Towards a Water Wise World

In the frame of discussion on post-2015 and Sustainable Development Goals, the topic of water stays critical. The 25^th World Water Week taking place  in a month in Stockholm will cover issues of water management, sanitation, climate change and more.

Potential investors might see water as the next oil. This year UN released a World Water Development Report titled Water for a Sustainable World. According to the report, “investments in water and sanitation services result in substantial economic gains in developing regions, the return on investment has been estimated at US $5 to US $28 per dollar invested.” Yet the market needs innovation and further communication initiatives for boosting financing and inspiring behavior change.

Capacity building requires interaction and collaboration between various stakeholders. UN states that in order to create “actionable knowledge” one should exploit new data sources and imply effective data analysis methods. Building a dialogue between technicians, water managers, policy makers and communities themselves would not only decrease knowledge gap, but also lead to better climate-sensitive decisions and projections for future. A good example of a C4D initiative in water market is RANET (Radio and Internet Technologies for the Communication of Weather and Climate Information for Rural Development). The project started in 1999 and now operates across Africa and has pilot activities in Asia and the Pacific.

Throughout the World Water Week WASH programme (  (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) will be covered in a number of seminars. For instance, such topics as measuring rural WASH; gender equality through WASH; financing WASH globally and accelerating corporate action on the program will be addressed. According to USAID Water and Development Strategy 2013-2018, there are diverse approaches required for behavior change in sanitation and hygiene. Mass media communication, social marketing, interpersonal contact, school campaigns and community engagement can also assist in integrating WASH  (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) into HIV care and reducing impact of the latter.

World Water Week takes place on 23-28 August 2015 involving thousands of delegates from over 100 countries around the world.  Amongst participants there are UN-Water, UNDP,  WaterAid, The Rockefeller Foundation and many more. The full agenda is available here. Apart from seminars, there are workshops and field visits offered. Aspired to start a career in the sector can visit  during The Young Professionals’ Day, designed especially for youth under 35 who are willing to get engaged and contribute to creating a water wise world.

World Water Week is organized by SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute). SIWI is a policy institute that generates knowledge and informs decision-making towards water wise policy. It performs research and provides consultancy in water governance, management and economics, climate change and water-energy-food nexus.

 Images via worldwaterweek.org