AWWA Gathers in Canada

The world’s water community gathered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 24-28 for AWWA’s 125th Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE07) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Approximately 12,000 water industry professionals explored the future of safe water, gained knowledge of and insight into cutting-edge research and best practices, as well as experienced the latest products and services available to the water community.

ACE07 featured an expansive professional program with some 1,000 experts in the water industry and in-depth workshops and more than 500 exhibitors that showcased the latest products and services available to help ensure safe water. During ACE07, Nila Kothari, general manager of public utilities for Manitowoc, Wis., assumed the AWWA presidency in a gavel passing ceremony June 27. The new president-elect is Mike Leonard, water operations manager for the City of Roswell, Ga.

At the event, AWWA and the India Water Works Association (IWWA) launched a new era of cooperation by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to share expertise and resources that extend their common goal of providing safe and reliable water. The MOU includes examining existing programs and other resources for potential cooperative efforts and exchange of comparative industry information, developing cooperative arrangements for promoting each others programs and materials, maintaining regular communication between leaders of the associations and developing avenues to promote dialogue among the associations members who share similar expertise, are looking for new programs to develop cooperatively and share various expertise and program benefits.

One of the important issues that was highlighted at ACE07 is the need to re-invest in critical water infrastructure. AWWA has launched a public outreach campaign called Only Tap Water Delivers to help utilities inform elected officials and the public about the value of the water infrastructure.

ACE07 also featured special events and competitions such as Meter Madness in which contestants race to assemble a specified water meter from a bucket of parts. The Pipe-Tapping Contest provided a competition of skill in which water operators from across North America worked against the clock to open a cement-lined, ductile iron pipe and install a tap.

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