David Edwards-May 
The World Canals Conference reverted to an on-site event in June 2024 after an on-line version in 2023. The event was based in Bydgoszcz in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland, where the Rivers Brda and Wisła (Vistula) meet, along with the old and new Bydgoszcz Canals.
IWI’s Annual General Meeting was held in Bydgoszcz, on Sunday, June 23, 2024. We were pleased to hold an in-person AGM, as we did in 2022 in Leipzig.
Three long-standing Council members have retired. We are very grateful to our former Secretary Dave MacDougall (Canada), our boating expert and correspondent Mike Miller (Ireland), and Shubenacadie Canal director Claire Halpern (Canada) for their valuable contributions. The three vacancies will be filled shortly.
Donate to support our young person bursary in memory of former president Tom Grasso. The bursary will serve to support a researcher in the field of inland waterways in registering for and attending the annual World Canals Conference. The bursary will be available on application by a candidate less than 35.
IWI is supporting a new campaign, Fund Britain’s Waterways (FBW), recently launched by the Inland Waterways Association. FBW is a coalition of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways. The aim is to secure more permanent and stable funding for the country’s waterways, which are currently facing the challenges of … Read more
IWI was represented in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, for a waterways conference run by the Inland Navigation Commission of sister organisation PIANC, on November 27-29, 2023. Members who contributed to this fascinating report are Jim Stirling, who as technical director of British Waterways Scotland oversaw the construction of the Falkirk Wheel, and Marc Michaux, chief engineer in charge of works on the Strépy-Thieu shiplift in Wallonia, Belgium.
The series of five webinars organised by IWI on themes of interest to all waterway users and managers was successfully completed on November 16, with presentations about canal restoration and urban regeneration, through the examples of the Lachine Canal, Montreal, Canada, and the Roubaix Canal in greater Lille, France.
Sharon Leighton became IWI’s eighth president on January 1st, 2024, replacing Rudy Van der Ween
at the end of his three-year term. Sharon recently retired from her position as community development expert at the New York State Canal Corporation, and had been vice-president since 2020.
IWI president Rudy Van der Ween, also now vice-chairman of the World Canal Cities Organisation, attended the COP 28 conference in Dubai, at the invitation of WCCO. A pavilion was devoted to the annual Global Canal Rowing Action. Cities around the world, including Yangzhou, China (Grand Canal) and Dubai, UAE, joined hands to promote canal culture and the concept of low-carbon environmental protection for sustainable development.
The design was suggested by students who took part in a competition before the WCC was held in Leipzig on May 31-June 3, 2022. As shown in the film, it incorporates the complete upper lock chamber as built in the late 1930s before World War II stopped the works.
Meeting at The Cruising Association in Limehouse, London, on 17 April, a group of 25 members heard a tribute by our president Rudy Van der Ween to Dr Roger Squires, who helped to found IWI (with Ron Oakley) from 1992, and continued to serve as Special Advisor to Council until 2022.
It is with great sadness that we announce that Tom Grasso, IWI’s President between 2003 and 2008.