9th world water forum kicks off with huge expectations

The 9th World Water Forum kicks off today under the main theme of “Water Security for Peace and Development”, with an opening ceremony at Dakar Arena.

The success of the Forum, which is being organized for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the organizers, required a significant amount of preparatory work focused on an inclusive approach, proper identification and involvement of stakeholders, mobilization of adequate resources and timely implementation of activities.

Objectives of the 9th World Water Forum

The ambition of Senegal and the World Water Council is to organize a more socially, politically and economically
effective Forum, a Forum that is a catalyst for action on water and sanitation commitments, a Forum that is connected to agendas, platforms and commitments related to the SDGs, the Sendai agreement on natural hazards and disasters, the Paris climate agreement, Africa’s 2063 agenda, etc. ), and a contextualized, global and grassroots Forum, anchored on the main water challenges of Africa and the world.

Designed to be a ‘Forum of Responses’, Dakar 2022 is expected to address global issues for man and nature, today and tomorrow. The ambition is to accelerate the effective implementation of the global water agenda, which is a prerequisite for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in Africa, a continent where water is vital for human development.

The World Water Forum will have to strengthen actions in Africa and in the world, for universal access to water
and sanitation in view of the weak and fragile progress, the increasing pressures linked to the climate challenge, the
galloping demography, the uncontrolled urbanization, the pollution, etc. In a word, it is a question of fighting poverty and giving hope to those hundreds of millions of people deprived of the basics, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In his welcome speech, Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, hosts of the 9th World Water Forum, stated that ‘The duty to change our world questions our ability to act, and in time! In the current context where global warming increases the risk of major socio-political crises while having adverse effects on the environment, rural areas and transboundary river basins must also receive special attention from the international community.’

Encouraging participation, President Macky Sall went further to state that at the Dakar Forum, the global community will benefit from the lessons learned and share innovative experiences from the “Dakar 2022 Initiative” projects, with a view to accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will therefore be a mutual enrichment with Senegal, the host country, which has made a lot of progress in these areas by implementing concrete initiatives and responses for universal access to water and sanitation, but also in terms of cross-border cooperation.

Dakar 2022 Initiative

This is an initiative geared towards matching responses to water-related issues with concrete actions on
the ground. Centered on the materialization of the vision “From commitments to concrete actions on the ground”, this initiative consists in labeling projects on access to water and sanitation in the face of climate challenges, galloping demography, uncontrolled urbanization, pollution; and will include identifying projects and  matching those projects to investors for immediate action.

Story put together with content from 9th World Water Forum newsletter.