World Water Week

I’d like to take a moment to appreciate Stockholm World Water Week for offering virtual access and free recordings of all sessions—making WASH knowledge exchange truly #inclusive (a model more conferences should adopt!). After watching several sessions (when I finally got time), my key takeaways included the value of cross-sectoral, cross-cultural, and cross-generational collaboration, particularly in #youth mentoring, #climate-resilient practices, strengthening #partnerships with local governments, and making #WASHdata more accessible. I was humbled to see my work on #INWISE in Uganda acknowledged in a session on WASH & menstrual hygiene in schools, and to be indirectly involved in discussions around inline #chlorination in rural Nepal (through Bal Mukunda Kunwar from Helvetas Nepal) and youth engagement in water management (through Nadira M. from Swiss Water Partnership). #WorldWaterWeek #SWWW #WASH

As part of our World Water Week campaign, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat Pakistan hosted a powerful sensitization session and community tour in Badin, Sindh. Subject experts shared crucial insights on climate change-driven water scarcity and how we can all play a role in better water management. Over 50 community members, including school children and teachers, visited the newly installed water filtration plant in Ali Murad Chandio village. Thanks to the "Increasing Resilience and Helping People Recover" project, this plant now provides clean drinking water to 500+ families, addressing the dire need for safe water. Together, we can reduce climate change impacts and create a healthier future for all! #WorldWaterWeek #ClimateAction #CleanWaterForAll #BuildingResilience #AKAH Aga Khan Development Network World Water Week Water.org

Dear LinkedIn network, From the 25th August to 29th August, I had the great privilege and opportunity to attend World Water Week 2024 in Stockholm. Following the #EUGreenWeek 2024 conference in Brussels, this was my second water conference and #WWWeek 2024 has been another truly insightful and inspiring experience. During #WWWeek 2024, I attended multiple panel discussions and talk shows from leading experts in the water sector, and took part in interactive workshops which entailed rich discussions on various water issues. In this LinkedIn post, I cannot do justice to everything I have learned throughout this week, however, I would like to share my three highlights. 🛠 The High-level Workshop. Towards the end of it, I had the great opportunity and honour to, alongside the United Nations Water Vice-Chair Bruce Gordon, share my thoughts with the participants, including Water and Sanitation Ministers, The World Bank Group Managers and NGO Representatives on the actions needed to improve the future pathways of water. I remarked how a greater inclusion of young people can bring new and different perspectives to discussions on global water issues. Doing this at the United Nations 2026 Water Conference, for example, could accelerate the progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and water-related targets. 💧💼 The Water in Business sessions explored how the water crisis is impacting corporations in different sectors and how regulations, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) are affecting the way corporations report on and respond to the emerging challenges of climate change. I found it interesting how panelists were calling for sustainability to be embedded not only within individual businesses, but also across entire value chains. Doing this will be challenging but essential in creating more sustainable and resilient economies. 🤔 Critical thinking in the New water strategies in MENA: Similarities and differences session, where panelists (representatives from 4 MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) nations – Egypt, Jordan, Saudia Arabia and Tunisia) compared and contrasted their situations of water scarcity and respective water strategies. Following this critical and comparative analysis, the panelists highlighted the importance of water solutions needing to be context- and country-specific. Thus, just because one agricultural or desalination solution might help alleviate the drought in Egypt, this does not mean that it will equally work in Jordan. World Water Week 2024 has pushed myself out of my comfort zone in multiple ways and showed me the importance of cross-sectoral, cross-cultural and cross-generational collaboration to solve the world’s most complex contemporary challenges. Finally, I would like to thank SIWI - Stockholm International Water Institute and the World Water Week team for organising such a remarkable conference.