Wrapping up Stockholm World Water Week

Update

GEORGE NEWS - South Africa's participation in the 2022 Stockholm World Water Week (SWWW) was fruitful, with a host of experts providing valuable insight on various topics.

It was a week full of breakthroughs in the world of water and the precarious position that countless people around the world find themselves in due to the nature of water availability across the planet.

It also provided a great platform for people from all around the world to network and mingle and pick one another's brains on just about any matter related to water and water management.

One of the most pressing themes that was discussed throughout the duration of the SWWW was groundwater, the availability and viability thereof around the world, and the importance of managing the precious resource in the correct manner.

Groundwater management faces unique challenges when compared with other types of water - it being underground means it's incredibly difficult to monitor because one cannot simply "see it".

Groundwater importance

On the first day of on-site/in-person talks and seminars at the conference, Sunday 28 August, South Africa's Dr Kevin Pietersen spoke during a special session titled "Clean Groundwater - Our Hidden Treasure".

The session featured various talks from experts in the field from across the world, covering ground (and water) all the way from Southern Africa to India, Cambodia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Pietersen is the technical advisor to the Groundwater Management Institute for the Southern African Developing Community (SADC).

His talk focused largely on the impact of mining on groundwater. "Mining distorts the natural environment, complicating the fate and pathway of pollutants in the disturbed areas, and complicating vulnerability assessments due to various factors, including mining methods, preferential flow paths and multiple pollutant load sources," Pietersen said during his presentation.

Groundwater was a hot topic at the conference with a number of the talks focusing on groundwater, the reason being that this year is "the year of groundwater", as of World Water Day on 22 March.

Technical advisor to the Groundwater Management Institute for the Southern African Developing Community (SADC), Dr Kevin Pietersen.

Executive secretary of the Orange-Senqu River Commission Lenka Thamae

Trans-boundary co-operation

Trans-boundary governance of ground-water resources was another hot topic during the conference, and SADC was used as an example of how countries can set aside their differences to focus on enhancing positive trans-boundary water resource management.

Executive secretary of the Orange-Senqu River Commission Lenka Thamae touched on this during his talk as part of a session titled "The value of trans-boundary co-operation for addressing global changes jointly".

"I think that, due to the need for viable water resources in Southern Africa being so large and given the fact that so many water sources are by nature trans-boundary resources, the countries in SADC didn't really have a choice but to join together and negate their differences and become a beacon of trans-boundary co-operation," he said.

The Norra Latin conference centre provided a beautiful location for the conference.

UN 2023 conference

Furthermore, the week was used to make preparations for the 2023 United Nations Water Conference, due to take place in March in New York in the US. It is fitting then that one of the final sessions that South African Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu participated in before his return to South Africa was titled "Preparing for an inclusive and action-oriented UN 2023 Water Conference".

The session included a brief introduction to the 2023 conference and an update on the road to the conference.

It also highlighted the opportunities for stakeholders to participate and contribute to the conference's objectives to accelerate progress toward the targets of the United Nations Development Programme's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

The Norra Latin conference centre provided a beautiful location for the conference.