This year, World Water Week is focused on “Seeing the unseen: the value of water”. Throughout the week, sessions will cover topics relating to food security and health, agriculture, technology, biodiversity and the climate crisis. World Water Week is curated by SIWI, but convened by world-leading organizations that share their latest insights.

World Water Week 2022 will be held both online and in-person. Online sessions will take place from August 23-25, with on-site events from August 28-September 1. Both online and in-person passes are available for purchase now, which include access to the week’s sessions (online) and networking events and exhibitions (on-site). Register here.

 

Tuesday, August 23

Near-real-time Water Risk Forecasting: Enabling Transition to Water-Prudent Power Production

With Earth observation intelligence, cloud computing technologies and deep learning modeling techniques, power plant-specific near-real-time water risk forecasting are being made available through web-based platforms, which will enable transitioning from water-intensive to water-prudent power production such as transitioning to clean energy, decarbonization, improving water-use efficiency and respectful water entitlement. WRI India will discuss the Water4Power initiative.

Event Time: 13:00-14:20, 7:00-8:20 a.m. EDT

WRI Speaker: WRI India speaker to be announced

Partners: Growald Climate Fund, Vasudha Foundation, World Resources Institute

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Surviving Shocks and Stresses: A Corporate Guide to Resilience Assessment

With climate change and other shocks and stresses on water systems causing targets to shift and decision-making processes to change, resilience is the conceptual tool for survival. This session gives corporates a guideline to apply the Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF) to assess and improve their water resilience.

Event Time: 20:00-21:20, 2:00-3:20 p.m. ET

WRI Speaker: Colin Strong

Partners: Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, International Water Management Institute, Pacific Institute, The CEO Water Mandate, World Resources Institute, WSP

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Wednesday, August 24

Driving Professionalisation and Performance for a Sustainable Urban Water Cycle

The session will invite participants to reflect on the operationalisation of holistic urban water cycle approaches, and the strategies to drive performance at all levels. Practical examples will be used as problem posing materials and resource people from different countries will chip in with their specific expertise.

Event Time: 15:30-16:50 CEST, 9:30-10:50 a.m. EDT

WRI Speakers: Amanda Gcanga, Smita Rawoot

Partners: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, World Resources Institute

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Advancing Gender and Social Equity through Nature-Based Solutions

Cities around the world are integrating gender and social equity considerations in their urban nature-based solutions policies and programs, especially as it relates to water issues. Through this session, the Cities4Forests team will highlight the efforts of three cities from different geographies planning equitable and inclusive nature-based solutions.

Event Time: 20:00-21:20 CEST, 2:00-3:20 p.m. EDT

WRI Speaker: Ayushi Trivedi

Partners: Forest Trends; Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative; United Kingdom, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; World Resources Institute

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Thursday, August 25

Corporate Enterprise Water Targets: Factoring in Nature and Climate Change

This track is for any businesses interested in understanding what enterprise water targets are, how to set enterprise water targets and what impacts can be made for nature and climate change. Participants will be able to interact with businesses that have set enterprise water targets and engage in practice sessions.

Event Time: 08:30-11:25 CEST, 2:30-5:25 a.m. EDT

WRI Speakers: Sara Walker, Colin Strong, Nanda Aung, Tianyi Luo (former WRI employee)

Partners: Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Cargill Inc, LimnoTech, Procter and Gamble Company, Tyson Foods, Inc, World Resources Institute, Inc (confirmed)

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Resilience Knows No Boundaries: Water Resilience from Basins to Cities

To resolve increasing water risks, city leaders in Africa are tasked with addressing three converging challenges: extending water and sanitation services for growing populations, managing watershed risks largely outside city jurisdictions, and designing for climate resilience. City leaders’ capacity to address these challenges hinges on the ability to secure the right kind of financing.

Convened by WRI, WaterAid, the Resilient Cities Network and Arup, this World Water Week session will highlight the existing gaps in financing for urban water resilience in Africa and the emerging initiatives poised to fill those gaps.

Event Time: 10:00-11:20 CEST | 04:00 - 05:20 AM EST

Partners: Arup, Resilient Cities Network, WaterAid, World Resources Institute

WRI Speaker: Smita Rawoot

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Standardizing Water Quality Benefit Accounting Methods for Water Stewardship Activities

As companies increasingly set watershed health targets, there is a need for credible and practical methods for quantifying water quality benefits of stewardship activities. The World Resources Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and LimnoTech are developing standardized guidance together with Cargill, Google, Meta, Starbucks, Amazon Web Services, and others.

Event Time: 15:30-16:50 CEST, 9:30-10:50 a.m. ET

WRI Speakers: Nanda Aung, Shivani Lakshman

Partners: Amazon Web Services, Cargill Inc, Facebook, Google, LimnoTech, Starbucks, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute

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Tools for Valuing Ecosystems and Nature-Based Solutions

This Seminar will examine the value of ecosystem services and nature-based solutions (NBS) considering the impact of Covid-19, the increase in frequency and strength of climate change events, and urbanization trends worldwide. It will highlight sustainable approaches to water security that recognize that land use, demographics, agricultural practices, and the climate are changing faster than traditional engineering approaches can keep up. NBS can support long-term sustainability of water security as they do not have finite life expectancies. The Seminar will present various innovative tools that are now available to support NBS.

Session 1 will explore the importance of valuing ecosystem services and nature-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. It is not sufficient to reinforce existing gray infrastructure; we need to protect and use natural ecosystems to absorb the shocks of natural disasters. Not only can this limit damages, but it can also lead to the creation of new environmentally friendly economies that can sustain local communities.

Event Time: 17:00-18:20 CET, 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. EDT

Partners: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, FEMSA Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, Stockholm International Water Institute, Rainmatter Foundation

WRI Speaker: Todd Gartner

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Projecting Future Global Water Stress, Supply and Demand with CMIP6

This session will bring experts from Microsoft (TBC), Moody's, and World Resources Institute, share how the new CMIP6-based global water projections is developed for the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas 4.0, and discuss how the financial sector and industry leaders leverage the data in ESG products and corporate water stewardship efforts.

Event Time: 18:30-19:50 CEST, 12:00-1:50 p.m. EDT

Partners: Microsoft, Moody's, World Resources Institute

WRI Speaker: Sam Kuzma

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Tuesday, August 30

Water As A Driver For Peace and Cooperation

Water crises pose a growing threat to livelihoods, ecosystems, and security. Many people around the world lack access to sufficient, safe, affordable, and clean water. Decreasing supplies of water, mismanagement, and limited land use and water planning integration has led to rising water-related conflict throughout the world.

But there are paths forward. To turn water-related threats into opportunities for peacebuilding, we need to encourage collaboration among regional, national, and international stakeholders; provide better access to data; ensure inclusive decision-making; increase capacity building; pursue partnerships; and scale up investment in water security and infrastructure. Part of SIWI’s World Water Week seminar “Water as a Driver for Peace and International Cooperation”, this session includes a high-level dialogue on the interlinkages between water and conflict and will provide a suite of tools to increase understanding of water stress as well as resources for capacity building, partnerships and collaboration.

Event Time: 16:00-17:30 CEST, 10:00-11:30 a.m. EDT

WRI Speaker: Charlie Iceland, Aklilu Fikresilassie

Partners: Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, International Association of Hydrogeologists, International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre, Lincoln Institute of Land and Policy, National Audubon Society, Stockholm International Water Institute, Urban Water Resilience in Africa initiative of the World Resources Institute, Water, Peace, and Security Partnership, World Resources Institute

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Wednesday, August 31

How Innovative Cities are Financing Equitable Natural Infrastructure for Water

This event will showcase how cities and counties around the world are financing equitable nature-based solutions to improve urban resilience, stormwater management, water security, and flood control. We will showcase four diverse stories to inspire and instruct other cities who seek to adapt to climate change while protecting vulnerable populations.

Event Time: 9:00-10:30 CEST, 3:00-4:30 a.m. EDT

WRI Speaker: Todd Gartner (in person)

Partners: City of Freetown, Sierra Leone; City of Jayapura, Indonesia; City of Xalapa, Mexico; Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative; United Kingdom, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; World Resources Institute

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Pathways to Sustainable Water Management in Ethiopia

Join us in a conversation about one of the most urgent challenges in Ethiopia. We will during this interview session hear from some of the most weathered water management experts, senior leadership from the Ethiopian government and international partners on how we jointly can improve water management in the country.

Event Time: 11:00-11:30 CEST, 5:00-5:30 a.m. EST

WRI Speaker: Aklilu Fikresilassie

Partners: International Water Management Institute, Ministry of Water and Energy, Stockholm, International Water Institute, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, World Resources Institute

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Valuing Nature in LAC: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead

More than a decade of experimentation with NBS in LAC has produced proof of concept with attractive returns for investors and increased resilience. Yet, these still are not reaching the desired scale. This session highlights challenges and solutions that can help define the next evolution for nature and water security.

Event Time: 16:00-17:30 CEST, 10:00-11:30 a.m. EDT

WRI Speaker: Todd Gartner (in person), Emmie Oliver (online)

Partners: FEMSA Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute

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