Title:  “Role of Governance in the Management of Water Resources and Environment”

Where: 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Environmental Management (ICWRE-2014) in Antalya, Turkey

When: May 13-15, 2014

Awardees:

• Mr. Candra Samekto (Australia), University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Science, for “Snowballing State-Private-Society Collaboration in Addressing IWRM Initiation Challenges”

• Dr. Firdes Yenilmez (Turkey), Akdeniz University, Department of Environmental Engineering, for “Evaluation of Pollution Control Alternatives to Improve the Water Quality in Porsuk Dam Reservoir”

Mr. Candra Samekto: Samekto’s research highlights the stakeholders' role in the implementation of the IWRM program. It shows that to support and implement change effectively, stakeholders need to have a common understanding of the problem and should move in the same direction, aiming toward the same goal. As the main stakeholders, the government, private sector, and community can reach out and build momentum to launch a snowball effect. He found that initiating IWRM requires sufficient force to start moving, but once in motion, it requires less energy to maintain.

Dr. Firdes Yenilmez: Yenilmez’s research examined the conditions of the Porsuk Dam Reservoir in Turkey. It suffers from an eutrophication problem due to excess nutrient loading from point and non-point sources in the Eskisehir and Kütahya provinces. Software supported by the Environmental Protection Agency called Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP Version 7.3), was used to evaluate pollution control alternatives to improve the water quality in the reservoir. The best resulting scenario provided a 60% reduction in the pollution loads transported by the Porsuk River. Total phosphorus concentrations met the requirement set for Class A2 water quality (drinkable water following physical and chemical treatment and disinfection), while nitrate and ammonia concentrations met quality standards defined by Class A1 water quality (drinkable water following physical treatment and disinfection).