Category: 6th World Water Forum

The Opening

COA Admin March 13, 2012 0 Comments
- Robin Owings After a morning full of long registration lines and stiff security screenings (whose guards carefully remove water bottles from briefcases and backpacks), attendees swarm into the Palais des Evenements for the Opening Ceremony to the World Water Forum. Young french guides dressed in color-coded suits scan in our plastic nametags and usher us inside. The auditorium is filled with...

The suits and badges

COA Admin March 12, 2012 1 Comment
We have just arrived in Marseilles, and I have already experienced the concept of the "elite" at this international conference. When I stepped off the plane onto the runway, I saw two ladies in matching red suits holding 6th World Water Forum signs. All the other suited men and women from the flight gathered around these World Water Forum ladies. Not wanting to miss this opportunity to receive...

So what is a Water Forum anyway?

COA Admin March 11, 2012 0 Comments
Those familiar with the UN Climate Treaty (UNFCCC) or the Convention on Biological Diversity covered by might be confused by the World Water Forum.  They should be.  It is a very different animal but an important one none-the less.  Unlike the UNFCCC or other international treaty regimes, there is no treaty; there is no single agency or Secretariat, in fact the UN plays a very small role if...