2009 World Water Week: "Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good; with Special Focus on Transboundary Waters"

Hosted and organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the World Water Week in Stockholm has been the annual focal point for the planet’s water issues since 1991. The Week provides a unique forum for the exchange of views and experiences between the scientific, business, policy and civic communities. It focuses on new thinking and positive action toward water-related challenges and their impact on the world’s environment, health, economic and poverty reduction agendas. It does so by:

• Exploring the interconnected problems of water, society, the environment and economic vitality, building capacity and charting action toward practical solutions.
• Fostering pro-active partnerships and alliances between individuals and organisations from different fields of expertise. Highlighting ground-breaking research, best practices and innovative policy work by stakeholders and experts around the world and from multiple disciplines.
• Reviewing the implementation of actions, commitments and decisions in international processes and by different stakeholders in response to the challenges.
• By harnessing and linking best practices, scientific understanding and policy and decision-making, the World Water Week in Stockholm moves beyond rhetoric to provide real answers to the world’s water, environment and development problems.

The perspective is global, but the context is attuned to differences and similarities between regions of the world, phases of development, political systems and climatic conditions.

 

Transboundary Basins:
Water crosses boundaries both within and between nations. A policy for the common good entails approaches that generate positive outcomes for different entities, such as developed and developing countries and diverse social groups. Special attention will be paid to transboundary basins where coordinated policies and co-management are of utmost importance. Recent thinking has lead to considering transboundary waters as regional or global public goods. This approach leads away from narrow property rights issues in the riparian countries and helps focus in a much more positive way on sharing the economic and social benefits of the use of this public good. What formulas can be successful in basins where different political, legal and socio-economic systems co-exist? What efforts are required in financial and other terms? What are the potential and realistic benefits that are of interest for a wider community across boundaries and not only for those who generate them?

The World Water Week Niche 2009-2011: Water – Responding to Global Changes
The 2009 World Water Week and its theme “Accessing Water for the Common Good” comprises the first year under a new niche “Water – Responding to Global Changes”. The niche is identified to guide selection of themes over a three year period to ensure that each year strategically builds upon the previous years’ outcomes and findings. For the period 2009 – 2011, the niche is about the potential and necessary responses in water policy, management and development to address pervasive and increasingly impacting global changes.

It is envisaged that the 2010 World Water Week theme will deal with the consequences of using water on the status of the resource itself. Water quality and quantity are affected by how water and land are used in different sectors with ramifications for society as a whole and downstream users in particular.
The tentative theme for 2011 is to address the choices that have to be made in terms of water harnessing strategies, allocation quotas, water pollution abatement and the trade-offs and synergies that are the outcome of these choices.

Contact information	World Water Week Secretariat: c/o SIWI, Drottninggatan 33, SE-111 51 Stockholm SWEDEN (Ms. Cecilia Martinsen, Project Director / Ms. Katarina Andrzejewska, Project Manager / Mr. Michael Moore, Project Manager / Ms. Rosanna Ricciuti, Project Officer) (email: secretariat.www@siwi.org ; cecilia.martinsen@siwi.org; katarina.andrzejewska@siwi.org; michael.moore@siwi.org; rosanna.ricciuti@siwi.org) Phone: +46 8 522 139 60 ; Fax: +46 8 522 139 61
Event type	Conference
File link	http://www.worldwaterweek.org/
Source	The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Subject(s)	AGRICULTURE , ANALYSIS AND TESTS , CHARACTERISTICAL PARAMETERS OF WATERS AND SLUDGES , DRINKING WATER , DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION : COMMON PROCESSES OF PURIFICATION AND TREATMENT , ENERGY , FINANCE-ECONOMY , HEALTH - HYGIENE - PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISM , HYDRAULICS - HYDROLOGY , INDUSTRY , INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , INFRASTRUCTURES , MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION , METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , NATURAL MEDIUM , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , PREVENTION AND NUISANCES POLLUTION , RIGHT , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY , SANITATION -STRICT PURIFICATION PROCESSES , SLUDGES , TOOL TERMS , TOURISM - SPORT - HOBBIES , WATER DEMAND , WATER QUALITY
Relation	http://www.stockholmsmassan.se
Geographical coverage	Sweden
Address	at the Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Center, Stockholm, Sweden
Organizer	The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Target audience	International
Period	[16/08/2009 - 22/08/2009]
Status	Confirmed
Working language(s)	ENGLISH

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