The City of Atlanta, CIFAL Atlanta and the Georgia Water Resources Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology are co-hosting the first Mega-City Water Forum, an integrated approach to water resource management strategies for the 21st Century in Atlanta, Georgia from May 1-3, 2006.

Co-sponsored by the World Bank, the International Water Association, the American Water Works Association Research Foundation, and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the Water Environment Federation, the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, and the Alliance to Save Energy, this high profile invitation only event will bring together some 100 city officials, executives and utility managers from some of the world’s largest cities to discuss innovative strategies to effectively manage city water supply and sanitation.

The Rise of the Mega-City: The Water Resource Management Challenge

The continued rise of mega-cities across the world represents a crucial water supply and treatment challenge to increasingly strained water resources in many countries. Ensuring a clean and safe urban water supply represents a common challenge facing these large cities across the world today.

The United Nations estimates the number of cities with 5 million or more inhabitants is to rise from 46 in 2003 to 61 in 2015. Among these, the number of mega-cities (with 10 million inhabitants or more) will increase from 20 in 2003 to 22 in 2015.

The 2004 U.S. Census estimate shows 4.7 million people living in the 28-county Atlanta metropolitan area, making it the ninth largest metropolitan area in the United States. The Atlanta Regional Commission estimates that an additional 2.3 million people will move to the Atlanta region in the next 25 years. The city is projected to experience significant water shortages within the next 10 to 15 years as the city continues on its rapid growth trajectory.

In anticipation of similar trends globally, current and future mega-cities can leverage the expertise gained by each other in facing comparable challenges in planning for clean, efficient and sustainable long term water supply and sanitation for the city’s stakeholders. The Mega-City Water Forum will help local authorities approach water resource management from an integrated perspective, sharing innovative strategies to ensure a safe and sustainable water supply for the long term.

Strategic Insights into Water Resource Management

The Mega-City Water Forum promises to be an exciting and important milestone that will benefit key water decision makers from around the world as well as the greater Atlanta community. The Mega-City Water forum will bring together a select group of executive level U.S. and international participants to share strategic insights in water resource management that will help the City of Atlanta and other cities across the world plan ahead for the future in facing these water supply and sanitation challenges:

• Gain international perspectives about real life water resource solutions from counterparts in major U.S. and international cities

• Cutting edge knowledge management tools will foster best practice sharing among city officials, executives and international water experts

• Access internationally renowned resources from the Georgia Institute of Technology as well as top water experts from U.S. and global water agencies.

• Acquire a world wide network of formal and informal peer-to-peer relationships that will ensure learning gains are not once-off but will continue in the future

• Be part of a comprehensive knowledge base to help city planners leverage each others experiences in the design of long term water resource strategies
Participant Profile

The focus will be on by invitation only executive level participants. The approximately 100 participants will include executive level city officials, managers and other expert participants representing some of the world’s largest cities. The current or potential mega-cities selected typically share one or more of the following characteristics:

• Large urban areas, a number of which have a current population in excess of five hundred thousand in the U.S.A and in excess of five million people elsewhere in the world

• Fast growing urban population and commensurate development

• Shortage of water for residential, commercial and industrial demand

Best Practice Areas

The Mega-City Water Forum will approach the topic of effective water resource management for mega cities from an integrated perspective. Parallel breakout sessions will focus on water supply and sanitation using the United Nation’s interactive and participatory knowledge management methodology. These will be integrated via a discussion of the findings. These findings will then be contextualized within the ambit of watershed management and ecological sustainability and finally distilled into a summary of best practices.

Program Format

The forum will build on the methodology and knowledge management tool used by United Nations agencies to foster effective best practice sharing among high level city officials and international experts.

The registration process will include an online self assessment survey that participants will be requested to complete to assess their organization’s capacity to deal with water supply and sanitation issues. This survey will assist in identifying the areas where each participant wishes to expand their knowledge, as well as their strengths and expertise that could benefit other cities. The purpose of using a common tool is to enable the sharing of best practice with local governments around the world in a participatory manner, according to a common framework and language. We expect the results and concrete examples to be useful beyond each participant’s organization.

In addition to high-level keynote plenary talks by global water experts, participants will also benefit from the internationally known resources available in Atlanta such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, and will be able to use both the formal sessions and the informal time to learn more from each other about how to improve their city’s response to the issues of water supply and sanitation.

Venue

Georgia Tech’s Global Learning & Conference Center (GLCC) at Technology Square is the most technologically-advanced meeting facility in the Southeast. The GLCC is an Atlanta conference center featuring more than 32,000 square feet of high-tech meeting space, including a wireless environment and the ability to send and receive programs from around the world from any of the facility meeting rooms.

Preferred Hotel for Participants

Atlanta Courtyard Marriott- Midtown
1132 Techwood Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30318 USA
Phone: + 1-404-607-1112
Fax: + 1-404-607-1020

NOTE: Rooms are blocked under "Water Forum". Please be sure to reference the Water Forum when booking your hotel room to ensure the group rate.

We look forward to your participation in this important event!

For more information please contact:
Sebastian Mathews
Phone: 404.962.4843
Fax: 404.962.4843
Email: smathews@cifalatlanta.org