15 2017 Wastewater is key to tackling the global scarcity crisis A roundtable meeting to debate the future of water To celebrate World Water Day, the We Are WaterDelacámara, adviser to the General Directorate forleaders to pay attention and to initiate projects that really Foundation organised the roundtable meeting “WaterEnvironment in the European Commission, Juan Mateotackle this problem efficiently, social pressure is needed. reuse. Are we ready?” at the Roca Barcelona Gallery.Horrach Torrens, professor at the Universitat de les IllesIn this kind of initiative, the Foundation believes it is During the meeting, various experts on water, theBalears (University of the Balearic Islands) and Xavieressential to involve the population in order to empower environment and communication debated the challengesTorras, director of the We Are Water Foundation.them and educate them so that these projects can be and opportunities that wastewater generates for the sustainable over time. future. The participants, moderated by Pedro PabloAll the speakers agreed that there is still much work to do García May, journalist and current assistant head of theand that it will be a long road to achieve a goal that department EFE Future/EFE Verde, were Gonzalobenefits everyone. They highlighted that in order for Series of conferences: Sergio Bitar analyses the growing issue of water in Latin America Organised by the We Are Water Foundation and Casa Amèrica Catalunya, in the session the challenges posed by the water crisis and the role that politics plays were analysed On 4 May, the Roca Barcelona Gallery held a new meeting of the series “Water and Metropolis”. The headline speaker of the session, entitled “Political action in the water crisis in Latin America”, was Sergio Bitar, Chilean engineer and former Minister for Mining, Education and Public Works in the governments of Salvador Allende, Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet. With his extensive experience in leading projects to combat the issue of water in the region, he analysed the situation in Latin America to explain how it is being managed by the various political bodies of the region. The large urban concentrations of Latin America, which account for 80% of its population, a figure which is expected to increase in the coming years, cause resourcescrisis, various proposals have been put forward to find aorder to tackle the challenges that are faced, such as as essential as water to start to become scarce, meaningsolution to this problem. According to his criteria, it istreating wastewater, promoting desalinisation and a minimum supply cannot be guaranteed. Faced with thisessential to implement changes in water management inrecovering water from rivers that flow into the sea. 27