8th World Water Forum – “Sharing Water”

The World Water Forum is the world’s biggest water-related event and is organized by the World Water Council (WWC), an international organization that brings together all those interested in the theme of water. Its mission is “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on Earth”.

The World Water Forum contributes to the dialogue of the decision-making process on water at the global level, seeking to achieve the rational and sustainable use of this resource. Given its political, technical and institutional scope, one of the Forum’s main features is the open, democratic participation of actors drawn from different sectors, making it an event of the greatest importance on the international agenda.

Continuing in from its role at the 7th World Water Forum as Champion for the Theme “Ensuring Water Quality from Ridge to Reef”, IWRA continued this role for the 8th World Water Forum. The IWRA Executive Office was part of the coordination group for the cross-cutting Theme of Capacity, as well as the topic coordination group for “Climate Science and Water management: the communication between science and decision/policy making” under the Theme of Climate. Last but not least, IWRA was the topic lead for “Ensuring Water Quality from Ridge to Reef”, which now sits under the Theme of Ecosystems. In this lead role Project Officer Alice Colson was providing support and general coordination to the three session groups, and liaising between the sessions and the Thematic Commission.

Given IWRA’s strong involvement in this major water event, the Executive Office had a stand in the Expo area for the whole Forum week.