Living with Water a Lively Event
Living with Water has ended her five-year program culminating in the presentation of a comprehensive website with a survey of over 120 projects. The ‘fine the fleur’ of the Dutch water world will also attended the final conference in Rotterdam. The site continues to exist for some years so the knowledge is preserved for future use.
In the common part of the afternoon the central issue was to determine who will continue Living with Water in which way. In anticipation, Geert Teisman, scientific director of Living with Water, recalls that a key message of the program (give water its new location) requires an approach that is not only cross-sectoral, but also cross-domain and cross-scale. ‘What we learned is that an interactive approach pays off, water is an underrated economic good and Water Governance an inspiring challenge. There are two challenges left: the knowledge must be passed and policy can still learn.’
Annemieke Nijhof, Director-General at the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management stressed in her speech the importance of innovation, but also that innovation often occurs money and people lack. ‘We need to organize links, and open up to dissent. The teams of the Delta Program will pick up knowledge from the projects of Living with Water. In our view, the effect in the region must be based on equality between Government and region.’