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time to take place in France, dates to be decided, again to navigate around a theme
placing emphasis on linking technology, sustainability and humanity.

APPENDIX 2: The Water Medium

Water arguably represents the most important resource anyone of us will ever encounter,
rivalled only by the air we breathe. Water is 2/3s of our bodies, covers 71 percent of the
Earth’s surface, and is the key enabler and building block of lives.

Humans knew, for thousands of years, how to manage water – their life depended on it.
Societies were shaped and structured by the associated prerequisites, as manifested in the
remnants of traditional water management systems prevalent across the Middle East,
Northern Africa, and South-west Asia. The Romans placed water management at the centre-
stage of their civilisation. Managing their rivers was a lifeline for the Chinese. In Hinduism,
Mother of all life is embodied in the river, notably Ganges, the holiest of all. For the Wayuu
in La Guajira, Colombia, life stems from rain, in itself sacred and a living being. Throughout
Latin America, spanning the world’s largest freshwater reservoir, the Amazon Basin, the
frozen glaciers of the

Andes, or the steppes of Patagonia, tr aditional practices of water management and innovation
are inherently rooted since millennia in the identity of local communities, based on principles
of balance and reciprocity among people as well as all living beings inhabiting a shared
space.
In Arctic regions, as in Greenland or Canada, the importance of communicating the state of
“snow” bestowed local language with a multitude of specialised words totally unknown to
others.

On the Indian Ocean, and along its shores, the silk-road, the spices road, the road of
frankincense, persisted through thousands of years, until colonialism overthrew them and
drew other maps. Some of the greatest cultural works of all time, counted among the
Wonders of the World, or the ranks of UNESCO heritage sites, insist on the geography of
waters.

Today, water is mismanaged. Vast stretches of land dry up, followed by dramatic damage
from overflooding as natural drainage systems are long gone - wetlands, biomass and
landscapes that used to preserve balance and stable water cycles. Pollutants take many
shapes, e.g., hazardous waste, heavy metals, plastics, etc. Ever-lasting chemicals accumulate,
endanger microbiology and our health. Erosion, the salinization of soils, rising sea levels and
desolated coast lines spread out.

Excessive water use, mainly by agriculture but also industrial use, along with voluminous use
of pesticides, chemicals, and other pollutants, further absorb or degrade the quality of
groundwater. Further, the discharge of nutrients deplete lakes and oceans of oxygen, creating
gradually expanding dead zones. Overfishing at industrial scale and the constant discharge of
plastics and other manmade pollutants in the ocean deplete the natural stocks of sea-life.

Unimpeded construction of dams without consideration to the need of baby fish, along with
endless construction and exploitation of coastlines by modern infrastructures, break the cycle
of life in lakes and in the ocean. Global Warming puts species under pressure, leading to the

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