The Water Dialogue (
Vattendialogen
) project was initiated to prompt discussion among researchers and practitioners on how sharing of knowledge and experience can help bring about more sustainable aquatic resource management. The project has now been concluded, but the dialogue continues.
‘Your Water, Everyone´s Water´ (Ditt vatten, allas vatten) is a publication from the Water Dialogue intended to inspire further dialogue on water issues.‘It outlines both the problem issues and solutions to problems we´ve identified,´ says Anna Jöborn, programme manager for VASTRA and one of the initiators of the Water Dialogue. ‘Finding solutions to these problems, such as eutrophication, is extremely complex and if we´re to find a sustainable solution both researchers and practitioners have to take part.´
The dialogue seminars arranged as part of the project were attended by researchers in both social and natural sciences, and representatives of the business sector, public agencies and interest organisations at all levels in society. The purpose was to discuss Swedish water resource management, with a view to devising ways of bringing knowledge and experience, irrespective of how they were generated, to bear in practical ways for sustainable use of Sweden´s water resources.
‘It´s been a process-oriented way of working, and one discussion topic has been what type of knowledge is lacking. One conclusion from the project is that it´s important to involve people with several categories of expertise to tackle and solve the problems. Technical solutions for resolving water resource issues aren´t enough. Instead, it´s just as much a matter of creating efficient management, confidence and meeting places for researchers, water resource managers and other stakeholders,´ Jöborn says.
The Water Dialogue has compiled a database for Swedish water projects. The hope is that it will be extended with data on new water projects and serve as a knowledge base for everyone involved in water issues in Sweden. Other initiatives are under way, and the Water Dialogue may be seen as the start of a continuing process.
‘This is just the start of something that will have to permeate both research inputs and the management process itself if we´re to bring about long-term sustainable management of our natural resources,´ says Anna Jöborn.
The publication Ditt vatten, allas vatten and the final report of the project (both in Swedish) can be downloaded as PDF files from www.mistra.org. The Water Dialogue database of Swedish water projects may be found at www.ivl.se
