Stockholm World Water week begins, to crucially address why 2 billion people don't have access to clean water

From Hemang Desai in Stockholm
The World Water Week — 2017 kick-started on August 28 here with several senior political dignitaries attending the plenary session. The political leadership included Mayor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, the Swedish Minister of environment, Karolina Skog, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment, Melanie Schultz van Haegen and the Finance Minister of Ecuador, Carlos Torre.
The annual event is hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in the city of Stockholm and this year it is taking place continuously for the 27th time. World Water Week addresses the planet’s water issues and related concerns of international development in concrete terms. The event had attracted 3000 participants from 130 countries last year.
Leaders and experts from the world’s scientific, business, government and civil society will deliberate during the coming week the delicate matter of global water challenges. World Water Week is a yearly alert to the global citizens about the looming crisis of water that both the developed and the developing world are facing. Executive Director of SIWI, Torgny Holmgren, articulated the message of Water Week to the world: Respect and understand water.
Speaking in the plenary session, the Mayor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, described this year’s theme, '’Water and Waste: Reduce and Reuse¨, as an important reminder of the fragility of water element.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Peter Thomson, said that the oceans of the world unite people of the world, and we should take care of them as they have always taken care of us. He added that among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of United Nations, 17 goals have water in them.

Karolina Skog, Minister of Environment of Sweden, invited the audience of the plenary session to discuss the essence of water. She also pointed out the strong links water has with city-planning, industry, health and sustainable environment.

The SIWI World Water Week is not an oratorical competition on the theme of water. The event wants the world to become more water wise and draw attention to the sordid fact that more than 2 billion people in this world do not have access to clean water at this very moment.
During this entire week, the thematic scope of Water Week will address issues like the drivers, the water-waste cycle, health and biodiversity, water quality management and the industry and urban dimensions of water.
The theme this year, ‘Water and Waste: Reduce and Reuse’ echoes the prophetic words of the great economist, Gunnar Myrdal, who had exhorted his own compatriots to reduce consumption in this very city in 1972, during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

"As has also been amply demonstrated the cutting down of consumption, and of production for home consumption, of many other items besides food, and in all the developed countries, is rational and in our own interest. This is what the discussion of the ‘quality of life’ is all about. Our economic growth in a true sense, but it should be directed differently, and in a planned way, to serve our real interest in a better life."

Comments

Unknown said…

Well covered...it is important that maximum people should know about such efforts at world level and come forward to chip in to reduce and reuse...

August 31, 2017

Unknown said…

Good to see people who can help make a difference once again deliberate upon an issue that affects the survival of the human kind. By now enough has been talked. Problems are well identified and solutions, too, known. Does the political leadership have the will power to confront industry's unquenchable thirst?

October 08, 2017

Academics urge Azim Premji University to drop FIR against Student Reading Circle

By A Representative A group of academics and civil society members has issued an open letter to the leadership of Azim Premji University expressing concern over the filing of a police complaint that led to an FIR against a student-run reading circle following a recent incident of violence on campus. The signatories state that they hold the university in high regard for its commitment to constitutional values, critical inquiry and ethical public engagement, and argue that it is precisely because of this reputation that the present development is troubling.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

UAPA action against Telangana activist: Criminalising legitimate democratic activity?

By A Representative The National Investigation Agency's Hyderabad branch has issued notices to more than ten individuals in Telangana in connection with FIR No. RC-04/2025. Those served include activists, former student leaders, civil rights advocates, poets, writers, retired schoolteachers, and local leaders associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Indian National Congress.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Aligning too closely with U.S., allies, India’s silence on IRIS Dena raises troubling questions

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The reported sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka raises troubling questions about international norms and the credibility of the so-called rule-based order. If indeed the vessel was attacked by the American Navy while returning from a joint exercise in Visakhapatnam, it would represent a serious breach of trust and a violation of the principles that govern such cooperative engagements. Warships participating in these exercises are generally not armed for combat; they are meant to symbolize solidarity and friendship. The incident, therefore, is not only shocking but also deeply ironic.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

India’s foreign policy at crossroads: Cost of silence in the face of aggression

By Venkatesh Narayanan, Sandeep Pandey The widely anticipated yet unprovoked attack on Iran on March 1 by the United States and Israel has drawn sharp criticism from several quarters around the world. Reports indicate that the strikes have resulted in significant civilian casualties, including 165 elementary school girls, 20 female volleyball players, and many other civilians.

Search This Blog