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Gearing Up For World Water Week: August 25th-29th

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This year’s World Water Week is just under a month away, taking place between August 25th and 29th, with the aim being to drive progress on water cooperation under the theme of Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future.

 

The hope is that awareness will be raised of key issues related to regional and global interconnectivity of nations and local communities, emphasising the collaborative approach that’s necessary in order to safeguard resources for future generations and ensure that countries can live in peace as time goes on.

 

Organised each year by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the conference has been taking place annually since 1991, bringing together decision-makers, institutions, activists, researchers, city planners and business leaders from all over the world to identify new and more innovative ways to improve water management.

 

The week-long programme is designed alongside leading international organisations to provide access to all the latest insights and trends from a range of different fields.

 

The event includes sessions on an array of topics, the SIWI Seminar Series, partnership programmes that focus on communication and business to accelerate the move to more sustainable societies and prize ceremonies in recognition of the excellent work being done to support the water cycle and protect our way of life.

 

2024’s programme of events

 

Last year’s conference saw some 15,000 participants come together from 193 countries, both online and onsite. A record number of first-time visitors were welcomed, with 42 per cent of those taking part aged 35 or younger.

 

Key messages from 2023’s event, the theme of which was Seeds of Change, included the need to position interconnectivity at the forefront of all ongoing work, discussing more about how fundamental change can happen, rather than simply listing the challenges we face.

 

Additionally, innovation needs to be rethought, taking into account finance, governance, culture and values, as well as the need to apply a gender lens to the problems.

And thirdly, the importance of learning from indigenous peoples was highlighted for the first time, prioritising the connection between indigenous knowledge and innovation, as well as the values of respect, relations and reciprocity.

 

This year, the theme is Bridging Borders, of which acting executive director of the SIWI Karin Gardes said: “The interest in the topic has grown immensely because there is an understanding that if we do not fix water, it has effects on so many other dimensions of society including peace and a sustainable future.

 

“It is important to build on this interconnectivity and understand it. Having said that, while the interest is great, there are still many people who are unsure how to go about it and how water diplomacy can be put into practice. In the spirit of finding solutions, World Water Week 2024 will focus on building bridges.”

 

Topics under discussion over the course of the week include how to create resilient cities by 2035, protecting Himalayan source waters, mitigating water scarcity and exploring rainwater harvesting, transboundary water cooperation, inclusive water management, innovating for water justice and participatory approaches to resilience through water security.

 

This year’s theme of water cooperation will cover human security, ecosystem security, food and nutrition security, energy security and so on, considering the relationship between them all.

 

Because over 50 per cent of the world’s population live in international river basins, it means that there are significant regions and communities that will benefit from improvements in water cooperation.

 

This is also essential on a subnational level, such as between neighbouring communities, or when water is shared between different societal sectors, such as rural and urban.

 

One of the most important elements of World Water Week 2024 is that of shared waters (including but not limited to transboundary waters). These have a positive role to play in the promotion of collaboration and cooperation within and between nations, given that countries and communities share water sources like groundwater aquifers, lakes and rivers.

 

As such, there is a lot to gain from a collaborative approach to water management, increasing the long-term resilience of these resources as water stress and scarcity continues to gather pace over time, in line with rising global temperatures, and as geopolitical tensions continue to increase.

 

Another important aspect of this year’s event is conflict prevention, with conflict escalating in many parts over the world in recent times.

 

Despite the fact that cooperating over shared water resources is widely regarded as the most rational course of action to take, protectionism has been increasingly coming to the fore, which is undermining the efforts to further international cooperation.

 

In order to reverse this trend, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the relationships between human security, functioning ecosystems, good governance and national security… which is where bridging the borders will come into its own as a concept to address the multi-crisis that is now developing around the world.

 

And then, of course, there’s the pressures of climate change that must be accounted for, acting as a risk multiplier for water scarcity, water-related disasters and food insecurity. However, if measures can be implemented that increase climate change resilience, mutual trust and cooperation can be delivered that will drive increased stability, peace and security.

 

The overall aim of World Water Week 2024 is to provide a platform to identify and promote the opportunities that exist for effective water cooperation, with the hope that true global interconnectivity can be achieved.

 

Participants can attend the event either onsite at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre or online, which will be free of charge.

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