Water Summit Sunk by Hot Air

I had an interesting job last week—shooting images for a company that was exhibiting and presenting technical workshops at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Water Summit in my hometown, Chiang Mai. My brief was to provide images of interested visitors at their booth as well as members of staff interacting with VIPs (mostly heads of state).

Though my task was only to take photos, I couldn’t help forming an impression of the event as an interested bystander. Like everyone else, I’m a big fan of water, and I dread the day when our taps run dry. Unfortunately, now the summit is over, that day seems closer than ever.

Photographers at the Water Summit

When will our taps run dry?

I’m no expert on the subject, but I am aware that human activity is largely responsible for worsening drought and floods worldwide. Thailand itself has been one of the hardest hit countries, by the tragic tsunami in 2004 and catastrophic floods in 2011. Yet such fundamental issues as showing respect for nature were not even addressed by the delegates, who were more interested in proposing new dam projects and other schemes that can bring big profits for the companies involved.

So why can't we stop the increasing frequency and intensity of water-related disasters?

Perhaps the summit’s theme, ‘Water Security and Water-Related Disasters’, encouraged a commercial rather than ideological slant to proceedings. Also, Thailand’s recent commitment to spend US$12 billion on water-related projects in the next five years acted as a strong incentive for hi-tech companies to unveil early-warning programmes based on telemetry and other advanced communication systems.

My concerns began as soon as I entered the memorably-named Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Center Commemorating His Majesty’s 7th Cycle Birthday Anniversary, which covers an incredible half a million square meters and was built at a cost of US$100 million.

The enormous convention center sits at the foot of Doi Suthep

The energy bills for running the air-con alone must be astronomical, and when I considered the expenses for over 1000 delegates from more than 40 countries to attend the event (flights, fancy hotels and so on), along with the construction of hi-tech booths to impress the public, not to mention hundreds of heavily-armed security personnel, it was obvious that the event would both cost a fortune and leave a huge carbon footprint.

One of the hi-tech booths at the Water Summit

Sadly, wastefulness was glaringly apparent at the summit. On arrival, all delegates and participants were presented with a shoulder bag containing a souvenir shirt (unlikely to be worn after the event as the date was stamped on the pockets), a thumb drive containing some academic papers on the water situation and several notebooks and pens. I wondered how many trees had been cut down to create a bunch of notebooks that would probably be stored in a cupboard and forgotten. Doesn’t everyone take notes digitally these days?

Each of the main exhibition booths was fronted by a pair of drop-dead gorgeous receptionists, who handed out more freebies (fans, pens and more notebooks) to visitors, and posed for endless photos. At the most popular reception desks, the girls dressed like water engineers, in boiler suits and hard hats, with long tresses flowing over their shoulders, boiler suits open to the navel, and high-heeled, knee-length boots.

Receptionists dressed as water engineers

The exhibition, as it turned out, had little to do with water but lots to do with technology. Each booth had several huge touch-screen monitors displaying complex graphics and footage of the Bangkok floods in 2011, resulting in a cacophony of sound assaulting visitors’ ears. Predictably, comments by Thailand’s King Bhumibol were scattered around, though few exhibitors had heeded his simple observation that “if there is no water but there is electricity, we will perish…”. All proposed solutions at the summit to water-related disasters depended heavily on a constant power supply, something that’s unlikely in the event of a major disaster.

Wise words from King Bhumibol

In the technical workshops and round tables I attended, knowledgeable experts extolled the virtues of remote sensors and fibre-optic cables, while CEOs and heads of state expressed trite comments about ‘the water problem’. It seemed that despite the enormous expense of holding this summit, nothing significant would result from it.

Thailand's Deputy PM heads a round table discussion full of hot air

These fears were confirmed when the ‘Chiang Mai Declaration’ was released after the summit. It consists of nothing but vague statements about co-operation between nations and increasing the transfer of technology. If you want to see the whole thing, you can find it here.

As I left the complex on the last day, feeling frazzled after battling with other photographers for a decent shot of dignitaries like Yingluck Shinawatra (the Thai Prime Minister), dark clouds rolled down the Ping Valley from the north, signalling a monsoon downpour.

Jung Hong-won (South Korea), Yingluck Shinawatra (Thailand) and Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh) at the Water Summit

I almost wished it would inundate the convention center, giving the hot-shot technocrats a chance to put their disaster-avoidance strategies into practice, but then I realized that would also flood my home just a couple of kilometres down the road. So I drove home wondering just how long we’ve got before the world’s water wars kick off.