A kind reminder for those who wish to contribute to the program of the 8^th Balkans Joint Conference and Exhibition on Water and Climate Change: The deadline to submit your abstracts has been extended to September 23^rd! Everybody else please save the date: the conference will take place on 4-5-6 November 2020.

Organized by IAWD association members SHUKOS and SHUKALB, the Balkans Joint Conference and Exhibition has long established itself as a major knowledge sharing and networking event in the Western Balkans water sector. It provides water professionals, policymakers, and business professionals from the sector with a valuable opportunity to exchange information, share experiences and build networks, supporting the ongoing improvement of the water supply and wastewater sector in the Greater Balkans region.

Last year's edition drew a capacity crowd of water professionals to the Emerald Hotel in Prishtina, Kosovo. This year, participants do not need to make travel arrangements: the 8^th Balkans Joint Conference and Exhibition will be held as a virtual event, broadcast from Tirana, Albania.

Inspired by the UN’s 2020 World Water Day message, the 2020 Conference will focus on Water and Climate Change. The coming climate crisis will pose serious threats to water resources, with impacts on the quantity, variability, timing, form, and intensity of precipitation, extreme weather events such as droughts and/ or floods, and also rising sea levels and melting glaciers. Climate change will force us all to develop and implement adaptation strategies to ensure safe and sustainable water management.

The Conference will approach this theme from a broad range of perspectives, covering all aspects of water supply and wastewater treatment including policy, management and technical issues. Like the conference itself, the accompanying technical exhibition will be held in the virtual space, presenting a broad array of private sector companies who are active in the water sector in the Balkans Region.

SHUKALB and SHUKOS welcome participation and contributions, but kindly remind participants that the deadline for submitting contribution abstracts is 23 September 2020. Detailed information on abstract formats is available for download in the Call for Abstracts Brochure (see link below).