Panel discussion on cooperation on water and preventing disasters
Cooperation on water is vital for sustainable development and the ongoing fight against the impacts of climate change. On the launch day for the The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2023: Partnerships and cooperation for water, three experts gathered for a panel discussion at the SDG Media Zone at the UN 2023 Water Conference.
Richard Connor, Editor-in-Chief of the WWDR for ten years, when asked about the evolution of the report during that time gave the view that we now have unprecedented consensus around the need to cooperate and form partnerships around water to deliver shared benefits across every sector.
Christine Meyer, Programme Management Officer from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), suggested that there is nothing “natural” about disasters, rather there are natural hazards that, without our building resilience to, especially with robust and sustainable water and sanitation systems, can become human disasters.
Neil Dhot, Executive Director of Aquafed, the international federation of private water operators, put forward his experiences of public-private sector partnerships in the wider water sector and their critical role in accelerating transformational change over the coming years.