The 2021 world water week hosted by SIWI ended on the 27th of August with a strong message: we have many solutions to fix the water crisis and tackle climate change, but we need political will and sufficient investments. The prominent leaders of the conference called on the international community to activate this as soon as possible. The timing of world water week was extremely apt this year as the IPCC report had just been released whilst there was a backdrop of unprecedented climate-induced disasters in many parts of the world, enhancing the importance of the week’s theme Building Resilience Faster.
The world water week conference hosted over 13,000 attendees from 188 countries. Over 400 online virtual sessions were organized throughout the week with major international corporates and organizations contributing to the discussions and solutions to the major global water crisis.
Its vital the DCU Water Institute attend this conference to bring back the core messages to Irelands water stakeholders and impact Irish political will when it comes to the future of water in this country.
The Water Institute would sincerely like to thank the organizers for bringing together the global water community under one roof to drive home the importance of water impacting so many aspects of our lives.
On the last day of the conference, Dr. John Cherry, Stockholm Water Prize Winner 2020 said, “Many (water) solutions have been tried out somewhere around the world. At this amazing turning point in human history, we have all the means to solve the big water problems, and now it is just a matter of the public learning about them and putting pressure on the politicians” [1]. We, too, have seen this in Ireland in recent months, particularly with major public calls for bathing water to be tested year-round at popular swimming spots. From this, its now evident that the public is learning fast about making change, protecting water and the political impact they can make.
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