Scan Magazine | Festival Profile | World Water Week
Opening plenary at World Water Week 2016.
Preventing waste of our water Global water conference World Water Week is held in Stockholm every year, addressing a wide range of international water development and sustainability issues. This year’s theme is related to waste and how we can reduce and reuse more cleverly. By Malin Norman | Photos: World Water Week
ment at World Water Week. “We want to encourage collaboration and this week facilitates an open dialogue, which is incredibly valuable,” she says and explains that the event receives a great deal of attention internationally, with a whopping 5,700 articles published in around 100 countries – and 2.6 million website views. The world is watching and listening, no doubt.
What started in 1991 as a symposium has grown into an international meeting place for scientists, policy makers, and private sector and civil society actors. Last year, around 3,200 participants from more than 130 countries gathered in Stockholm. During the week-long event, they network, exchange ideas and foster new thinking around the most pressing water-related challenges, ultimately inspiring collaborative action and bridging science, policy and practice.
Reduce and reuse
Organiser Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) aims to stimulate the development of innovative policies and scientifically based solutions to waterrelated challenges. Director Katarina Veem is impressed with the high level of participants and international engage-
Every year, World Water Week addresses a particular theme to enable a deeper examination of a specific water-related issue. This year’s theme is Water and Waste: Reduce and Reuse. Veem emphasises the global importance of the topic: “Water is a scarce resource, not to be taken for granted. Our patterns must change
22 | Issue 103 | August 2017
and we need to become aware of how we can produce and consume more sustainably. During the week, we will discuss for example how to transform waste into a resource, technical innovation in cleaning water, and reuse and resource recovery.” A hot topic is also the presence of pharmaceutical substances in water. Uncontrolled production and excessive use of antibiotics have promoted the spread of antimicrobial resistance, which is a rising global health risk. While the manufacturing of drugs by large pharmaceutical companies is rigorously managed, generic production is less strictly controlled. Veem highlights that pharmacies in Sweden are obliged to prescribe the cheapest drug to patients, which often means the generic version. “As consumers, we have no power. This is a problem and we need to ensure that regulations are met and that producers do not pollute rivers with their waste water.” A session on Monday 28 August will look at drivers, impacts and solutions to anti-