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No. 8 (112) May 2006



THE 7th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ECWATECH-2006 “WATER, ECOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY”

The 7th International Congress ECWATECH dedicated to water resources use and management technology advancement for improvement of environmental situation was held by the Russian Federal Agency for Water Resources, Russian Federal Agency for Construction, Housing and Communal Services, and International Water Association (IWA) on 29 May to 2 June 2006 in Moscow.

1350 participants from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, China and India attended the Congress. The Congress was held in parallel with an exhibition, at which over 850 organizations demonstrated their achievements in the field of new technologies.

Central Asia was represented by a large delegation from Kazakhstan that was headed by Chairman of the Committee for Water Resources Mr. A.D. Ryabtsev and demonstrated a special stand dedicated to the success in water supply development in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh delegation also presented several papers at the sessions of the Congress. For Uzbekistan, Chief of the Water Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan R.H. Tashev, Deputy Director of SANIIRI Ph.D. Y.I. Shirikova took part. On behalf of the SIC ICWC, papers of V.A. Dukhovny were presented at the session on surface water, and papers of V.A. Dukhovny, A.G. Sorokin, D.R. Ziganshina and Y.H. Rysbekov were delivered at the session on water planning and rights.

At the opening of the Congress, V.A. Dukhovny as a member of the Board of the World Water Council delivered a salutary address of WWC President Mr. Loic Fauchon. Chief of the Federal Agency for Water Resources R.Z. Khamitov and President of the Council of the Russian Water Supply Association S.V. Khromenkov made welcoming speeches. Congress activities were divided into sections:

  • water resources, quality, use and protection;
  • water bodies monitoring;
  • preventing and eliminating emergency environmental situations related to water bodies;
  • economy, law and management;
  • water supply;
  • wastewater disposal, treatment and recycling;
  • water treatment for industry and power engineering;
  • pipeline systems of communal infrastructure;
  • water and health;
  • water quality control and analysis methods;
  • bottling;
  • energy saving.

During the Congress, there were heated debates about the newly adopted Water Code of the Russian Federation almost at all the sessions. Most of the speakers appeared concerning this legislative document very critically, considering that it opens a way toward losing public water resources management and excessive privatization of water facilities including reservoirs.

A few of papers were dedicated to the problems in Central Asia, including prospective transfer of Siberian river flow to Central Asia (paper by Academician of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences B.M. Kizyayev). It was noted that this measure would be of a great importance in the future not only to Central Asia but also to Russia itself from the perspective of more effectively using its water potential as well as of solving the issue on excessive Siberian river water removal from oil regions in Russia flooded as a result of increased humidity in Siberian river formation zone owing to climate change.

On the last day of the Congress, a conference, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, dedicated to land reclamation development in the country, confined to the 40th anniversary of the May Plenum, took place. At the conference, former First Deputy Ministers of Water Resources of the former USSR P.A. Polad-zade and A.V. Aleksankin, Delegate of the State Duma and Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Finances N.I. Sukhoy, academician B.M. Kizyayev, Director of the Department for Land Reclamation and Member of the Board of the Ministry G.G. Gulyuk, and director of the SIC ICWC V.A. Dukhovny spoke.

Speaking water specialists from Russia noted the need for renewing and developing the potential of irrigated and drained lands that was earlier available in Russia with account of new economic and political conditions. They stated that in the recent years the attention to agriculture and land reclamation had been adequately increased, which is confirmed by the increase in financing agricultural and water sectors in the country. At present, a Law on Development of the Agriculture is under preparation.

The participants of the conference decided to establish a Union of Water and Land Reclamation Specialists of the Russian Federation.

More than twenty participants of the conference were awarded memorable medals in honor of the 100th anniversary of the First Minister of Water Resources and Land Reclamation of the USSR E.E. Alekseyevskiy. This medal was awarded to V.A. Dukhovny and R.H. Tashev.

MESSAGE FROM LOIC FAUCHON FOR THE 7th ECWATECH

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the opening of this 7th ECWATECH International Congress and Trade Fair, allow me first to greet all the participants gathered these days in Moscow.

Let me also express my regrets for not being able to be with you today, as I had wished it.

I have asked to my friend, Victor Dukhovny, one of the governors of the World Water Council, to read you this message and tell you the attention and interest the Council shows to your works.

Victor Dukhovny, whose competencies and dedication are well known by those who, like me, work with him, has accepted to be my spokesman today and represent the Council, and I thank him for this.

The World Water Council, created in 1996 has the ambition to be the Voice of Water. The Voice that expresses the seriousness of the situation. The Voice that, after gathering the competencies, will precise priorities.

Water is not lacking on our earth, you all know this. But it is not always there where it is needed most. Water resources should be available anywhere it is necessary both for human development and protection of the ecosystems.

Thus, due to the current demographic growth, the unlimited pollutions, the significant climatic changes, or due to bad management, water is lacking here and there.

And today, children, women, and men are not born equal in the right to fresh drinking water.

And we can pay tribute to the organizers of this congress, and to all of you ladies and gentlemen the participants, for wanting to bring your contribution to this subject, so that across the world, this priority given to water be expressed through actions and not only intentions and speeches any more.

Actions that find their expressions in clear messages regarding the respect of the right to water, the financing and maintenance of the equipments, the effective decentralization of competencies, the sharing of knowledge and the risk management.

There is no, there will be no development without water. And we have to explain what this means in terms of food, public health and education.

If the World Water Council is asking for etching the right to water in the constitutions of each State, it is not only for the symbolic signification. It is to place at the top of the human preoccupations the necessity to bring a solution to one of the most critical issues humanity will have to face during the coming decades.

To do this, we should get ready to change our relationship with water. Consume less and manage better. And use also the up-to-date technologies for desalinization, drilling, water transfers and transportation, for purification or protection of the environment.

This is, very modestly, what the World Water Council intends contributing to. Like you, we believe water deserves a bigger public will, a gathering of capacities and intelligence.

Come and join this peaceful battle we are conducting, for water deserves extending hands, gathering hearts and merging minds, beyond the frontiers.

Thank you for your attention, thank you for your contribution. I wish excellent works to all of you and great success to this 7th ECWATECH Congress.

Loic Fauchon
President,
World water Council