News.Jul 07, 2017

Water actors join forces at Sweden’s main political event

SIWI has concluded a successful week at Almedalen political week, Sweden’s main annual meeting place for politicians, civil society and private sector actors.

Together with the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, SIWI arranged The Water Forum (Vattenforum).

“It was very valuable to share a common arena, making it possible to cover local, regional, national and international issues together with Sweden’s most important actors in water”, says Director of SIWI’s Swedish Water House, Katarina Veem.

At The Water Forum, SIWI hosted a seminar discussing how Sweden can contribute to more sustainable production of pharmaceuticals.

“There is a great interest from different kinds of actors, private actors, pharmacies, public procurers, in developing sustainability criteria for pharmaceutical industry, to avoid emission from the industry.”, said Nicolai Schaaf, moderator of the seminar and Swedish Water House Programme Officer.

“There is enough operating space to develop [sustainability] criteria [for the pharmaceutical industry] within Sweden”, he added.

SIWI also hosted the event “Water, forests and people” at a forum hosted by the Swedish Development Cooperation Authority (Sida).

“It was good to raise the issue of strengthening the development cooperation regarding water, forest and restoration of productive landscapes at Sida’s forum, and the broad panel supported that approach”, said Lotta Samuelson, Swedish Water House Programme Manager and moderator.

Together with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SIWI discussed the very pressing issue of water shortage in Sweden. SIWI’s Executive Director Torgny Holmgren summarized the importance of a water perspective in all societies:

The water issue is universal, the same questions affect us all. Water connects states, people and actions.


Read more about our participation at Almedalen Week 2017 here.