Participants at the 2022 World Water Week, which convened against the backdrop of the flooding in Pakistan, the food crisis in Africa, and the drying rivers of Europe, highlighted the need for investments and political will to implement available water solutions.

A Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) news article suggests that despite increasing polarization, conflicts, and tensions, the world has the potential to set itself on a more sustainable course, backed by “a new narrative about what is possible and a shared understanding of the goals we wish to achieve.”

To that end, 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.

SIWI convened World Water Week 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden, from 23 August to 1 September, on the theme, ‘Seeing the Unseen: The Value of Water.’ The event’s outcomes will feed into the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater 2022, ahead of the UN 2023 Water Conference. [Conclusions from World Water Week 2022] [World Water Week Website]