AquaWatch on the global stage

The 10th World Water Forum, held in Indonesia in May, recently brought together over 30,000 participants to discuss water challenges being faced around the world. The event was an opportunity to promote CSIRO’s work on AquaWatch to high-level politicians, NGOs, multilateral organisations and the private sector.

Mission Lead, Alex Held, and Partnerships Manager, Zandria Farrell, attended to represent AquaWatch. The schedule was packed with side meetings both with Australian and international contacts, which are continuing into ongoing discussions about potential partnerships to help AquaWatch scale into the future.

At the Australian Government booth, we demonstrated the interconnected nature of the AquaWatch system through a touch screen experience, where visitors could explore every aspect from satellite remote sensing to the data analytics capability of the EASI platform to the AquaWatch citizen science platform, Eye on Water.

The Indonesian and Australian governments announced an ambitious plan for water resource projects under the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries in 2023, with lake management being the main focus.

As part of this, a proposed AquaWatch pilot at Indonesia’s Lake Tempe was discussed and we are working with our internal and Government agency partners to progress this significant piece of work for the region.

Importantly, these opportunities will be considered for how they can support the ongoing work to build, test and enhance the AquaWatch system, delivering benefits back into CSIRO and the Australian application of AquaWatch.