Prepared by Dale Jacobson and submitted to the 2024 Summer Currents

Dale Jacobson represents ASCE-EWRI

The World Water Forum is the largest international gathering in the water sector involving various stakeholders, co-organized by the World Water Council and a host country and city. The Forum is held every three years and has been running since 1997. The World Water Forum is not just a conference: it includes a three-year preparation phase (preparatory phase), a one-week event (event phase) and a presentation of the results (synthesis phase), with ongoing support from World Water Council member organizations.

The Forum brings together participants from all levels and fields, including politics, multilateral institutions, academia, civil society, and the private sector, among others. Over the years, the number of Forum participants has grown from a few hundred to tens of thousands, from both the international community and host countries.

ASCE-EWRI has been participating in the Forums since the 2nd Forum in The Hague, Netherlands.  For the 10th World Water Forum, Dale Jacobson representing ASCE-EWRI, chaired the Site Selection Committee that selected Bali, Indonesia.

"The 10th World Water Forum, held from May 18th to 25th, 2024, in Bali, Indonesia, provided a unique opportunity for the water community and key decision-makers to collaborate and bring innovative answers to global water challenges. The Forum allowed stakeholders to voice their political, thematic, and regional perspectives to turn water solutions into action. 

The 10th World Water Forum in numbers: 

  • A global audience of 20,000+ registered participants 
  • 75,000+ visitors from 160 countries around the world 
  • 6 heads of state and 135 ministerial delegates, including 51 ministers and 34 international organization representatives 
  • 216 parliamentarian representatives from 44 countries 
  • 300 local and regional governments and basins’ representatives 
  • Over 280 sessions and more than 100 activities in the Expo and Fair booths 
  • 254 Expo and Fair Booths, including 19 Country Pavilions 
  • More than 4,000 youth participants 
  • 1,000 journalists from 120 media producing 2,000 news stories
  • A Compendium including 113 water and sanitation projects, valued at 9.4 billion USD1
Debra Leigh moderating a session

At the 10th World Water Forum, with the theme “Water for Shared Prosperity”, ASCE-EWRI Past President Dale Jacobson, and EWRI International Council Chair, Debra Leigh were in attendance.  They participated in the Regional Process where Dale served as the coordinator for North America representing ASCE-EWRI.  The session was organized by Dale in partnership with Christopher Neale, who was honored by ASCE-EWRI with the Royce J. Tipton Award in 2022.  Their North American contributions to the Regional Process was a part of presentations from regions including the Mediterranean, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

During the session, Dale Jacobson presented the challenges facing the water and sanitation sectors in North America. In the urban areas, these challenges include aging infrastructure, cyber threats, contaminants such as lead and PFAS, climate change stressors, and financing. 

The water and wastewater infrastructure in North America and more specifically, the United States is largely developed. However, there remain challenges going forward. Discharge standards have been increased requiring tertiary treatment for some facilities. Older facilities need equipment upgrades due to age alone. Treatment technologies have also changed, offering new paths to achieving discharge standards. Population growth over 50 years has also resulted in the need for increased treatment capacity. Collection system issues include infiltration/inflow correction, replacement/rehabilitation of older systems, combined sewer overflow correction and expansion of collector and interceptor sewers. Dale included citations from the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card to offer details for the international audience.

In the agricultural areas, flood and drought extreme events and shifting climate and precipitation patterns pose challenges for food production both in the rainfed and irrigated agricultural areas.  Christopher Neale presented issues with agriculture in the semi-arid western US and Canada, which depend on irrigation for economically viable crop production, thus snow accumulation and runoff in the Rocky Mountains is an important source of water for agriculture. The prolonged drought over the last two decades has impacted water availability in the Colorado River basin and in Northern California, resulting in the over pumping of the aquifers as an additional source of water to maintain year-round crop production as well as permanent tree crops such as fruits and nuts. In the Central Plains, the pumping from the Ogallala High Plains aquifer for irrigation purposes has led to the extraction of over 50% of the saturated thickness in some areas, as the pumping rate has typically been above the natural recharge in these areas. 

The World Water Council, during the 86th meeting of the Board of Governors in February 2024, selected Saudi Arabia and the City of Riyadh as the host for the 11th World Water Forum in 2027. Their theme will be "Action for a Better Future".  Upon the announcement of the selection results, World Water Council President Mr. Loïc Fauchon said, "On behalf of the World Water Council, I would like to congratulate Saudi Arabia and Riyadh on its election as the host of the 11th World Water Forum. The World Water Council looks forward to working closely with the Saudis over the next three years to bring the world together in Riyadh in 2027 to continue to make water a global and political priority."

ASCE-EWRI Members interested in participating in the activities of the World Water Council Activities Committee are encouraged to reach out to the Chair Dale Jacobson.

1 10th World Water Forum Highlights, 18-25 May 2024, worldwaterforum.org