World Water Week – for those of us in the sector, this can be the busiest and most impactful six days of the year. Organized by SIWI and hosted in Stockholm (Sweden), the overarching theme that directed discussion and helped focus content in 2018 was Water, ecosystems and human development. Here we’re sharing some of the most compelling stories and resources that emerged around World Water Week. Share other suggestions in the comments field.
The links go to the websites of origin. WIN is not responsible for the accuracy of external content.
Global – The Trillion Dollar Question
The Trillion Dollar Question game premiered at World Water Week 2018! This game proposes tricky scenarios – and potential solutions – across different phases of project implementation. Print out your own version, and play with your colleagues or at a workshop.
Download via Water Integrity Network
Kenya – World Water Week: Finding Safe Water for Remote Parts of Kenya
Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (Kenya RAPID) under the coordination of the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), and IBM Research-Africa used World Water Week to launch a cloud-based water management platform – Water Management as a Service Platform (WMaaSP) – to help address the needs of three million people in rural northern Kenya.
WMaaSP provides decision-making support capabilities to county water officials and other partners by predicting water demand based on population trends, ground and surface water supply, climactic patterns, and land use. It is web-based, and available as an app for mobile devices.
Read the full article via Africa.com
Global – Water and climate change: ‘Era of stable abundance is over’
Jens Berggren water and climate expert and Director of Communications, SIWI, talks with DW on why and how climate change is affecting the world’s water.
From Yemen’s water supply, to the droughts ravishing Australian agriculture, and the Artic Circle’s record-breaking heatwaves, there are clear correlations between climate change and water.
‘We need to change the way we govern our water. I think this a discussion that people should have in every country knowing that we are facing huge water challenges. We need to have a political discussion on how we want to use our water, in what economic activities do we want to invest our water resources, then build the governance structures around that’ – Jens Berggren.
Read the full article via the Deutsche Welle website.
Global – What you need to know from Stockholm World Water Week 2018
Devex rounds up the key takeaways from the week:
- Finance
- Cross-sector collaboration
- Sanitation rising
- Nature-based solutions
‘The discourse has changed; it’s now mainstream and no longer an exotic discourse by some NGOs. Everyone is talking about collaboration’— Catarina de Albuquerque, Executive Director, Sanitation and Water for All.
Read the full summary via Devex
Global – Sofa 8037: From sector coordination to effective national accountability for SDG 6
This session showcased ground-breaking global research on national accountability mechanisms on SDG 6 conducted in 27 countries. Watch full session, and hear from Wilhelmina Malima (Sanitation and Water Action, WSSCC), Al-Hassan Adam (End Water Poverty), and Eric Paglia (Siwi).
The discussion addressed the perception that many national WASH policies on planning, monitoring, and review processes do not seek to consult and/or involve the main stakeholders.
Convenors: Water Integrity Network, End Water Poverty, WaterAid, IRC, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, Simavi, Coalition Eau.
Watch the sofa session via Vimeo
Global – No savior: Can blended finance work for WASH?
As new data reveals how far away the WASH sector is from achieving SDG 6, discussions on how to improve funding are increasingly around blended and private financing, and how applicable they could be. This was a hot topic at World Water Week, where participants highlighted examples of innovative financing in WASH, while others emphasized not losing sight of core fundamentals – ‘Strengthening the organizational capacity of service providers and creating the right enabling conditions for them to operate successfully’.
Read the full article via Devex
Global – World Water Week: Companies Must Look Beyond Own Operations to Enhance Water Stewardship
The Global Reporting Initiative and water stewardship experts have updated their standard – GRI 303: Water and Effluents 2018 – to help companies understand and track how they interact with water, and what impacts their actions have. The Standard has an emphasis on water stewardship in the context of where watersheds companies are operating.
GRI will host two webinars on 19 September to promote the Standard, and respond to questions.
Read the full article, and download the Standard, via Triple Pundit