A consultation workshop ‘Water as Leverage’ was organised by Netherlands Enterprise Agency, in collaboration with 100 Resilient Cities, UN-Habitat and Partners for Resilience on September 6-7, 2018 at Chennai.
Water as Leverage (WaL) was initiated by The Dutch Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), and Architecture Workroom Brussels (AWB) in partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), 100 Resilient Cities, UN-Habitat and Partners for Resilience (PfR), supported by the UN/World Bank High Level Panel for Water and the Global Center of Excellence on Climate Adaptation (GCECA).
Preceding the workshop, stages of technical reviews were conducted to select two projects proposals regarding integration of urban water management and climate resilience for the City of Chennai. After rigorous reviews of proposals, design teams, Rise Chennai and 1000 Tanks were handed over the task of designing and planning the implementation by means of available blue – green infrastructure in the city.
Participants of the WaL workshop, September 6-7, Chennai
The WaL workshop aimed at demonstrating concepts that would tackle the water challenges in Chennai, initiating collaboration between the stakeholders and understanding the local social-economic-environmental context. The event was attended by over 100 experts representing local and state level government departments, the two teams , and the partners, amongst other local stakeholders.
The Partners for Resilience India team, consisting of Wetlands International South Asia, Indian Red Cross (Tamil Nadu) and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre shared community perspectives and experiences from the Chennai floods in 2015 and relocation thereafter. Wetlands International South Asia on behalf of PfR presented concepts on integrated risk management and wetlands as buffer and stores of flood waters and informed of the various legislative and regulatory framework that could be leveraged in implementation.