A The impacts of climatic extremes are well known to water resource managers, especially in arid and semi-arid regions or flood prone areas. However, as part of the climate change, along with the increasing mean temperatures and changes in annual and inter-annual distribution of rainfall, there is an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events. These issues will be explored in a video conference session, bringing people from different background and expertise at a time. The Video Conference sessions will build on and draw on speakers at the expo, bring in other senior practitioners from different background and connect government, non-governmental staff and community leaders who are confronted with the impacts of climate change and climatic extremes. For each session, 5 countries will be connected. This live session will be in the format of knowledge exchange, cross country dialogue, interview with the experts and debate.

Through this dialogue we will explore the approaches being taken from a political and from technical-development perspective. We will extend the discussion to gain a view of what many developing countries face and how they can use the knowledge gained for their own use as well share what they have been doing. Specific questions will include:

What were some of the reasons the changes were made in water management?

• How important was climate variability and change in these decisions?
• How was civil society, non-governmental organizations involved?
• What were the biggest challenges and how were they overcome?
• Were there key times/places when somebody was the champion for the changes?
• How long did all these changes take to go from the small discussion to implementation?
• What has been the role (if any) of public-private partnerships?
• What are some issues that still need to be acted on?

There are some small scale community-based initiatives in developing countries that provide useful lessons. A short film will be shown to show one such example.

More Info, please contact Sandra Usmany at:
(+62-21) 52993228