Over 2,000 leading water experts are attending the 20th Annual World Water Week, in Stockholm. The conference opened with calls for better facilitated efforts addressing escalating global water challenges.
Held under the theme: Responding to Global Changes: The Water Quality Challenge, the meeting comes at a time when both water issues and their solutions have never been more globally integrated and complex.
“Bad water kills more people than HIV, malaria and wars together, affecting the lives of families and the economic development of many countries around the world.
“We are also increasingly seeing that ecosystems and their services are being degraded by pollution, which will affect all functions of society,” said Anders Berntell, executive director of Stockholm International Water Institute, in his welcome address at the opening session.
The World Water Week builds capacity, promotes partnerships, and reviews progress on the correlations between water quality, access and related Millennium Development Goals such as poverty reduction and public health.
Other issues raised during the week include climate change adaptation, urbanisation, water governance, the human rights to water and sanitation, and the growing strategic water concerns for businesses.
More than 20 ministers are joined by leading experts in Stockholm to address these issues.
The opening day included a speech by the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, Rita Colwell, who warned that shortcomings in addressing the water quality issue, coupled with climate changes, could lead to disastrous outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera, which would in turn affect economic and national security.
The inauguration also included a high-level panel debate on water quality, where among other experts and policy makers Hon. Charity Kaluki Ngilu, minister of water and irrigation of Kenya.
Jose Lopez, executive vice president operations of Nestle discussed the causes of water pollution and how to address it against variables such as demographic and climate changes.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of both the World Water Week and the Stockholm Water Prize.
The World Water Week is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute, it brings together 2,500 experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions.