Setting the agenda for international events
Roelof Kruize: "With the AIWW Summit we certainly succeeded in our objectives: to set the agenda for international water and climate adaptation events, starting with COP24 in Katowice Poland in December and the Amsterdam International Water Week Conference 4-8 November next year. We prepared earlier editions of the AIWW with the International Programme Advisory Committee. This time we strengthened and extended the preparation thanks to high-level speakers and 200 delegates from 25 countries working together on water-related challenges, and we connected with adjacent areas such as energy and urban planning."
"We discussed all the important themes, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water and sanitation. We determined the current state of the SDG’s, looked at what we have achieved, what the challenges are, and how we can share all of this in an effective and interactive way at the AIWW, but also throughout the year. We want to further develop our global water community, where stakeholders not only meet each other during the big conferences, but also keep in touch between meetings and continue to work on the main themes."
"We meet each other at a series of big water conferences worldwide. The most important ones are the Singapore International Water Week, the World Water Week in Stockholm, the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition (this year in Tokyo), and of course our own Amsterdam International Water Week, 4-8 November 2019. We each have our own themes, our own colouring, but we have expressed the intention to coordinate the programming and set a Global Water Agenda. And of course it also supports the formation and strengthening of our international community. We have to do it together, and not ad hoc but permanently. A good example of this International cooperation was this week. The president of Singapore Ms Yacob was here for a state visit and took the opportunity to visit Prodock (innovative hub of the Amsterdam Harbor) in presence of our King, Minister Kaag and Minister Masagos Zulkifli who emphasized the importance of the collaboration between the water events in Amsterdam and Singapore."