World Water Week: Scarcity of water, the new normal
Yesterday's programme at the World Water Week kicked off with the UN Deputy Secretary General, Dr Amina Mohamed, urging the involvement of young minds in water management.
She challenged the participants at this global annual meet to get more young professionals working in this crucial sector since better water resource management could help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Water is much as about the future as it is about the present. Let us value our water just like we value our lives,” she said.
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Executive Director Torgny Holmgren said in his welcome speech that achieving the water related goals of SDGs is indispensable for sustainable development, growth and investment.
He indicated that water is almost a prerequisite for the rest of the development goals of the next decade. “Actually, I would go as far as to say that the water SDG is the cornerstone of the entire Agenda 2030.”
The top SIWI executive said it was becoming increasingly clear that water is the primary issue with its rapidly growing demand.
He also noted the ever-growing shortage of water across the globe. “Scarcity of water has become the new normal in so many parts of the world. We might even be heading towards a global water crisis.”
This, said Holmgren, was where the challenge lay. But he also saw it as an incredible opportunity as well as great responsibility.
“I hope that this World Water Week can become one stepping stone towards finding new ideas and solutions to address this reality.”
With more variable water situations and booming water demand -- it is becoming clear that the stable abundance of water is over.
“This means that we will need to adapt the ways we manage and govern water. We need to find firm and flexible legal systems, smart and resilient technical solutions, as well as constructive ways of cooperation,” he noted.
Asa Regner, deputy executive director of UN Women, said in some parts of the world, a woman's “body becomes part of the water machinery”.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, women and girls spent 40 billion hours per year just for collecting water.
Karin Wanngård, the mayor of Stockholm, said human beings alone decided on the future of water resources -- whether to destroy them or to develop them. “We hold the future of water in our hands. Our future may not be decided yet but one thing is certain that water is our future in fluid form.”
She also said, “We need a holistic approach to save water and ecosystem during this industrial age.” The Stockholm mayor noted that the tendency to close our eyes and hope for the best without doing anything will simply not work. “We need to act. We need to decide how to use and reuse this resource we get from nature.”
The World Water Week is the leading annual global event that provides a unique forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences on the water issues.
The latest edition of World Water Week has attracted over 3,300 participants and 370 convening organisations from 135 countries.
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