21st of November 2011

World Delta Summit is an annual event and this year is the first time held in

Indonesia. Most population in the world living in delta areas that’s why it’s important to

do conference about delta areas.

First, when we arrived we had to register ourselves and also there are Inauguration of

Delta Expo by Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare. At 9.30 the opening ceremony

is started with the report delivered by the Chairman of the organizing comitte, Prof. Jan

Sopaheluwakan then the governor of Jakarta, Dr Fauzi Bowo do the welcome speech

the last,.E.H.R. Agung Laksono, the coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare of the

Republic of Indonesia doing the official speech inaugurating the World Delta Summit.

After the opening ceremony, the conference continued with the Plenary Sessions.

The first plenary is about Green Innovation and Delta Development by H.E Gusti

Muhammad Hatta. After that, the other speakers also delivered their speeches which

are H.E. H.S Dillon, the special envoy of the President of Republic of Indonesia for

poverty alleviation and Dr. A. Hermanto Dardak, the vice minister of public works of the

Republic of Indonesia.

So today finally the world delta summit started! We left early because the traffic in Jakarta is notoriously bad, but we were well in time for registration and reception of the conference. The opening was very nice, but my friend Nana will eleborate.

The lunch was very nice, there were probably more waiters and waitresses than people eating lunch. After lunch there were some plenairy sessions and presentations about climate change effects and some efforts to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Most of the speakers were dutch, but there were also some indonesian and one swiss speaker. The afternoon passed fairly quick, our heads full of warnings of the changing climate. Also the importance of international cooperation to protect vulnerable delta regions was stressed. Many delta regions have similar problems of urbanization, flooding, social problems etc.

The conference room was not very crowded, but nonetheless the presentations reiterated the importance of meetings like the world delta summit. To make sure that all the sessions are properly recorded we have been given the task to report the sessions of the following day. That way we are sure to learn and pay attention!

At 7 pm in the evening, we invited to come to dinner and welcoming reception at

Taman Ismail Marzuki by the Governor of Jakarta. The event is started at 8 pm with

Several performance which is performed by professional dancer from IKJ (Jakarta Art

Institute). The title of the performance is Archipelagos Delta and the performance was

very amazing with all the good dancer, costume, and the big stage. There are dancing

and singing performance telling about culture diversity in Indonesia. It was very happy

to see all the performance before the real round table, scientific session, and workshop

session.

Parana Ari Santi

Annisa Triyanti

Laurence Koetsier