The International Water Association has named as its new president Diane d’Arras, executive vice president, Suez Water Europe.
On her appointment, d’Arras pointed to the potential for “political will and professional solutions” to come together to provide answers to climate-related water challenges worldwide.
“We must focus strongly on building water resilience for communities and cities that are increasingly impacted by climate change and water scarcity,” d’Arras said.
“In 2015, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals made a powerful commitment to ensuring universal access to water and basic sanitation, and COP21 linked climate change to water for the first time. IWA has a responsibility to push its members to offer solutions. It’s unacceptable to have 10 per cent of the world population without good water, and twice as many without basic sanitation,” she added.
New president d’Arras is a civil engineer who has served on the IWA board for six years; she succeeds former president Professor Helmut Kroiss.