AGWA Sessions at World Water Week 2023
World Water Week is an annual global conference focusing on some of the most pressing water issues of our time. This year’s conference addressed the theme of Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World.
This year’s World Water Week (20 - 24 AUGUST 2023) allowed for many incredible sessions and engagement. Please feel free to browse the sessions below.
Economic resilience through water resilience in the yellow river basin
Water sits at the center of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) climate adaptation efforts, but effective, safe, and resilient adaptation requires the right institutional, policy and regulatory enabling environment. This resource is threatened by population growth, urbanization and climate change, and overexploitation of resources, making action to ensure sustainability, safe and resilient water resources management essential. Tom Panella, Director at EAER, and Silvia Cardascia, Water Resources Specialist, present the YREC program, and in conversation with AGWA representatives highlight the importance of water resilience for the economy, nature and people.
Growing the seeds of change young water professionals debate 2023
The global water sector is facing unprecedented challenges that require solutions now. But how can we best bring these solutions to scale?
Chaired again by Mark Fletcher, Arup’s Global Water Director, we hear arguments for and against the motion from mixed debate teams of young professionals and senior experts. We explore how we can support solutions through innovation in different ways, such that we achieve results now and for the future.
Addressing water related disasters in an era of multiple crises
How do outcomes from the UN Water Conference complement or compete with the goals of the Sendai Framework? This session dissects some of the major commitments around water and climate and how they fit in with the mid-term review of the Sendai Framework, proposing a path for governments and decision makers to meet the goals of complementary agendas in a time of rapid global change.
Climate resilient WASH aligning funder and practitioner perspectives
Aqua for All and the Shockwave Foundation present the perspectives of WASH funders and the strategies they developed to ensure support goes towards building resilient WASH systems. They are complemented by the perspectives of AGWA, The Nature Conservancy and Safe Water Network who will share their work on climate resilience. Topics that were addressed in the session include systematically assessing climate risks, practical examples of building resilient WASH, the need for whole system approaches and transformation, blended-finance solutions for resilient investments, water fund structures, nature-based solutions as well as limits to adaptation.
Resilient mitigation water as the key to unlocking GHG goals
This session approaches the topic from a climate policy and finance context so that we can ensure that our energy and carbon sequestration transitions recognize that water resource management is a tool to help all sectors achieve climate mitigation targets. The Water Initiative for Net Zero (WINZ) shares insights from a global review of water-related actions to reduce global heating, highlighting the ways in which policy-makers and the finance community can better identify and support effective, long-term sequestration strategies.
Every Brown Drop Counts Wastewater Reuse in the Arab Region
Climate change poses water security risks. In a context where global water demand is expected to increase, climate hazards, particularly droughts and floods, are further contributing to the rapid deterioration of water sources quality and reduction of surface flows and groundwater recharge, threatening water security at national and regional levels. The session invites participants on a journey to the Arab region to jointly explore and discuss the potentials, necessities and challenges of safely reusing treated wastewater. Experiences from different countries in the region and co-develop solutions - from standards and regulations, technologies and the social and economic end use.
Watering the NDCS Innovative approaches to achieving water smart climate resilience
We dig deeper into several NDCs featured in AGWA’s new “Watering the NDCs” country report to take an in-depth look at these commitments in action and hear from country representatives from five pilot countries utilizing the “Watering the NDCs concepts” - including India, Guatemala, Tanzania, Bolivia, Tajikistan - who give first-hand accounts of their efforts to incorporate water resilience into their national commitments and plans.
Delivering climate sensitive water resilience through partnerships
Case studies across Botswana and Ethiopia, amongst others, exemplify the need for shared understanding and a common language to maximize impacts, peer to peer learning and knowledge exchanges. Recent experiences also shed light on potential untapped opportunities for stakeholder synergies aligned with nature based solutions and decarbonisation through the water sector.