We Are Water Foundation

World Water Week, which was held in Stockholm from the 21 to 27 of August, is a forum held annually that deals with the most pressing questions relating to hydric resources in the world.

The forum began in 1991, organised by the SIWI, the Stockholm International Water Institute, and over time has become the required meeting point for more than 50 international bodies, the most relevant ones regarding problems arising from the lack of suitable hydric resources in the world. The institute has its headquarters in Stockholm and its programmes of activities contribute to finding sustainable solutions to the growing world water crisis.

The SIWI runs projects and research programmes and publishes a synthesis of the conclusions and recommendations about water and the environment for both current and future problems; it also deals with questions of governability and human development related to the use of drinking water. The institute has turned out to be an active platform for the exchange of know-how and the creation of networks between the scientific community and the business world, the political world and communities within civil society.

The main focus of the activity of World Water Week, which has the support of the most-recognised international bodies such as the UN and UNESCO, is the organisation of seminars, conferences and debates with the aim of establishing an exchange of viewpoints and experiences between scientists, companies and  organisations of a civil nature from around the world, the goal being that of achieving the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations and the aims relating to water which were agreed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The We Are Water Foundation is in full agreement with these goals, in the same way as the organisations in whose projects it cooperates, since they form an essential foundation to structure and develop, in a coordinated and tangible way, the efforts spent on alleviating the planet’s serious problems regarding water.

The philosophy of this international forum is inspired by a new way of thinking in order to undertake positive actions for the challenges relating to drinking water in the world and its impact on the environment, health, climatology, the economy, etc. Each year is focused on the most pressing and most concerning matter of the day, looking at it specifically in order to make an in-depth analysis. Although the subject matter varies from year to year, their relevance lasts for several years.

Water and urbanisation

At the 2011 event, the subject matter took shape around the key questions and debating points concerning “Water in an Urbanising World”, a subject in line with the last World Water Day 2011, “Water for the Cities” (see Newsletter of the 22 March 2011) and which emphasised the main demands of global leaders regarding investments to guarantee water for all the cities in the world.

During his intervention, the Executive Director of the (SIWI) Stockholm International Water Institute, Anders Berntell, warned those present that, "We run the risk of losing the battle of water and health in many cities in the world, and it is a fight that we cannot afford to lose."

The demand from its leaders at this year’s event was for more investments in infrastructures resistant to natural disasters and a more intelligent management of water in order to avoid droughts, flooding and pollution placing in danger food, energy and water security in a world that is urbanising quickly.  We should realise that people who live in cities will reach 80 per cent of the world population in 2050 and that most of this growth will occur in areas of risk of scarcity of water and disastrous flooding. By this same year, it is estimated that the urban population will be the same size as the entire world population today and that around 95% per cent of the world population increase will occur in urban areas

The Swedish Minster of International Cooperation and Development, Gunilla Carlsson, highlighted, among other points, that greater access to clean water supplies and sanitation is an important catalysing strength for development, and pointed out that “the costs of not acting are vastly greater than the costs of managing sustainable water resources that work correctly”. With this in mind, the experts gathered at this forum studied the most intelligent options to ensure that the limited water resources are assigned to cover the growing needs of the municipalities, agriculture, industry, energy services and homes, in balance with the capacity of nature to provide it, which represents one of the most important and difficult challenges for the coming decade.

Its programmes, workshops and seminars dealt with all the social, psychological, environmental, political and economic aspects raised by the stunning and accelerated increase in urbanisation, as important factors of change for people, their social relations and ways of life, at a local, national, regional and world level.

During the seven days that the forum lasted, there were an average of between 14 and 18 seminars and activities daily, which had the support of more than 90 organisers from around the world, and brought together more than 2,500 global experts, among them doctors, political leaders and business innovators.

Call to the leaders of the Río+20 Summit

World Water Week 2011 ended with the Stockholm Declaration, a call from the different bodies and NGOs to all the world leaders who will be taking part in the Río+20 Summit, between the 4 and 6 of June 2012, to commit themselves to achieving a universal supply of secure drinking water, suitable hygiene and modern energy services by 2030 and to adopt specific objectives of intervention to increase efficiency in the handling of water, energy and food resources.

The Declaration includes the goals that must be achieved for 2020 and which are summed up in achieving a 20% increase in the efficiency of the food chain, the efficiency of water in agriculture and the suitable use of water in energy production, as well as the amount of reused water. Also set as a goal is the 20% reduction in the pollution of drinking water.

The Stockholm Declaration was supported by UN-Water, The Federal German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and was subscribed to by the most relevant international organisations attending World Water Week.

The Río+20 Summit is the next meeting of the United Nations about sustainable development that will be held in Río de Janeiro in 2012; 20 after the first historic summit of Río de Janeiro in 1992 and ten years after that of Johannesburg in 2002.

According to the organisers, the goals of the summit are to ensure the renovation of the political commitments to sustainable development, to evaluate the advances made towards the objectives agreed internationally about sustainable development and to highlight the new and emerging challenges. The summit will deal with two specific subjects on an equal basis: a green economy in the context of eradicating poverty and sustainable development, and the creation of an institutional framework that favours sustainable development.

The We Are Water Foundation, in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, adheres to the philosophy of the Stockholm Declaration, since it is essential to create foundations of awareness and action in light of one of the most important challenges facing humanity for the coming decades.

About the We Are Water Foundation

The aims of the We Are Water Foundation, promoted by the Roca company, are, on the one hand, to raise awareness amongst the general public and public administrations about the need to encourage a new culture of water in the world and, on the other hand, to alleviate the negative effects related to the lack of hydric resources, through the development of cooperation and aid projects together with diverse organisations such as Education without Frontiers, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Intermon Oxfam and Unicef.