World Water Week 2022 Emphasizes the Need for Transformative Change
11.09.2022
IISD
SIWI highlights five key conclusions:
There are more solutions than most people think: for example, investments in sanitation, regenerative farming, water-smart city planning, early-warning systems, and watershed restoration are among the solutions that could help reduce the impacts of droughts, floods, and storms across the world.
We need transformations rather than just problem solving: the conference highlighted the need for “profound societal transformations to address the interlinked climate, water, and biodiversity crises in a manner that leaves no one behind.”
To enable genuine change, everyone must be part of the transformations, including young people and women.
Water needs to be at the top of the global agenda, to enable “profound and inclusive transformations” to achieve the SDGs. In this context, the conference underscored the “crucial importance” of the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 27) in November, the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) in December, and the UN 2023 Water Conference in March, formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028).
We need a new relationship with nature, where water is viewed holistically, and the connection between land-based, freshwater, and marine ecosystems is recognized.