The 6^th World Water Forum was held during 12 to 17 March at the French city of Marseille. 35 000 delegates from 60 countries attended the mega event, which was organized at the magnificent 'Parc Chanot' venue by the World Water Council in cooperation with French Government.

As an elected governor of the World Water Council, ICOLD played a key role in organizing this Forum. President Jia and Secretary General also participated in all the events pertaining to the WWF6, including the opening and closing ceremonies, the different Board meetings, etc.

ICOLD participated in the organization of different sessions, including a session with ICID on the target 2-2-5, "Securing World Food Supplies Through Increased Water Storage Systems" and a session with IHA on target 2.3.5, "The Hydropower Power Sustainability Assessment Protocol: A Global Framework to Promote Best Practice". President Jia spoke during that session.

ICOLD also organized its own "Special Focus Session on Water Storage for Sustainable development", on Friday 16^th. Those "special focus sessions" had great policy weight and a very high visibility in the forum.

An official dinner was co-organized by CHICOLD and the Central Office to welcome the Chinese delegation, headed by HE Minister Chen Lei. Representatives of the French Government, ICID, IHA and the City of Marseille participated to this event, as well as EDF's hydropower boss.

Through those focused sessions, ICOLD has reached the bulk of the community of water professionals interested in the question of storage. But ICOLD message was also conveyed to the public through very large pavilions like EDF's or Suez's or the Three Gorges Company's, which all had material to demonstrate the interest of multipurpose water storage infrastructure for sustainable development.

Forum provided an excellent platform for all to meet experts from several countries, listen, and learn from experiences on various thematic areas of the Forum. The whole event was marked by a theme that has been promoted by ICOLD for a long time: there is a water-food-energy nexus and integrated solutions like multipurpose water storage infrastructure are needed. You cannot solve one problem without thinking of the other sides of the problem.

Source: ICOLD website