World Water Week to focus on achieving Sustainable Development Goals

The 2016 World Water Week, kicked off here on Monday, focusing on water to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Opening the event, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria, said that water, from having been a subject that was rarely discussed with urgency, has come to the front and centre of international deliberations.

"Water now has the place it needs to have in international priorities," said Gurria.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom reinforced the message that water is a connector and an enabler in realizing the SDGs.

"Successful realization of Goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda will underpin progress across many of the other goals, particularly on nutrition, child health, education, gender equality, healthy cities and healthy water ecosystems and oceans," she said.

Torgny Holmgren, executive director of the organizer, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), said: "Without reliable access to water, almost no Sustainable Development Goal will be achieved. To make that happen, we must ensure water's centrality to the entire Agenda 2030. This will show the power water has a connector."

"Water connects not only sectors, but also nations, communities and different actors. Water can be the unifying power, the enabler for progress in both Agenda 2030 and the Paris climate agreement," said Holmgren.

World Water Week, an annual global meeting for water and development issues, gathers some 3,000 participants from over 120 countries and regions to discuss global and local water and development challenges. Endit