Event
18 March 2023 - 24 March 2023 New YorkMarch is the water month of the year. Besides the celebrations around World Water Day on 22 March, the international water sector will come together to address the urgent water crisis at the UN 2023 Water Conference and the New York Water Week in a few days. NWP will play an active role in both events with the participation in an Innovation Pavilion and a Water House.
The UN 2023 Water Conference, formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028), will be held from 22 to 24 March, at the UN headquarters in New York. This Conference is the second UN conference dedicated to water in 46 years.
The UN 2023 Water Conference is co-hosted by The Republic of Tajikistan and the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Together they bring in the perspective of water challenges throughout the water cycle from source to sea: Tajikistan, a country of mountains and glaciers in Central Asia, and The Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of a delta country on the North Sea coast and several small island states in the Caribbean. The co-hosts are deeply committed to making this conference as inclusive and cross-sectoral as possible, and to unite the world for water action.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water, wants to facilitate extra space at the UN headquarters for innovative solutions. At the request of both ministries, the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) will host an Innovation Pavilion through which to showcase innovative, scalable and blueprintable best practices from around the world.
The Vienna Café, at the basement of the UN headquarters, will be home to the Innovation Pavilion. It will consist of six booths – 18 different concepts - which can be visited during the three days of the Conference.
NWP and Water Alliance have put forward a variety of innovative Dutch initiatives, seven of which have been exposed at the Pavilion. The topics of these initiatives comprise water quantity, water quality, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
Parallel to the Conference, the New York Water Week will take place from 18 to 24 March. This event offers a separate, yet complementary, programme to the Conference.
As part of the New York Water Week, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York will host a Water House – a central meeting point and stage for the global and local community to come together outside of the UN headquarters. The Water House will be a unique location where to highlight solutions that work and advance the water agenda through key side events, meetings, and public engagement.
The programme of the Water House will be coordinated by the Dutch Consulate General. NWP will contribute to it with four sessions. Below you can find the programme.
Programme:
Hosted by: The Nature Conservancy, Deltares, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.
Title: Managing river basins as a system.
Objective:
- Discuss challenges and solutions of river basement management in the 21st century and beyond.
Hosted by: IUCN NL, WWF NL and Tropenbos International
Title: From Pledge to Practice: A roadmap for implementing the Fresh water Challenge and the UN Water Action Agenda in the water-climate-biodiversity nexus.
Objectives:
- Present the first version of the Pledge to Practice Roadmap.
- Form a group of CSOs, Governments and Companies to further develop the initiative and roadmap.
- Discuss and decide on early implementation of the Roadmap in a number of countries.
Additional info: it includes case studies from Uganda and Ghana
Hosted by: Water Footprint Implementation, Akvo, Acacia Water, World Waternet and Wetskills
Title: Water Footprint Compensation – a globally novel method to accelerate progress on SDG6
Objectives:
- Launch the Water Footprint Compensation Method.
- Present a platform for matching businesses with fitting compensation projects.
- Showcase three ongoing pilot projects.
Additional info: attendees will be invited to a dialogue and a call to partner up on the world-wide implementation of Water Footprint Compensation. The session will close with the announcement and signing of the Water Footprint Compensation Commitment for the Water Action Agenda.
Hosted by: Hydraloop International
Title: Tangible solutions for the practical implementation of circular water solutions – a global perspective on in-property water recycling
Objective:
Present views and lessons learnt from leading global experts on:
- why we need to transition from linear to circular water management and why we need to adopt water recycling;
- the importance of building water sustainable homes & buildings with extreme decentralised water recycling technologies; and,
- a blueprint with tangible solutions for a Global Water Smart Society.
Registration:
Entry to the Water House and attendance to the sessions is free of charge. However, attendees need to be included in the invitee list 48 hours prior to the sessions. If you would like to attend any of the above-mentioned sessions, please send an email to Mirjam van Buchem.
Highlighting the Dutch water sector
During the UN 2023 Water Conference week and the New York Water Week (28-24 March), many organisations from the water sector will participate in either the Conference’s side events or the New York Water Week’s programme. Since the Netherlands is co-hosting both events, there is great interest among the Dutch water sector.
Both the Innovation Pavilion and Water House offer the Dutch water sector an alternative to showcase ideas and innovations to help accelerate reaching SDG 6 and other water related goals.
To further disseminate the contributions of the Dutch water sector to both events, NWP has created an overview of Dutch activities. Please note that this is not a complete list as there may be other activities unknown to NWP. If you would like NWP to include your activity in the overview, please contact Arjan Braamskamp, NWP Business Relations Manager.