Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt addressed the opening session of the week long 17th World Water Week in Stockholm on Monday to show the political will in addressing issues in water and climate change.
"Water is not jus beautiful to look at......No water, no life."
Stressed the Prime Minister the importance of having clean water available for people in the world.
Reinfeldt also repeated his government's commitment in dealing with the climate change issue.
"Global warming and global change engage me and my government and many countries in the world….Together with the EU, we will give our strong commitment to this issue. " said Reinfeldt.
Anders Berntell, Executive Director of Stockholm International Water Institute, SIWI that organizes the conference said the theme of this year's water week is ‘progress and prospects on water: striving for sustainability in a changing world.'
Berntell said water and climate change are two important topics during the conference.
Participants will consider issues such as adaptation strategies that are being prepared in developed and developing countries, vulnerability mapping and opportunities for innovation.
Sanitation issues and water integrity will also be discussed during the conference.
Currently more than one billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people do not have basic sanitation.
More than 2000 delegates including leading professionals from business, government, water management, science, inter-governmental organizations, NGOs, training institutes and the United Nations agencies will participate in the conference. About 150 organizations are involved as co-convenors of the event together with the Stockholm International Water Institute.
Berntell said this is also a chance to build capacity for different professions to act and to affect positive change by facilitating for them an increased knowledge and a deeper understanding of the links between water-society-environment-economy.
By serving as a link between practice, science, policy and decision making, the World Water Week moves beyond simply talking about what is and what should be by combining different types of knowledge and experiences to achieve development and environmental objectives in a worthwhile manner.
Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme also addressed the opening session and talked about Water for Thirsty Cities. She said this year marks for the first time that the number of urban people surpasses the number of rural people. Thus the water scarcity issue in cities especially in African cities must be solved properly so that people can have a better condition in both water and sanitation.
Also on Monday, SIWI calls on governments to invest more in anti-water scarcity measures in its new policy brief, on the Verge of a New Water Scarcity.
The SIWI policy brief says a clear distinction must be made between apparent scarcity, where there is plenty of water, albeit inefficiently and wastefully used, and real scarcity due to lack of rain. The distinctions are important because they imply different responses by governments.
During the week, four prizes will be issued including the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Stockholm Water Prize, Industry Prize and Baltic Sea Water Prize.
By People's Daily Online Stockholm Correspondent Xuefei Chen
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