The International Desalination Association (IDA) will support the Water Leaders Summit when it opens on 5 July 2011 at Singapore International Water Week.
This ‘by invitation only’ two-day annual meeting brings together ministers, mayors, senior government officials, global water industry leaders, heads of international organizations, leading researchers and practitioners to consider pressing water governance, technology and business issues that impact communities worldwide.
IDA was one of the driving forces behind creation of the Water Leaders Summit and has continued to support it each year as a Strategic Partner.
This year, IDA is co-organizing the Water Leaders Roundtable on Water in the Changing Urban Environment: The Water-Energy Nexus Challenge. This session, which takes place at 0900h on 6 July, will look into key challenges as well as opportunities in the integrated management of water and energy resources.
The session will be chaired by Leon Awerbuch, past president and director of IDA as well as chairman of IDA’s Technical Programs Committee, and president, Leading Edge Technologies.
“Water and energy are intimately linked in all phases of their existence with important implications for technology development goals and programs,” said Awerbuch. “The production of energy requires large volumes of water while the treatment, distribution of water and particularly generation of fresh water by desalination is equally dependent upon readily available, low-cost and efficient use of energy. It is critically important that water and energy issues be viewed and managed in a holistic way.”
The Water Leaders Roundtable includes several prominent speakers:
Andrew Grant, director, McKinsey & Company
Dr Peter Gleick, president, Pacific Institute
Prof Alex Zehnder, director, Alberta Water Research Institute
Thamer S Al-Sharhan, president & CEO, Marafiq Power and Water Utility Company
Dr Lukas Loeffler, CEO, Siemens Water Technologies