Talking points:

• The region’s relationship with water – is it time for a culture, governance, perception and policy shift?
• What progress has been made in terms of goals set out by regional water strategies such as the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036? What is needed to ensure that these goals are hit?
• What strategies and tactics can regional cities borrow from international cities in terms of water conservation and water capture?
• Is desalination the long-term sustainable answer to respond to water demand in the region, given the complexity, production of toxic brine, and energy demands of desalination plants? How can desalination plants be made more sustainable?
• How can food security be enhanced whilst minimising the dependence on thousands of litres of water?
• How can cities be designed/planned to take advantage of other potential sources of water, including rainfall driven by cloud seeding etc?
• Is more governance needed with regards to water consumption by the built environment and in terms of the handling and management of wastewater?
• How can the public and private sectors work together better to address water security from a water infrastructure project standpoint?

Talking points:

• What can the built environment do to be more efficient with its use of water during the design and construction phase of assets large and small?
• Can structures be designed to integrate air-to-water technologies, so that humidity can be turned into drinking water?
• What are the challenges in terms of water consumption and efficiency when a structure becomes operational? How can water efficiency be improved through the deployment of smart MEP systems and/or technology such as Digital Twins or state of the art building management systems?
• Can older structures be retrofitted cost effectively to make them more water efficient or is new-build the only answer to conserving water?
• District cooling is emerging as the most sustainable way to cool assets; how can district cooling plants make the best and most efficient use of water?
• Greywater reuse should be a widespread focus in the region, however it has yet to be adopted at scale. What can be done to kickstart this movement across all segments of the real estate sector?

Talking points:

• What are the key challenges that water distribution and sewage systems and treatment plants face today? What can be done to address these challenges?
• How can cities effectively scale-up wastewater treatment to alleviate pressure on existing water sources? What advances are there in terms of wastewater treatment technology and systems that could be a gamechanger?
• What systems and/or technology (artificial intelligence, digital twins, IoT, smart metering, data etc) can have a significant positive impact on water distribution/sewage infrastructure and support the achievement of national goals and strategies?
• Maintenance is critical to ensuring water distribution and sewage networks perform efficiently and reliably. What are the challenges associated with maintaining this infrastructure and how can it be addressed? Can technology play a significant role?
• Contaminated water is a growing concern in several markets in the Middle East – what are the primary causes and how can these challenges be addressed?