Engagements at the World Water Week 2024

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We’ve just concluded World Water Week 2024 which convened water and sanitation professionals from around the globe to address this year’s theme of “bridging borders: water for a peaceful and sustainable future.” In Stockholm and online, participants explored water’s dual role in both fueling and mitigating conflicts, with discussions covering everything from water security and cooperation across political divides to strategies for building climate-resilient and sustainable water and sanitation systems. Throughout the week, I engaged in diverse panels and sessions that underscored the role of sanitation in promoting resilience, sustainability, and cross-border collaboration.

As usual, World Water Week for many of us started off with the SuSanA (Sustainable Sanitation Alliance) meeting, which was once again hosted at the Stockholm Environment Institute offices. The meeting consisted of a series of sessions, including the annual SuSanA General Assembly, a thematic session on the linkages between sanitation and climate change, a thematic session on resource recovery, as well as a thematic session on South-to-South dialogue. I had the opportunity to share insights from our team’s ongoing work on sanitation and climate change, including presenting highlights from our recently released report on methods for measuring greenhouse gas emissions in sanitation and wastewater management systems. During the resource recovery thematic session, we also provided updates on the ongoing resource recovery toolbox project. The day culminated in a social gathering at the Sjöcafét restaurant in the evening.

On Sunday, 25th August, GIZ and SuSanA, together with SEI, organized a special screening of the documentary film Holy Shit by the director Rubén Abruña at the Zita movie theatre in Stockholm. I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion after the screening of the film, along with Dorothee Spuhler, Elisabeth Kvarnström and Lotte Kristoferitsch, to discuss the film’s main themes as well as the implications for sanitation and the environment issues globally. The film is a really interesting documentary that follows how human excreta is managed through the entire value chain and it’s really helpful for people to understand what exactly happens to human excreta, how we manage it and how that affects our everyday life and the environment around us. It is also a search for insights into what we can do in the future and what changes we can make in how excreta is managed globally for us to better achieve different sustainability objectives, including health and environmental conservation, among others. During the panel discussion, we discussed, among others, questions like what exactly circular sanitation or sustainable sanitation means, and the potential for a human excreta to be used as a derivative to make valuable fertilizer and plug. Fertilizer availability gaps, issues around heavy metals and other chemical contaminants that are available in wastewater and in sludge, and how to manage them, as well as what technical, governance and other solutions could be available to improve how a human excreta is managed in society.

On Tuesday 27th August, together with other colleagues from organizations that are part of the Climate Resilient Sanitation Coalition, we held a panel discussion at the Water for Women Fund booth to discuss the call to action for climate resilient sanitation. This panel was moderated by our colleague Sam Drabble from Water and Sanitation for the urban poor. During the discussion, I had the opportunity to share insights from our ongoing research at SEI about the linkages between sanitation and climate mitigation and the potential that interventions within sanitation systems can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and hence enable progress towards the Global Methane Pledge. We also discussed about why it’s really crucial to invest in research on emissions sources and quantities covering the entire sanitation value chain, and the available climate mitigation solutions therein.

On Wednesday, 28th August, I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion in a session that was organized by Xylem for the finalists in this year’s Junior Water Prize, Stockholm Junior Water Prize. This panel consisted of a number of experts in the water and sanitation sector, each of them talking about their background and how they came to work on water and sanitation related issues, their unique career journey and the challenges and opportunities they have faced. We also had reflections on mentorship and sponsorship, and what that implies for young people that will be working in the water and sanitation sector in the future. The panel included Dr. Lara B. Fowler, who is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Penn State University in the USA, Hanna Albåge, who is the Director for Business Development at Xylem, Brooke Yamakoshi, who is the Regional Water Sanitation and Hygiene Manager at UNICEF in the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, and it was moderated by Cecilia Chatterjee-Martisen, who is the International Program Director at Save the Children in Sweden. Apart from the panel discussion, we also had breakout sessions in smaller groups where we got to interact with the Stockholm Junior Water Prize Laureates and discuss topics such as gender parity, the role of male allies, how to build a network, and the importance of mentorship in career development.

Later in the day, I participated in a session that was organized by the World Bank and the University of Technology, Sydney, as well as UNICEF on circular, resilient and inclusive sanitation service systems. The session included an extensive discussion of how circular economy principles can be applied in the water and sanitation sector, an overview of tools that can be used for implementing circular economy principles in the wash sector, including the World Bank’s WICER tool, as well as the Circle WASH 8Rs framework that has been developed at the University of Technology Sydney. As part of the session, I participated in a panel discussion along with Dr. Dihn Van Dano from the Vietnam Academy of Water Resources, Sophie Tremolet, who is the Water Team Lead at the OECD, and my long-time colleague, Amadou Gueye who is affiliated with the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in Senegal. During the panel discussion, we responded to audience questions, but also more broadly discussed how circular economy principles can be applied in the water and sanitation sector and the tools that are available for planning and implementing such initiatives like those showcased in our ongoing Resource Recovery Toolbox project at SEI.

The conference was also an opportunity to gather colleagues working on water and sanitation issues from across various Stockholm Environment Institute offices together. We had colleagues from the US, Asia and Latin America centers, as well as the HQ in Stockholm and it was nice to hang out together and catch up in person.

My ImageSEI Group photo with colleagues from various SEI centers at World Water Week 2024. Photo: Thanapon Piman