Acceptance Speech by Dr. Salman M.A. Salman Upon receiving the International Association for Water Law (AIDA) Inaugural Global Water Law Excellence Award

Dear Friends and Water Law Colleagues

Good Evening,

It is really a great honor and privilege to be with you this evening to humbly accept the Inaugural Global Water Law Excellence Award that the International Association for Water Law (AIDA) has bestowed upon me.

What makes this Award very special for me is the fact that it is coming from peers who know and are well-versed with both: the details and intricacies of the field of water law and my contribution thereto, and also the fact that it is being shared with my friend Patricia Wouters. I have known and worked with Pat on water law for close to thirty years – since we first met at the World Bank Seminar on International Watercourses in November 1997.

I would like to convey my sincere thanks and appreciation:

To all of you for being here this evening to share with me this honor;

To the Executive Council of AIDA, under the leadership of Gabriel Eckstein, for coming out with the innovative idea of the Award, and for implementing it in a transparent and fabulous manner;

And to our Norwegian friends (at the University of Oslo; the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research) for organizing this Congress, which turned out to be a superb academic, cultural, and social event one could ever attend.

Thank you very much to all of you.

Salman MA Salman
Oslo, 25 June 2026.