World Water Forum 2024: A Recap

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The World Water Forum 2024 (WWF) is a wrap!
The largest international conference in the water sector took place from 18 to 25 May in Bali, Indonesia. Time for a recap of the exciting things that transpired at the Dutch Pavilion.

An important reason for attending the WWF Dutch pavilion was to help position the Netherlands as an expert on global water challenges providing innovative approaches and state-of-the-art solutions to improve water security. In order to achieve this, the pavilion was designed as an open, inclusive and inventive space to make finding new (or strengthening existing) local and international partnerships easy.

The pavilion boasted an extensive programme with three main themes: ‘Water for resilient cities and deltas’, ‘Water for food and energy’ and ‘Clean and safe water for all’. These were some of the highlights from an exciting week at WWF:

Start of a wave

The week kicked off with a bang with the launch of the ‘Indonesian Wave’, part of Wavemakers United. ‘A youth-led intergenerational network that connects initiatives, merges resources and enables collaboration. All the while adapting to local contexts to achieve the Water Action Agenda goal of educating one million children per year.’ explained Sabrina Farah Salsabilla, Chief Marketing Officer at ReservoAir.

Founder of Wavemakers United Tilly Stroo signed a Letter of Intent with the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Wavemakers United to collaborate under the Centre of Excellence for Water and Climate Resilience. ‘Signing this at such a significant platform as the WWF, Indonesia and the Netherlands are demonstrating their continued investment in youth participation. Not just during WWF’s but into the future as well.’

Water envoy in the house

Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Meike van Ginneken also attended the WWF: ‘At the UN Water Conference in New York in 2023, we agreed to more than 800 water actions. Today, the Water Action Agenda is in full swing with Dutch companies, NGOs and the government participating in many of those actions at the community, local and national levels.

‘I want to congratulate the Indonesian government on bringing together the whole water world here at WWF. It has been a great opportunity to celebrate our long-standing and productive bilateral cooperation with Indonesia.’

A Matter of Perseverance

On the second day of the WWF, we – Partners for Water – hosted a session in collaboration with Water as Leverage. This programme brings together cities, designers, engineers, and financiers to enhance urban resilience to climate change. The goal of this session was to discuss bilateral collaboration with our seven partner countries regarding inclusive delta development.

As improving water security requires perseverance, we consider long-term partnerships with our partner countries to be essential. Amongst other things, we discussed how we can enhance the current approach and how to engage local partners effectively. We also shared insights gained from projects undertaken in our partner countries.

Launch of inaugural report

An exciting event that occurred at the Dutch pavilion was the launch of the first International Panel on Deltas and Coastal Areas (IPDC) report. The report was produced through a collaborative effort and sets out the climate adaptation strategies, processes, and challenges of each IPDC member country. Meike van Ginneken presented the first copies to two esteemed IDPC-members, Indonesia’s Pak Leo Eliasta and Egypt’s Mr. Walid Hakiki.

A special visitor

On the last day of presentations at the WWF, a very special person visited the Dutch Pavilion. Minister Basuki Hadimuljono of Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing stopped by.

‘I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with the Minister about the relationship between Indonesia and The Netherlands, particularly focusing on the water sector. I believe this relationship will always be strong, equal and beneficial’, said Nishchal Sardjoe, Senior Water Management specialist at Deltares Indonesia

Thank you

Partners for Water would like to thank all the companies, NGO’s, governments, knowledge institutions and visitors who came and participated at our pavilion. We trust you had a fruitful WWF and hope to see you soon.

A special thanks to everyone who hosted a session at the Netherlands Pavilion 2024:
Bandung Technische Hoogeschool Fonds (BTHF), BESE BV, Danone, Deltares Netherlands, EcoShape Consortium, International Panel on Deltas, Coasts and Islands (IPDC), MetaMeta, Nazava Indonesia, NX Filtration, Partners for Water, Royal HaskoningDHV, UN-Habitat, Simavi, The International Centre for Water Cooperation (ICWC), SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Valuing Water Initiative (VWI), Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors, WaterWorX (VEI, WereldWaternet and Oasen), Water as Leverage, Water Footprint Implementation, Wavemakers United/Nuffic/The Water Agency, Wetskills Foundation, Yayasan Plan International Indonesia