Wetskills-Romania 2021 #denktankdroogte

Romania has a very diverse landscape and water system, with high mountains and the largest Delta of the European Union: Danube Delta. Romania faces challenges in water and wastewater, in both large urban areas as well as remote rural villages, and has a large water management experience of dealing with floods and droughts.

And the country itself is inspiring and various: From the booming big Bucharest with its historic buildings and churches, immens large People’s Parliament and the Old City with bars, pubs as heart of the City to idillic smaller cities and villages in epic Transylvania and more low and dry Wallachia (border to Bulgaria) and the Europe’s largest bioreserve Danube Delta.

Wetskills Foundation and partners will organize the Wetskills Challenge for the fifth time in Bucharest, Hungary. This Wetskills edition in Romania will be hosted by the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest. Wetskills Foundation partner with other Romanian academia Politehnica University of Bucharest and Technical University for Civil Engineering in Bucharest. Other main partners are Romanian Water Association, Apele Romane and the Embassy of The Kingdom of The Netherlands.

This edition of Wetskills will start on 12 September 2021, and is in and around to the great city of Bucharest. During the 2-weeks program the participants will work in international, multidisciplinary teams on real-life water cases. The finals and awarding will be an hybrid workshop with livestream on 23 September.

The drought related case that is part of the waterchallenge #denktankdroogte is case 4: Virtual Water flows between Romania and Hungary

Is it possible to use water on places when you are not present at that moment? Yes, it is! A virtual water flow is embedded water in products that are produced (with water use during the production process) at location A and consumed (with the embedded water in that product) at location B. Import and export mean a flow of virtual water as well. The Water Footprint, the method that determines the freshwater use in production processes, is an excellent tool to provide insights in the virtual water flows between continents, countries and/or river basins. How can we use the virtual water flow between Romania and Hungary for improving the sustainable freshwater use in both countries?

This case is first part of the CaseBooster programme, where the virtual water flows between the countries will be determined. With the provided information a practical case will be set up for Wetskills in Hungary or in Romania. So, detailed information will be provided in a later stage.

Wetskills Foundation is inviting students (Bachelor (final year), Master and PhD) and Young Professionals from universities and organisations worldwide with a passion for Water-Energy-Food, to join this great experience. Apply for Wetskills-Romania 2021 (period: 12 – 24 September 2021).

For more information and registration: https://wetskills.com/event/wetskills-romania-2021/