Many cities in the global south face unreliable, inadequate, or polluted supply of freshwater. Rapidly growing urban populations and increased competition for water across sectors, coupled with climate change, pose increasing risks to water supplies.

There is an urgent need for transparent data to inform water supply risk management policymaking - especially as India faces increasing water insecurity and water stress.

WRI India, in partnership with Microsoft and BlackRock, recently organized a hackathon to crowd source innovative ideas on predictive modelling to estimate reservoir water availability.

Wave2Web Townhall will present the winning teams and give attendees the chance to engage with experts on the possibilities offered by such predictive models to inform vital decision-making.

The webinar is targeted towards government officials (municipality, city, state, national), water utilities, disaster management cells, water tribunals, research institutions, data scientists, coders, developers, hydrologists and geospatial analysts.

The Wave2Web Townhall will feature:

• Keynote address by a prominent government functionary.
• Pitch presentations by the 3 winners of the hackathon.
• Announcement of the three winners, a panel discussion, followed by a Q&A session.

SPEAKERS

• Dr OP Agarwal, CEO, WRI India (Opening remarks)
• Dr. Manoj Rajan, Commissioner, Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) and Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), Revenue Department (Disaster Management), Government of Karnataka.
• SL Meena, Director, Water Management Directorate, Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India
• Shashi Shekhar, Senior Fellow, WRI India
• Samrat Basak, Director, Urban Water Resilience, WRI India (Moderator)