STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Every year since 1991 Stockholm has hosted World Water Week in an attempt to bring attention to the alarming status of water poverty, conservation, and the enviroment. Each year, for a week, organizations, countries, businesses, and advocates come together to talk about what is happening, what needs to happen, and how it can be accomplished. This year was no less important and could be an important addition to the last 11 years of discussion.
From September 1st through the 6th over 200 groups and corporations came together with numerous individuals to talk about the issues, as well as to present their latest scientific findings. For each gathering there is a theme presented to guide much of the discussion and problem-solving at the event. Previous themes have included topics such as Responding to Global Changes: Water in an Urbanising World in 2011, Water Security for the 21st Century: Innovative Approaches in 2000, and Water Resources in the Next Century in the first-ever conference in 1991.
This year the topic was Water Cooperation: Building Partnerships. The theme was chosen because the population is expected to pass 9 billion people by 2050 but will still have the same finite amount of water on which to depend. As a result, the people of the world are becoming more and more interdependent in order to survive. Therefore, working together cooperatively to find solutions will be more important than ever before.
Various exhibitions took place during the conference presented by such water advocates as WaterAid and WHO, as well as many others, throughout the week. The exhibitions provide a place for different participating organizations to showcase their experiences and educate others on their various areas of expertise. Each year there are field visits to Swedish organizations working directly with water and creating cutting edge projects involved with conservation and sustainability. One such trip was to a sustainable urban housing complex utilizing enviromentally sound practices to turn a city housing district into a self-supporting environment.
Awards were also given to those presenting their projects and findings during the conference. The simply named Stockholm Water Prize is presented in recognition of outstanding work in a water-related field and is considered to be the most prestigious water award in the world. This year the prize went to Dr. Peter Morgan from Zimbabwe. For the last 40 years Morgan has been inventing inexpensive solutions to water and sanitation poverty, like the Blair Ventilated Improevd Pit Latrine that is currently the national standard for Zimbabwe.
The Stockholm Junior Water prize is awarded to a young person between 15 and 20 who has done their own outstanding work in the water realm. Naomi Estay and partner Omayra Toro from Chile took the award this year for their work on water bacteria. During a trip to Antarctica, they discovered strains of bacteria that could clean up oil spills, by metabolizing the oil in extremely low temperatures. The Israeli team, Yeari Vigdor and Noam Arye Nassi, garnered a Diploma of Excellence for their work using a smartphone plug-in that gives farmers in developing countries a field condition report to assist with water conservation. Netafirm also received a Stockholm Industry Water prize given for their work in drip-irrigation.
The week culminated by urging the UN to focus more on post-2015 water development and on doubling our water production in order to ensure that the entire world population has the ability to access clean, safe water, as well as sanitation.
– Chelsea Evans
Sources: World Water Week, World Water
Photo: Circle of Blue