More than 60 participants, including water managers and water decision-makers from 18 cities around the world confronted with the problem of drinking water loss, met in Bonn to share their experiences regarding technical, political and administrative solutions. The workshop's goal was to address the need to develop capacity to reduce drinking water loss, and to give the representatives a platform to share their experiences and to raise awareness to the issue of drinking water loss reduction, a severe problem in many regions of the world.

The cities that were represented in the workshop are:
Uganda: City of Kampala
Zambia: City of Lusaka

Brazil: City of São Paulo
Mexico: Mexico City
Nicaragua: City of Managua
Peru: City of Lima

India: City of Gwalior
Nepal: City of Lalitpur

Egypt: City of Alexandria and Sharkia Governorate
Jordan: Cities of Amman and Madaba
Palestinian Authority: City of Ramallah
United Arab Emirates: City of Abu Dhabi

Bulgaria: City of Sofia
Germany: City of Leipzig and Ruhrgebiet region
Hungary: City of Budapest

In the opening plenary of the workshop, both the State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) , Prof. Dr Meyer-Krahmer and the Director for Global and Sectoral Policies of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Dr Konukiewitz emphasized the importance of a rapid approach to tackle drinking water loss reduction on an international level. "Despite remarkable progress in the development of knowledge, tools and technology for water loss reduction, there is still a lack of understanding of the essential role which leakage control should play in water resources management. Where can solutions be found? What kinds of strategies have been successful?" State Secretary Prof. Dr Meyer-Krahmer noted in his opening statement. With this workshop UNW-DPC and UN-HABITAT tried to find answers to these questions. The workshop covered the aspects of technical, political and administrative solutions to reduce water loss and introduced tools for capacity development. The participants discussed the most promising approaches, especially highlighting the need for institutional capacity development and the establishment of cooperation in order to apply the best available technical and managerial solutions to reduce water losses in drinking water systems.

The structure of the workshop included four plenary sessions addressing technical solutions, political and administrative solutions, capacity development tools and the way forward. Please download the presentations for more information.

Keynotes
Session I: Technical solutions and case studies
Session II: Political and administrative solutions and case studies
Session III: Tools for capacity development and case studies
Session IV: Workshop reporting and the way ahead

Providers of innovative technical solutions for detection and control of unaccounted flow, leakage control and water metering presented their products and approaches in a technical exhibition that was held during the workshop. Representatives from German, Austrian and Italian companies exchanged technological advances with the participants of the workshop.

For a full report and more information on the workshop, please download the summary report of the workshop, the workshop pre-proceedings and the post workshop press release. The final workshop proceedings will soon be available for download.

Please visit the photo gallery for additional photos.