Organized by International Water Association (IWA) and the University of Coimbra, the 4th IWA International Symposium on Water and Wastewater Technologies in Ancient Civilizations was held from 17th to 19th September 2016 in Coimbra, Portugal.

Dedicated to themes relevant to ancient, traditional and cultural technologies of water and wastewater globally, since the prehistoric era, the Symposium aimed to promote interactions, motivate discussions and encourage collaborations among the global community on water, wastewater and storm water management. Bringing together research scientists, historians, archaeologists, and engineers from academic institutions and industries around the world, the Symposium discussed History of Climatic Changes and/or Variability, Water Cultures, Environmental History, Cultural Heritage of Water Usage, Water Supply and Treatment, and Urban Water and Wastewater Management.

More information about the Symposium: http://www.wwac2016.com/

For pictures of the Symposium: http://www.dec.uc.pt/~wwac2016/WWAC2016_Photos.zip

During the symposium, the Global Wastewater Initiative (GW2I) (launched by UNEP in 2013) held a session with UNEP, IWA Specialist Groups (IWA SC), United States of America Environment Protection Agency (US EPA) and SUEN. Titled “Global Storm- and Wastewater Initiatives: Past, present and future”, the session shared studies and examples on wastewater management from different parts of the world. SUEN’s Dr. Aslıhan Kerç attended the session as GW2I Chairman and made a presentation on “Wastewater Challenges & Response from the GW2I Regional Impacts: Case Studies from East Europe and Africa”.

More information about the session

GW2I 's main scope is to conduct studies on sustainable waste management (meetings, seminars, field work, training, etc.) and promote international cooperation. The initiative has been chaired by SUEN since June 2015.