Room 9

Objectives
The Special Session will discuss the significance of material, conceptual and spiritual aspects of water-related cultural heritage. The discussion will focus on the critical relevance of world water heritage for present and future water security, and to promote peace and development. The Special Session flows from the recommendations of the 2020 Tokyo symposium on Water and Culture/Heritage which was organized by the National Institute on Policy Studies of Japan in cooperation with the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Water and Heritage (ISCWater).

USAID’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Finance (WASH-FIN) program has been implemented since 2016 with the objective of closing financing gaps to achieve universal access to water and sanitation services through sustainable and creditworthy business models, increased public funding, and expanded market finance for infrastructure investment. The program has so far helped raise over USD 68.4 million in 8 countries in Africa and Asia, showing that it is possible to leverage private financing to the sector.

Objectives of the Session:

Showcasing actions that identify and address the most challenging global water issues. By promoting action-oriented cases of pragmatic solutions!

Financing innovation: novel means and tools, technical and non-technical solutions to leverage knowledge, education, science and innovation required for solving water challenges

Creating opportunities for action-oriented solutions providers (entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, utilities, public authorities, associations) to network and accelerate the spread of their solutions.

Access to sanitation remains a key issue for millions of people. 2.4 billion still lack access to basic sanitation, and 1.2 billion of these live in fragile or extremely fragile contexts. The COVID-pandemic only disclosed the fragility of the achievements by various stakeholders so far and highlights the importance of collaboration among WASH, health, and environment sectors for sustainable results.

The session will try to highlight the needs for the academia and WASH operational bodies to get closer together and engage cooperation for a better development of the WASH sector in Africa and show why one needs the other, even for its own development. The session will give the opportunity to assess what was done these past years to really link research & development to operational needs of the Africa WASH sector.

Adaptation to climate change requires a strong knowledge of its impacts, especially on water resources and related ecosystems: we cannot manage what we do not know.
The current Sentinel / Copernicus constellation, the upcoming SWOT and TRISHNA mission can be combined to build knowledge regarding rainfall, discharge and evaporation. More generally, “multi-sensor” satellite data can be mobilized, since these data are essential for water resource management and climate change adaptation.

The precariousness of hygiene and sanitation services in rural areas around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries, is striking, especially in Africa where 77% of the population lacks basic sanitation. The implementation of participatory governance is key to meeting this challenge and considering the whole sanitation chain.