GWI team to participate in VietWater 2017

An interdisciplinary team of water experts from UNSW-GWI is traveling to Ho Chi Minh City on 6-10 November, attending the annual VietWater conference and interviewing water delivery and wastewater experts from both Vietnam and Australia.

VietWater is Vietnam’s largest annual water event and, for the second year in a row, UNSW-GWI will have a small booth within the Australian pavilion—allowing the opportunity to connect with thousands of delegates from Australia, Asia, Europe, and all over the world.

The GWI team will also be interviewing representatives from five Australian and five Vietnamese Water Utilities that are engaged in ‘Twinning’—an initiative which fosters the sharing of knowledge and resources between two organisations, often in different parts of the world, to build professional and technical capacity.

The five twinning pairs include Son La Water Company and Cairns Regional Council (Queensland); Saigon Water and Seqwater (Queensland); Binh Duong and Wannon Water (Victoria); Phu Tho and Coliban Water (Victoria); and Hue Water Corporation and Water Corporation (Western Australia).

Building on the collaborative relationship between Australia and Vietnam—who share many common challenges when it comes to safe, secure, efficient and sustainable water management—this Twinning initiative aims to improve the management and delivery of water and wastewater services in both countries.

The Twinning Program is led by the Australian Water Association (AWA) and Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA), with support from the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and the Vietnamese Government.

GWI’s role is to interview program participants to monitor the in-progress activities of the Program, and support AWA and AWP with their efforts to extract lessons learned that can be used to improve similar programs in future.