Title: #CitiesOnTheFrontline 2023 | حفظ آب با عدالت

فرانسه در تابستان ۲۰۲۲ یک خشکسالی تاریخی را تجربه کرد که باعث محدودیت‌های آب و حرکت جدیدی در زمینه هوشیاری یا صرفه‌جویی در مصرف آب در شهرهای فرانسه شد. این کشور در سال ۲۰۲۳ یک شوک کمبود آب دیگر را پیش بینی می کند. شهرهای ایالات متحده آمریکا دهه هاست که با خشکسالی و کمبود آب مواجه بوده اند. برخی از رویکردهایی که در حفظ آب موثر بوده اند شامل ترکیبی از زیرساخت های بهتر (یعنی حداقل نشت) و آگاهی بهتر از نحوه استفاده مسئولانه از آب است. برخی از شهرها نیز به عنوان بخشی از مدیریت آب خود در حال بررسی زیرساخت های سبز و راه حل های مبتنی بر طبیعت بوده اند. توجه به این نکته ضروری است که بحران آب جوامع و محله‌های مختلف را به‌طور متفاوتی تحت تأثیر قرار می‌دهد و در زمان بحران، شهرها باید سیستم‌ها، سیاست‌ها و زیرساخت‌هایی داشته باشند تا اطمینان حاصل شود که گروه‌های آسیب‌پذیر و حاشیه‌نشین همچنان به آب پاک و سالم دسترسی دارند. چهارمین جلسه از مجموعه سخنرانان شهرهای ۲۰۲۳ در خط مقدم با حمایت سفارت ایالات متحده آمریکا، فرانسه و میزبانی مشترک با France Ville Durable، با تمرکز بر “محافظت از آب با عدالت”. برای شروع جلسه، جسیکا بانولز، معاون امور فرهنگی سفارت ایالات متحده در فرانسه، بر نیاز به بحث آزادانه در مورد موضوعات و یادگیری نحوه برخورد شهرهای ایالات متحده و فرانسه با این مسائل تاکید کرد. سخنرانان: آلیشیا لی، مدیر حفاظت از آب، شهر دالاس فرانسوا کروکت، مدیر انتقال اکولوژیکی و آب و هوا ۰:۰۰ مقدمه جلسه ۹:۰۰ دالاس ساعت ۲۴:۳۰ پاریس ساعت ۴۱:۰۰ پرسش و پاسخ با اعضای پانل درباره شهرهای در خط مقدم بیشتر بدانید: https://resilientcitiesnetwork.org/category/cities-on-the-frontline/

قسمتي از متن فيلم: All right. Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Cities on the Frontline Speaker Series session on conserving water with equity. My name is Ron Harris. I’m from the Resilient Cities Network, and I will be your co-host for today, along with Marion.

Before we begin, let me give you a really quick intro to the series and the ground rules. Cities on the Frontline is a virtual thought leadership speaker series featuring solutions by Cities for Cities. It began in 2020 through a partnership between the Resilient Cities Network and the World Bank Group’s City Resilience Program.

The series provides city practitioners a platform for knowledge exchange. The fourth session of the Cities on the Frontline Speaker Series 2023 is hosted with the support of the Embassy of the United States of America, France, and co-hosted with France Ville Durable. The session will be held in collaboration with partners. Again.

Like I said, France Ville Durable And the World Bank Before we start, let me remind everybody of the intentions of this speaker series and the ground rules for the conversation today. The purpose of these global seminars is to have an open and honest learning conversation.

Now, these calls are not on the record, and We ask you to not attribute any comments unless you have the person’s express permission to do so. We can help you obtain this information if you so desire. We have about 330 registered participants for the call

Today, so in order to facilitate the discussion, we ask that you write your questions down on the Q and A function on Zoom. We also have interpretation options available for this webinar in French. To access this option, click on the Interpretation tab on your screen and select the language.

You will also be able to hear the original audio in low volume, but you can choose to mute it from the same tab. I’ll repeat, to access this option, click on the Interpretation tab on your screen and select your language. You’ll still be able to hear the original

Audio in low volume, but you can choose to mute it from the same tab. Please note that the recording of this session as well as the PowerPoint presentations will be posted online by next week. I would now kindly invite Jessica Banwas, who is a US.

Embassy diplomat, to share the opening remarks, followed by Marion to introduce the topic and the panelists. Thank you. Jessica, over to you. Great. Thank you so much. I’m so pleased to join you today. And good morning and bonjour to everybody. We are very happy to open the first

Cities on the Frontline Webinar with a Franco American perspective, especially considering that we’re just a few days away from Earth Day. Climate change is one of the most serious threats we’re facing on all continents. Disasters multiply and worsen year after year, affecting all of humanity rich as well as poor.

This series of webinars will highlight how the US and France tackle climate related issues to build a better future. Now, no one can face this crisis alone and discussing these topics openly is the best way to begin. This is why the US Embassy supports a number

Of initiatives to promote dialogue on climate related issues. And just a couple of examples we have a current podcast that we’ve just released in collaboration with Binge audio adapt or what? We have a series of workshops led by a French NGO, Make Sense, on combating plastic pollution in the food

Services sector, a series of workshops and conferences with the Mayor of Sausalito in Beeritz and Paris to discuss sea rise solutions in June and I could go on. We believe that sharing inspiring initiatives and actions is how we will find hope. Again, thank you to the Resilient Cities

Network, the World Bank and France Vildorabla for organizing and running these sessions back. Over to you, Ron. Good afternoon and good morning to all of you. Depending on where you are joining us from, I’m very pleased to be hosting this session for the Cities on the Frontline series has

Been partnering with the Resilient Cities Network to improve knowledge and access to efficient methods, tools and solution for resilience in France and Europe. And starting this new series on the topic of conserving water with equity makes perfect sense today as we have reached a tipping point for the water

Resource as according to scientific data available, the six planetary boundary monitoring the fresh water cycle was overshot in spring last year. Cities in the US are used to facing drought and water scarcity and have developed interesting approaches to conserve water, including not only better infrastructure, better awareness

On how to use water responsibly, but also a natural based solution from water management. For instance, in France since last summer we have been experiencing severe backtoback drought episodes, not only in August, but also amidst winter with 32 days without any rainfall in last February. Compelling action for more sobriety and

More efficient water management to preserve the resource at national level. The topic also emphasizes equity today as it is a key challenge that has to be addressed by public policies and infrastructures to ensure access to clean and safe water for all. So today for the discussion, we are hosting

And welcoming Ms alicia Lee, weather Conservation Manager for the City of Dallas, Texas, and Mr francois Croquette, director for Ecological Transition and Climate for the City of Paris. Alicia was born and raised in Dallas and she’s a graduate in Biology and Conservation Ecology and she has experience in research internationally in

Namibia, Africa and statewide in Texas. She also served as a Water Conservation Specialist for the City of Carrollton before joining the City of Dallas where she delivers water conservation programs and initiatives to the nearly 1.3 million residents within the city. Francois is a director for Ecological Transition and Climate.

He is a Carrier Diplomat, currently seconded to cityol in Paris where he oversees the climate plan and resilience strategy for the city. Before that, he served in several postings abroad, including Quinchesa, Moscow, and London, and he also was a diplomatic advisor to the president of the French Senate

And was involved in the preparation of the Cop 21 and the negotiation of the Paris Agreement. Last but not least, Francois was a French Ambassador for human Rights from 2017 to 2021, and he worked for the release of a political prisoner in Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and China. So welcome, Alicia and Francois.

Thanks for your participation. And the floor is back to Ron for the first questions to Dallas. All right. Thank you, Marion. And thank you, audience, for giving my fumbling of French words. I appreciate your patience on this. First, we’re going to go to Alicia. Alicia, thank you for being here and thank you

For the work that you’re doing in Dallas. Could you tell us about what the Save Dallas Water campaign is? Why did you all decide to design this comprehensive initiative? And as you’re telling us more about it, could you also highlight the context in terms of what

Is happening in Texas and why that context of being in Texas and also choosing to go about the route of doing the Save the Water campaign? Hi, Ron. Thank you for this question and good morning. Good evening. Good night, everyone around the world. To best illustrate our initiatives, I did

Put together a brief PowerPoint presentation. So let me share my screen, if I may. 1 moment. Let’s see. Which screen are you seeing? We see the full PowerPoint app, not just the presentation itself. There we go. Are you seeing the presentation or the presenter view?

We see the presenter view with your notes. Got you. Swap. That better. You’re not seeing yourselves, are you? No. Okay, fantastic. You’re seeing the presentation, just to clarify, right? Correct? Yes. Perfect. To answer your first question, the Save Dallas Water Initiative is really a result of ultimately

What was going on in the 1950s. So in order to kind of say where we are now, we kind of need to backtrack and learn about how we arrived, where we are now. So the worst drought that we have experienced occurred in 1950 to 1957. So nearly 75 years ago, Texans went through

The most severe drought they’d ever seen. In response to this, in 1959, the long range water supply plan was developed. 30 years after that, in 1989, Water Conservation Division was established and identified as a water management strategy. So the 1989 Long Range Water Supply Plan states, the water conservation program is

An important element in the planning process, and if followed by the public, results in delayed expenditures for future infrastructure development. Okay, so I’ll kind of break that down for you a little bit. But essentially, if people are using less water and voluntarily conserving water, that pushes off the

Need for us to find additional water resources. So part of another reaction to this drought was the completion of the Forney Dam at Lake Ray Hubbard, which is owned by the city. This also began what we know as our wholesale customers. So while Dallas does provide water directly to

The residents within the city of Dallas, we also provide wholesale water to surrounding cities. So ultimately, our reach is more than two and a half million people when you consider the wholesale customers as well. So the Save Dallas Water Initiative is if you can

Visit our website, it has all of our information available. That website has been revamped in most recent years, so it’s very user friendly. So essentially, Save Dallas water started almost 75 years ago as a response to the severe drought that all of Texas went through.

Dallas was the major city that was hit the hardest. And so what we have done in response to this is implemented various water conservation strategies. So since 2001, we have saved over 387,000,000,000 gallons, which is about 1.5 trillion liters. So you can see since 2001, we have it shown here on

This graph, from 2001 to 2022, the water we have saved. And we are constantly projecting what kind of water supply will we have 50 years into the future. So we use the drought of record, that seven years of drought, to say if we were to go into this drought

Tomorrow, what water supplies do we have available to make sure that we can make it through those seven years? Okay. Dallas is well known for very conservatively using water and taking a conservative approach to ensuring we have supply through 2070 and beyond. So our current long range water supply

Plan, most recent one was in 2014. We are currently redoing that we do it about every ten years or so. And so if you look at this pie chart, additional conservation accounts for 6% of our water supply that we expect to have. So by saving water currently, we can add that

To the supply we expect to have in future. I don’t know if then now is an appropriate time to go into the history of Dallas water conservation program. I can kind of briefly touch on some of the major things. Yes. If I’m going beyond your question, let me know and I’ll pause.

Well, I’ll just say I think this is great. And I think while you’re going through the history of the water conservation program, also if you could share from your experience what went well with Save Dallas water and share more about the success story and what enabled that success.

So talking about the history and then talking about the success of the initiative would be great. Sure. So, like I said, the Water Conservation Division was officially established in the 1989 water supply plan. The first approach that Dallas took was education and encouraging customers to conserve water.

It’s very important that we have the public’s buy in so to speak, or the public’s cooperation in conserving water, because as cliche as it sounds, every drop adds up. And so in order to get the public to help us with this initiative, we developed a number of incentives, educational campaigns, rebates.

And later on, as I kind of go through this timeline, you’ll see how we were working to uplift communities or individuals, households, if you will, that need a little bit of help because of income requirements and generational issues so we could help assess their water use and how we can best support them.

So ultimately, we’re asking for the cooperation of the public and also finding ways to support them in this initiative. So I will point out a few important dates, as we’ve discussed starting out in this panel, talking about how climate change, we’re seeing it exacerbate, we’re seeing it become more and more extreme.

So Dallas has undergone a few drought issues over the years. In the year 2000, we had a very hot, dry weather. Dallas water utilities was running into peak capacity concerns and also with very low water rates. So as a demand management strategy, an enhanced program was adopted in 2001 in

Response to that hot, dry weather. So the dallas city council amended our ordinance and included water conservation rates. So we changed the rates and also stopped landscape water waste by including time of day watering restrictions. So there are certain times of day, especially in the summer,

It’s so warm that the water, if you were to water your grass, your lawn, in the middle of the day, all that water is just going to be evaporated immediately. So by saying you cannot water from 10:00 a.m. To 06:00 p.m., we are encouraging landowners that are

Watering their lawn to water outside of those times to make sure that their grass is actually getting that water that they’re applying to their lawn. Let’s see. In 2005, we adopted a five year strategic plan for water conservation. This outlined everything we have done and everything we plan to do.

So having a plan, sticking to it, and not letting up on these water conservation measures have really benefited our supply. 2012 was the last time we went into stage one drought restrictions. We’ve been very fortunate since then to have the reservoirs at a pretty high capacity, over 75%, basically in 2012.

That’s the last time we went into our drought restrictions. And each year we keep track of how much water is being used, how much water we have in our reservoirs and surface water. And there’s now a permanent ordinance that residents can only use their sprinkler system twice per week on designated days.

Now, I understand that many places in the world don’t have what we have here in dallas or in Texas in general, where they have these beautiful lawns. We take a lot of pride in our lawns outside. So that is the number one use, the number one water waste is outdoor sprinkler systems.

So that’s why we tackled that ordinance. Because if we can aim at the most waste of water, then we can make the most impact, essentially. Thank you. Thank you for that. And finally, we’re interested in how your city, how Dallas, ensures that poor folks, vulnerable folks, marginalized groups have limited impact

During the drought and water scarcity events. We know that when there are shocks and stresses, poor folks, unmarginalized groups are experiencing that first and experiencing it worse. And so how, through the Save Dallas Water Conservation program, do you all ensure that these groups, we can reduce the risk experienced by these groups? Yes.

So let me skip ahead on a few of things. Okay, so one of the major things that was implemented would be our water rates. So there are five different categories that water users fall into, and that is based on how much water they use. So let’s say the average household uses

About 2000 gallons of water per month. So we have multiple tiers, as shown in our monthly payment rates down here. I know it might be a little hard to read, it’s kind of small, but essentially by having these five different tiers, we can guarantee that someone using less than 4000 gallons per month.

And again, the average usage is 2000. Their monthly charge for water will only be $7.64. And then also we added a tier for extremely high water users above 30,000 gallons a month. I don’t have that metric here of how much it would be, but it’s not cheap.

So again, if you’re using that much water, it’s most likely because you have a really large lawn and you’re trying to keep that lawn flush and beautiful. So we have that higher rate generally, like I said, people aren’t using that much. And so we keep the rates as low

As possible while still being able to fund infrastructure improvements and paying for the utility expenses. It’s a nonprofit, right? So all the money that people put towards their water bill goes directly into the utilities. Making progress. A few other ways that have helped is our financial assistance for water bills.

Right now, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs helps low income households pay their water bill. There’s also an initiative within the city of Dallas called Operation WaterShare where people can pay extra on their water bill. And that goes into a fund for people.

If they can’t pay their water bill due to low income, they get to use that funds to make sure that the water continues to flow through their homes. And then lastly, the Minor Plumbing Repair Program is one of the programs that my team here runs, offers assistance with minor plumbing problems.

So a leaking faucet, a leaking toilet, anything that’s not behind a wall. We go and inspect this home. We do a thorough inspection of all the areas of the house where water could be leaking and then we contract out a plumber to go and make all of those amendments and

Fix all of the issues that the household has. And this is a program that is free to that individual household. Of course, you have to qualify with a certain income level. You also have to be the owner of the home and reside in the residence. But this is a really great way, a

Very powerful way that people can maintain the integrity of their homes while also conserving water. So I would say those are our most impactful, directly impactful programs for marginalized low income communities. Wow. Thank you for, again, explaining in detail this initiative and going into detail about how we protect and

Support our most marginalized in our communities. For folks who have questions, we will definitely address questions towards the end. So make sure that you populate those questions in the Q and A function on Zoom any questions that you have for Ms. Alicia Lee. Thank you so much, Alicia.

I will pass it to Marion, who will dive into the city of Paris. Thank you very much, Ron. Thank you, Alicia, for the insight. So, Mr. Coquette, how severely was Paris affected by water scarcity and drought? And what has been the impact for the Parisians and the functioning of the city?

Hi, everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening to you all and warm welcome from Paris. I should thank the network for providing French translation for this panel, and of course, we should make the most of you of it. As a French diplomat, I’m always happy to speak

In French, so I’ll try speaking French, and if there’s any trouble with the system, give me a shout so that we make sure you can follow. And I’ll switch back to English. Sorry to interrupt, Francois. Actually, I think the translation is only one way, if I’m not mistaken.

So maybe you should speak in English and translation will be provided in French, actually. Sorry, not a big deal. So, to answer your question, well, we’ve been hit, as you said, last summer, and this was kind of a wake up call for Paris. We’ve been lucky enough all through the centuries to have

A quite robust system in terms of our water system. Of course, Paris is the city that was built around the River Sin, and the river has always provided us with enough water all through the centuries. But that has started to change, and we’ve had previous episodes of water scarcity

All through the 20th century. Some serious droughts back in 1921, 947, 1976, when there was a severe drought all over France. But you can see it was a very rare occurrence each and every 30 years or so. Now, what has changed in recent years is that

We’ve had episodes of severe drops in Paris in 2019, 2021, and last year in 2022. So you can see it’s turning into a pattern, and we have to face this reality. Last summer. At the beginning of August the French government decided that there was an emergency situation in

A number of places, the usual suspects in the southeast of France mostly where the temperatures are always higher, but also in Paris. And again to us that was a bit of a wake up call so we didn’t have to limit the amount of water that

Could be used by the citizens of Paris last summer. But we came close and so we have to get ready for all sorts of scenarios when this could become again a very likely possibility for the city of Paris. What we’ve seen in recent months and weeks

Is only well goes to show that there’s higher risk than ever during the winter. In France and Paris, winter rains have all but stopped. And the result is that even though we’ve had some rain in the last months, the average is 15% below what we usually get in terms of rain in Paris.

So we need to get ready for this and for all sorts of scenarios. Like I said, there is of course the risk of drought for agriculture around Paris and that involves of course dry grounds but also risk of hydrological drought meaning that water table would be affected.

And finally the scenario that we have to get ready for is socioeconomical crisis in terms of the use of water and a combination of course of all these options is also possible and this is what we are trying to do to make sure we can adapt to those scenarios.

Thank you very much for this insights and so can you tell us how the city is actually addressing this risk and what are your key initiatives and policies you are currently implementing to face the risk? So we’ve adopted I met city plan in the city

Of Paris and that has been the case for about 15 years and the water strategy is part of this wider plan as we believe we have to take into account a systemic crisis of all elements relating to climate. But of course water and water scarcity is one of the

Most important plans that we have to draft for this. We need to know more about what’s coming next. Clearly as I said, this is a new pattern in Paris. We’re not used to those kind of conditions unlike the city of Dallas that has explained that this

Kind of situation has been a pattern for a very long time now this is quite different. We need to find out more. What we’ve done is study the resilience of the city to what we know is coming, meaning more heat waves, rising temperature, we’ve already registered plus two degrees in terms

Of the average temperature in Paris over the last century and we know of course that some of our utilities will be well, possibly critically challenged. One of the most important energy facilities is the nuclear plant that is in the city of Nojean siosen. So it’s literally on the river and it needs

The water of the river to be able to provide electricity to a vast region around Paris. So factoring all these elements has been for us the priority. And this is why we’ve decided to start a study, to launch a study with the help of the OECD department in Paris.

What we would like to be able to do with the help of this study is to better understand and improve the resilience of an urban area like Paris, which is a very dense city, to the risk of water scarcity. And again, this risk should be addressed.

At least that’s the way we would like to deal with this in terms of the overall socioeconomic response of the city. Of course, we need to make sure that we can provide water to all the citizens in Paris, even through a very dry season, as will probably be the case again next summer.

But we want to go deeper than that and make sure that we can also try and get ready for, like I said, possible energy shortages and make sure that the agriculture that we’re trying to keep around the city of Paris can still function in spite of those very

Different circumstances from what we’ve known before for us. And this is why we are very pleased to share this within the resilient city network. This is all about a resilient strategy. It’s not only about making sure that there’s enough water from the tap. That is something we are reasonably confident we’ll be

Able to provide even in the worst case scenarios. But what we need to keep into perspective is the risk of the whole city having to function on very low levels of water. Thank you very much. You’ve already touched upon the last question and you said it was difficult to anticipate with the changing

Pattern going on with rainfalls and climate change. But what are actually the future trends on water scarce city you are anticipating? And do you have further recommendation for cities to be better prepared to address these risks? Well, that is a very good question.

Like I said, what we’re already facing is a possible reduction of around 15% of the amount of water that we can rely on, be it from the rivers that flow into Paris or from the subterranean sources that we can also rely on in order to be able to face such a trend.

What we’ve put in place, and that of course is in line with the French government’s recent announcement of national plan is to try and reduce by 10% in the coming year the level of water that the city uses. For this, again, we need to know more.

We need to know exactly where the water goes, where it can be possibly wasted if there are any leaks in the system. And this is something we’ve been working on for quite a long time and ultimately by 2025 we should be able to reach this 10% target and from then on

Hopefully achieve a 25% reduction by 2035. So that is the goal we’ve set just in the latest weeks. And of course, it remains to be seen whether or not we can achieve what is quite an ambitious goal for the city of Paris. I think we would try and do.

And what I would recommend in other cases is to work through partnerships. We will not be able to reach this target alone. We need to work with the regions around Paris because this is, again, like I said, where the agricultural resources are based and to make sure that the whole system

Is able to function, even though we know that we will face a very different climate. We need to work with cities, regions, and, of course, business system around Paris. And this is what we’ve started doing using the public water utility in Paris. It’s called odipari. And Odipari is responsible for

Providing water to provisions. And of course, they work very closely with the upstream part of the river. And it would be in the region of Burgundy where the river sand starts flowing and where we have bought pieces of land around the river trying to make sure that they are not polluted and

That they can remain as agricultural fields that can, of course, help preserve the system. And we also work, of course, downstream with the region of Normandy, because this is a very active region, one that will need a lot of water. And in terms of the sustainability of the

Economic system, the whole Paris region, including parts of Burgundy, and normally would amount to about one third of the French national products. So we need to make sure this can still function, but in a different way, in a way that will take into account water scarcity and use well, each and every level.

We can use at the city level to promote restraint in the use of water, in the use of drinking water, of course, but also possibly first and foremost of non drinking water. And this is where we have identified most of the leaks I was referring to.

So again, we have to look at the broad picture of the use of water in and around Paris if we’re going to address the very likelihood of future droughts and the general scarcity of water that we probably will have to learn to live with. Thank you very much.

Frost, I have further questions for you, but maybe we should take questions from the audience first. Maybe. Ron, you can start and then I’ll get back to Francois if there are not other questions for Paris, but I have some more for you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Francois. Thank you, Alicia.

We’re really fortunate to have both of you here sharing with us, and this is really rich information. Now we’re going to go to questions from the audience again. If. You all have questions about either one of these case studies or anything else that you’d like to talk about

As it relates to conserving water with equity, please use the Q and A function again on zoom. I will start with this question from the audience. The question is Alicia, how have you considered the future scenario of potential drought which could be different than the ones that were in the 50s?

As you stated in your presentation, climate change will certainly result in more extreme events. So again, the question is, how have you considered in Dallas the future scenarios of potential droughts? Hi there. Thank you for this question. Dallas Water Utilities has a very regimented modeling approach to how to measure.

So let me put this simply. The worst case scenario is what we measure from the worst case scenario being the seven year drought is is the best way for us to anticipate another drought. So when we use the drought of record being the worst drought in our modeling, it is possible that the

Water planners do use other methods to as far as I’m aware, we only use the drought of record to measure what our water supply will be. In a worst case scenario, the superintendent over in planning might use other more intense measures for more extreme events, but as far as I’m aware, they

Strictly go off of the drought of record, since that is the information we have on hand. And as a data driven utility, we want to use what we could expect to happen, most likely to happen, and the drought of record is our best way to compare our water

Supply if we were to go into drought tomorrow, we always plan for that seven year drought of record. They might try other more extreme droughts in their modeling process, but as far as I’m aware, they strictly use the seven year drought of record metric. Thank you, and I will come right back

To you with this next question, and then we’ll shift over to following up with Francois. This question from the audience. Is there evidence that higher water rates actually curb the use by wealthy residents in Dallas or anywhere else here in America? In particular, large green lawns are a status symbol

That many wealthy people are willing to pay for? Yes. So to answer your question, we have a program that I didn’t mention in the presentation, which are free irrigation inspections. So we have an irrigation expert on staff in the water conservation division that provides inspections of irrigation

Systems or sprinkler systems for the public. So I can say that, yes, it does curb the extensive water use that large water users use for their beautiful green lawns. A lot of this happens towards the end of the summer when they get a really large water bill, and

Then it kind of sparks them to ask questions, saying, how is my water bill this expensive? And that’s where our staff go out and we measure how much water their sprinkler system is using and we can confirm, yes, based on your settings, you did use

This much water and you kind of have to cover that bill essentially for a lot of people that does deter them from doing it. Again, what happens is they tend to have a conversation with our irrigation expert. He helps go through their controller and literally programs in their controller the amount of water

That they will need for their lawn that will also not overwater the lawn. We found that a lot of these large properties that have a large bill are in fact over watering their lawn. They’re expecting to have these super lush green lawns in the summertime when that’s not really best for

The lawn to establish those really deep root systems. You do want to let it go thirsty a little bit. And so our irrigation expert really works with them on that. And then we do see a reduction of those households and how much water they’re using. Now, of course, there are going to be,

Especially here in Dallas, we have a few celebrities that live in the region. And not to say that they’re the ones over watering, but I will say that for the households that can’t afford it, it might not deter them as much. But my hope is that as sustainability becomes

More trendy, that they accept our recommendations to use more native and adapted plants that will not require a sprinkler system. Maybe some minor drip and just the natural rainfall will help keep those plants alive. So as a society, as a globe, as we continue to move towards sustainable practices, I think we’re

Going to see these higher water users start following those examples as well for maybe putting plants in their lawn that won’t require so much supplemental water. Thank you for that. I’m smiling because I’m from and live in Minneapolis and I was a former chief resilience officer there.

And to your point about sustainability becoming more of a trend for people to adopt into, people were actually, and I don’t support this as a measure, but people were actually shaming folks for the size of their lawns and not having more diverse greenery and diverse kind of plant options.

And there are a lot of people who are kind of shamed into changing their practices and their landscapes as a result of this wave of the trend of more sustainable practices. Again, I don’t recommend shaming, but I’m speaking to the idea of the power of a

Trend and the power of everybody looking out for each other and moving forward together. All right, Marion, over to you. Thank you very much. I’m sorry. Before taking questions in the chat, I want to jump on this idea of landscaping because I know in Paris we came to the fact that rising

Temperature seemed to be a key issue for Paris. So I wanted to ask mr. Croquette, what is the use of natural based solution in Paris and specifically on the topic of Oasis Schoolyard, if you could tell a word on this project, because I know it’s a major strategy for

Paris also to use nature based solution for climate adaptation and better water management. And I think it can be of interest for the audience listening to us today. Thank you very much, Mario. Yes, definitely nature based solution are a big part of our adaptation strategy in Paris.

This is very different from Dallas, of course, big loans are not an issue in Paris, not on private properties at least, because this is a very dense and mineral city. On the contrary, what we’re trying to do is make sure that we can give the citizens more

Access to lawns and trees in their neighborhoods. And one of the main ways to do this has been to transform the schoolyards into green spaces. If you’ve ever been to Paris, you will know that the original schools are most of them date way back from the 19th or 20th century, and

The courtyard would be mostly on mineral. And what we’ve decided to do is change this. And in a number of schoolyards, 100 of them already, we’ve actually removed the ground to get access to real earth and be able to plant trees and other essences in the ground

So that, one, this will be a cooler area and this will help us adapt to the rising temperatures. Two, it will be a way to give children a better and easier access to nature. And of course, in these schools, pupils have started learning about trees with their teachers telling them how

To take care of them inside the school yard, the cool yard, because they are fragile, of course. And this is all part of a learning process that we feel will be helpful to the kids, but also to their parents and to the community at large. Now, of course, and I’ll stop there, but

This raises the question of if you’re going to plant more trees or have lawns or have flowers inside the schools, which is great. And of course, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. You’re going to need more water because they will need water to be able to grow.

And this is something that, to be honest, we didn’t factor in right from the start, but it became obvious very soon. And the second phase of the plan and goes for school yards but also for private courtyards, is that we’ve started programs where you can get financial assistance if you’re a private

Owner or public assistance if you’re a school. Director if you’re going to change the inner courtyard into a green space, but also if you’re going to change the way you use the water and make sure that you make the most of the rainwater that can be recycled to water those new green spaces.

So, again, going back to the idea that this is all a systemic approach that has to be put in place if we are going to face this new deal on water and nature inside a city like Paris. And so this is an important part of the resilience

Program that we are putting in place in Paris. Thank you very much. A question from the audience. Also, someone is interested to know whether Paris would be interested to join partnerships with cities outside Europe to learn more and exchange about each waste management and climate adaptation and water preservation.

Actually, by all means, we have a number of partnerships with network like resilience city networks, but also other cities networks. And we have also bilateral agreements with a number of cities, namely in French speaking Africa, but not only Latin America, Asia as well. But we would certainly like to know more

And learn more from other cities as well. We’d be happy to share our experience, but I’m sure we have a lot to learn from all of you guys around this webinar. Thank you very much. I think there are five minutes left. Ron, do you have further questions to address?

Yes, I think there are still some questions in the chat, I’m sorry, in the Q and A section that we can go to. Let me take a look. This is a question for Alicia. So Ben from the audience is asking how do different rates that are related, how are

The rates related to the cost of provision? Is the first tier subsidized and the rest pay the cost of the provision? Or do they subsidize? Does the utility receive public funds or is it financed only by the rates that you all set? Thank you for this question. I don’t believe it is subsidized.

I might not have as much direct information about that. Specifically, I might have to do a little bit of research on that. But from what I understand, the rates they pay for themselves, it’s not subsidized and it’s not used from other tiers to fund, but it might be using.

It all goes into one big fund, right? So really the tiers are meant to keep low water users cost low and higher water users really making sure that they’re paying for what they’re using. And we’re not saying, you know what, anything over 15,000 is free game. Those tiers that go over 30,000 gallons

A month, the higher cost is meant to deincentivize them from overusing water. I will recognize that we have just three minutes left. I’ll ask one final question and would love for both of you to answer in around 30 seconds or less, if possible. And my question is, and this is from

Me as an audience member, you all are both very passionate and excited about this work. And I’m curious, what keeps you excited, what keeps you passionate, and what keeps you hopeful in these efforts? Francois, I’ll start with you. Well, thank you very much, Ron. What keeps me passionate is that I want my

Kids to be able to live in the city as I’ve been lucky to enjoy it, and possibly by doing this, finding new resources inside the city. I’ll just give you one example to finish this session is that we are currently working on rediscovering another river in Paris that’s called the River Viev.

Comes from the name of Beaver. It used to be populated by Beavers. It’s of course, today impossible to see this river because it’s been completely covered by pavements all over the way. What we’re trying to do is to rediscover this river and make it a new way to enjoy Paris and

To make it possibly cooler and make the most of the water that flows underneath the city. So that would be quite adventure as far as I’m concerned. Thank you. And Alicia, the floor is yours. Thank you. I’m doing my stopwatch to stop me at 30 seconds because I could go on all day.

I come from a biology background and understand that water is the most precious resource next to air that we have as society, as humans. I’d say what keeps me motivated and passionate every day has got to be my staff. I have a wonderful staff. We all work very closely together.

They are truly the experts. They’re the ones directly working with the public and inspiring this change that the public has. I will say that, of course, as a new mom, I have to say that my child also inspires me to set a good example and encourage others to do the same.

I think passion and inspiration really does come from what you truly love. And I love this planet, so that’s what inspires me. Thank you. Wow. Thank you both and would love to say on behalf of the Resilient Cities Network and all of our partners who have helped support this effort, we

Would love to thank, first the audience for joining us for this incredibly important conversation. Secondly, to our amazing panelists who have given us so much knowledge to take back to our own cities and to find ways to leverage and learn from their examples. So thank you both for being here.

Thank you to Marion for being a wonderful co host. Just a little bit of information before we go. Apologies that we could not address every question today. We had a lot of questions come in via the chat and other notes, but we’ll make sure that this recording is available and I believe that

Our speakers would love to be in contact with you all if you had additional questions. So we’ll make sure that when we send out the recording to include their contact information so that we can follow up a little more in depth for some of your questions. And finally, would love to invite

You all to our next session. The next session is going to be the next cities on the frontline session is going to be on post disaster resilience recovery and that will be on the 25 May this year and it’ll be at 10:30 a.m.. Eastern, 07:30 a.m. Pacific time.

And we will of course make sure we send out invitations for that again. So again, thank you all so much. I’m behalf of the Resilient Cities Network and all of our partners for joining us for this critical conversation. And we’ll see you all next month.

ID: qqMwpI8juWw
Time: 1683900825
Date: 2023-05-12 18:43:45
Duration: 01:00:38

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