- How does the water industry decarbonise its water provision?
- Desalination is key to water provision in the Middle East. How do governments and industry promote other methods, such as recycling, reuse, treatment and stormwater harvesting?
- Can improved demand side management shift water use and if yes, is its role high enough on the water agenda?
- How will investment in low carbon water be funded?
Water Forum
Monday 16th January
14.00 | Opening presentation
14.10 | Presentation: Water decarbonisation
14.25 | Panel: Evaluating the water sector's path to net zero
Confirmed Speakers:
Jonathan Churchman-Davies
Industrial Water and Energy Efficiency Lead
Abu Dhabi Distribution Company
15.10 | Panel: Ensuring socio-economic strength through water resilience
- How does ensuring extensive potable water availability also bring economic benefits to a country?
- Can nations promote greater gender equality through improved water resilience?
- What role should governments, NGOs and the private sector play in promoting socio-economic advantages through strong water resilience?
Confirmed Speakers:
15.45 | Panel: UAE water security – and opportunities for a GCC network
- Water security across the UAE is imperative. What needs to be in place for country-wide water security? And should there be a connected water network/market in GCC to promote even greater water security?
- Is work required to better connect both intra- and inter-country water networks?
- Would a connected network reduce water risks for GCC countries?
Confirmed Speakers:
Dr Mohamed Hamyd Dawoud
Advisor - Water Resources, Environment
Quality, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi
16.30 | Close of day 1
Tuesday 17th January
10.30 | Panel: Low-carbon desalination and its role in a net zero strategy
- What should be considered when making investment decisions that match desalination with net zero strategies?
- What technology advancements in desalination will bring down the carbon cost of producing potable water?
- Reverse osmosis has contributed significantly to decarbonising desalination - but what additional or alternative steps can be taken to decarbonise desalination further?
Confirmed Speakers:
11.15 | Presentation: Desalination - recovering minerals
- Recovering minerals can have both environmental and economic benefits - how can these opportunities be promoted and exploited successfully?
- This talk will look at the latest research and reasons that are driving a future industry of recovering minerals from brine.
- Once recovered, what economic benefits do these minerals offer, and how will they be used by different industries?
Presented by:
11.30 | Presentation: Decentralisation of desalination
- Much of the focus regionally has been on large scale desalination plants. But could small-sized, highly localised desalination plants offer an opportunity for water security for communities?
- Can decentralised desalination be an important part of a decarbonisation strategy?
- Decentralised desalination reduces water transport requirements, but what about the network? Can it also be connected to the wider water network?
- What happens to byproducts?
Presented by:
11.45 | Panel: Investing in low carbon water systems
- Reducing water stress and increasing food security will require investment in the GCC water systems. Governments are investing in their individual water networks - where does the private sector fit it?
- What types of finance are available and in terms of infrastructure, where is it most required as governments look to both desalination and different forms of water reuse?
Confirmed Speakers:
Kenichiro Kitamura
Chief Representative for the Middle East
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
12.30 | Break
14.00 | Panel: How digitalisation of asset management can improve efficiency
- This panel will look at technologies that can be used for better asset management, in terms of running, down time and maintenance
- How will digitalisation improve efficiencies and contribute to decarbonised water systems
- What examples are there of technology use to improve asset management
Confirmed Speakers:
14.45 | Digitalisation in the water industry
14.45 | Case Study 1: Digital Twin
15.00 | Case Study 2: IoT, Cloud Computing, Open Source applications in Water Resources
15.15 | Case Study 3: AI in water and wastewater
15.45 | Presentation: Eco-design water & resources recovery facility
- A wastewater treatment plant that recovers biosolids, nitrogen, bio-gas and syngas, in addition to treated water.
- It is designed on the principles of circular economy and to be a “carbon negative” system. Neither a pilot nor concept, it is being built now in France.
Presented by:
16.00 | Panel: Meeting water needs efficiently as capacity demands rise
- Populations are rising, industries are expanding, food security is becoming more prominent and countries are turning to new revenue streams such as green hydrogen
- Water-stressed countries, where desalination is imperative, have increasing demands on a precious resource
- At the same time, governments are introducing decarbonisation targets - how does the industry meet these demands?
16.30 | Close of day 2
Wednesday 18th January
10.30 | Presentation: Attracting capital investment into food technology
- How do governments and local food producers attract the investment required to create a commercial scale, long-term food tech market?
- How does the industry use technology to marry food production with water security?
- How encourage entrepreneurship and support small foodtech innovation?
- Does the market need more long-term deals on pricing to attract investment?
Presented by:
10.45 | Panel: Building resiliency and supply chain efficiency into a decarbonised food system
- This discussion focuses on the many approaches can be taken to improve food security and introduce greater supply chain efficiency, including technology, greater localisation and research
- How close can the region get to localisation of production and food independence?
- What technologies are significantly changing approaches to local food production?
- What net effects would this have of promoting a low-carbon food system?
Confirmed Speakers:
Dr Mohamed Hamyd Dawoud
Advisor - Water Resources, Environment &
Quality, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi
11.30 | Panel: Future of farming: Indoor crop factories
- GCC countries are striving for food security. But water stress and hot, dusty conditions do not suit mass farming
- Is the future of food in the GCC indoor crop factories, growing edible plants under strict climate-controlled conditions?
- How will a move to indoor farming change the industry, but ensure quality and taste (a common complaint) - and will this bring food security, whilst meeting the region's energy and water use ambitions
- What crops can't be grown - and will this change within the coming 10 years?
Confirmed Speakers:
12.15 | Presentations: Using technology to improve food production/security
- Each presentation will explore a different aspect of technology use to either improve efficiencies in crop production or food security.
12.15 | Water innovation for marginal environments
Presented by:
12.30 | Nexus Innovations in Water-Energy-Food Systems
Presented by:
12.45 | Monitoring crop production with IoT
Presented by:
13.00 | Break
14.30 | Presentations: Protecting against storm water - and capturing run off for reuse
- Extreme rain events can cause rapid flooding, loss of life and financial hardship. What can Middle East countries do to better capture storm water?
- Can storm water be an unpredictable but useful component in a country's total water system?
- How is it treated and stored?
14.30 | Presentation 1
14.50 | Presentation 2
15.10 | Presentation: Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation: Abu Dhabi
Presented by:
Dr. Mohamed Hamyd Dawoud
Advisor - Water Resources, Environment
Quality, Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi
15.30 | Presentation: Tapping into wastewater resource recovery
- An assessment on how wastewater (including industrial wastewater) can be taken from a waste product to reusable products
- Insight into the opportunities and challenges of reducing carbon emissions and reaching a point of having decarbonised recycled water
15.45 | Panel: Decarbonising water through treated effluent
- Better and increased treatment of wastewater reduces pressure on desalination
- What technologies will improve water treatment, its modelling and industry decision making?
- How will better modelling upfront improve long term planning for wastewater treatment?
Confirmed Speakers:
Mayyada Salem Al Bardan
Manager of Research & Studies Department
Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority