Global conference on water solutions slated in January

These are challenging times for water utilities and it is not about to get easier. Infrastructure capacity is hardly catching up with rapid urbanization. Visit any city in the Philippines — Cebu, Davao, Baguio — and you will be greeted by the same traffic congestion, pollution, and construction that is dangerously similar to Metro Manila.

Utilities are doing their best to keep up with the pace of urban growth in terms of population and land size. This pressure adds to existing issues of inefficiency: high rates of water loss and leakage, expensive production due to high power cost, ageing assets, and mismanagement of manpower.

How can utilities achieve efficiency? The world’s best performing water utilities point to several answers: operational excellence, new technologies, continuous training, effective investments, and public engagement. But times are changing, and the best practices of the past will not bring us to where we want to be in the future.

In 2019, the search for solutions to water efficiency is coming to Manila. The International Water Association (IWA) — the global network that is shaping the future of the water sector — will stage the 10th Specialist Conference on Efficient Urban Water Management from Jan. 13 to16, 2019 in the Marriott Grand Ballroom at Resorts World, Pasay City.

The conference dubbed “Efficient 2019” will bring together the world’s leading experts, thought leaders and practitioners to tackle the challenges of efficient urban water management. Efficient 2019 is jointly hosted by industry leaders Maynilad Water Services, Inc. and Metro Pacific Water, and supported by the Asian Development Bank and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.