground-breaking, exceptional experiences, putting forward wise and experienced knowledge on water-related issues for the betterment of mankind.

Potential contributors may choose to participate by including a paper for the symposium’s publication; by making an oral presentation; or by a poster, photograph or video presentation. The papers and contributions will be released in a special publication by the HELP initiative, and will be made available to the international community. All presentations and supporting information will be handed to participants during the symposium in a digital format.