Welcome to WWWeek At Home!

Many in the development community felt disappointed when the coronavirus outbreak forced the organizers to cancel World Water Week, for the first time ever. This year the world’s leading annual water event was meant to focus on water solutions to accelerate action on climate change, something which clearly cannot wait. A new conversation is also picking up, about how recovery efforts during the current economic downturn could be used to fast-track progress towards a more resilient society. The voice of water is needed in that debate.

“At SIWI, we asked ourselves what we can do. And we felt that we want to offer an arena where organizations can present concrete solutions and new ideas. This is how we came up with WWWeek At Home, where convenors with sessions that have already been approved for World Water Week can host digital adaptations of them,” says Gabriela Suhoschi, Director World Water Week & Prizes at SIWI.

When she first reached out to the convening organizations, she hoped for many interested questions but was overwhelmed when more than 100 organizations immediately said they would come on board. To help guarantee the quality of the event, only convenors with approved content may host events. For those selected, it is free of charge to be part of the programme, which will run from 8am to 9pm CET, Monday 24 August to Friday 28 August 2020.

Participation is also free, anyone can check out the impressive programme, which will be out in early August, and then tune into sessions with leading experts on all things water related. World Water Week is always seeking to reach new groups and Gabriela Suhoschi feels WWWeek At Home can be another step in that direction.

“World Water Week should be a broad platform that brings together people from all over the world and many different backgrounds so that they can collaborate on finding new solutions. We know that this is a community of doers and that more than 80 per cent of our participants decide to take a specific action as a result of attending the Week. To offer digital sessions in times like these is another way to build on the momentum to make lasting change,” she says.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize finals will also take place during the last week of August, just as any other year. The winner of the international youth competition will be announced by H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, who is Patron of the Prize, on 25 August at 2pm CET.