Wold Water Day: changing governance through social innovation and cross-border cooperation

Efficient and equitable water management is an essential means of promoting peace. Ensuring that water resources are managed in a responsible, transparent and collaborative manner helps to create an environment conducive to cooperation.

Good water management requires institutional and legislative frameworks to be put in place following participatory processes involving all stakeholders.

OiEau, a recognised public interest organisation, is able to work with institutions (local authorities, government bodies, organisations, etc.) at their request, to assess the situation and make recommendations tailored to each geographical context.

Both technical and institutional, the solutions developed promote the implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), which aims for economic efficiency, social equity and environmental sustainability, essential to building a more peaceful future.

The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO), for which OiEau provides the Permanent Technical Secretariat, brings together 192 Member-Organizations (basin organizations, governmental administrations in charge of water, bi or multilateral cooperation organizations) and Permanent Observers in 88 countries.

For 30 years, it has been promoting all initiatives to organise IWRM in the catchment areas of national or transboundary rivers, lakes or aquifers, in order to reconcile economic growth, social justice, protection of the environment and water resources, and the participation of civil society.

From 18 to 25 May 2024, INBO will be present in Bali, Indonesia, at the 10th World Water Forum, the theme of which will be "Water for Shared Prosperity". It will be involved in organising the political segment dedicated to the basin and a number of thematic sessions.

The aim of the BIO-PLATEAUX (Promoting Cross-Border Coordination for Water Management) cooperation project is to share, strengthen and disseminate knowledge about water resources and aquatic biodiversity in French Guiana's border basins (Maroni and Oyapoque), which are shared with Suriname and Brazilian Amapa respectively.

To coincide with World Water Day, an awareness-raising week is being organised from 18 to 22 March 2024 on the banks of the Oyapock river as part of this project.

After a day dedicated to water classes, during which primary school pupils from Saint-Georges (French Guiana) and Oiapoque (Amapa, Brazil) were able to discover how the great water cycle works, using models or visualisations of the river using virtual reality headsets, 20 March will be a day of cross-border waste collection, at four sites along the banks of the Oyapock, on the Brazilian and French Guiana sides.

One of OiEau's core missions is to raise awareness among a wide range of players, not just water professionals but all stakeholders.

For example, Imerys, the world leader in mineral specialities for industry, with 14,000 employees in 40 countries, asked OiEau to prepare a workshop to raise awareness of water issues (Imerys Connect day) during an inter-site day (170 industrial sites worldwide). Similarly, Colas, a global player in the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure, asked OiEau to give its employees a presentation on the different water cycles and their uses, the major problems and some solutions.

OiEau also works with young people on a number of projects to raise awareness of these issues, both in France and internationally. This was the case with the Bio-plateaux project (see above).

Water classes have also been organised as part of a Fexte project in Bolivia, to raise awareness of IWRM.

Our experts also take part in events aimed at raising awareness of the challenges of water and its professions among younger people, such as the Village de l'eau in Bordeaux.

OiEau has lent its expertise to the publication of Bacter'Eat, an educational game that takes a simple, fun approach to learning about wastewater, its composition, how it is treated, and the impact of our everyday actions on its pollution. A tool for raising awareness among children, but also for enlightening elected representatives when they have to invest in wastewater treatment plant projects.

To provide solutions to the impacts of climate change, OiEau, which is working to improve water management in France and around the world at all levels, is coordinating innovative European projects aimed at exploring and developing new models of governance that can be adapted to all geographical contexts.

Among them, the InnWater project brings together 13 partners with different skills and stakeholders from 6 countries (France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, United Kingdom) to promote social innovation to renew multi-level and cross-sectoral water governance.

By providing new methods, tools, services and recommendations, this project aims to provide a matrix for assessing water governance in order to ensure the sustainability of water systems and reduce water use conflicts due to the impact of climate change. Four dimensions have been selected for the promotion and transfer of results: technological, governance, educational engineering and economic.