World Water Day 2024 - 'Leveraging Water for Peace'

Established on 22 March 1993, World Water Day is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater. The aim of this annual event is to celebrate water and raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water, to tackle the global water crisis.

A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.  

Event Overview

On this World Water Day, we are bringing together experts from various fields to discuss the urgent need for action to address the global water crisis. The panel discussion titled “Leveraging Water for Peace” aims to raise awareness about the issue and provide a platform for discussing innovative solutions to tackle the challenge.

The panel on Friday 22 March 2024 will explore the increasing problem of water scarcity on every continent, exploring ways to build resilience against climate change and to serve a growing population equitably and sustainably, an integrated and inclusive approach, centred on human rights, and based on sound, trusted data, must be taken to managing this finite resource. This webinar will be delivered by:

Panel:

• Dr. Rita Floyd, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Associate Professor in Conflict and Security, University of Birmingham
• Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu, Vanguard Fellow, University of Birmingham, Senior Fellow, OGEES Institute and Director, The Green Institute
• Liz Saccoccia, Water Security Associate, World Resources Institute 
• Assistant Professor Ankit Agarwal, Department of Hydrology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Phillip Beetlestone, Stockholm International Water Institute

Chairs:

• Professor David Hannah, Director of the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action, University of Birmingham
• Professor Stefan Krause, University of Birmingham
• Professor Iseult Lynch, University of Birmingham

The World Water Day and Week activities are held by the Birmingham Water Research Centre under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences and UNESCO UNITWIN network on Ecohydrological Interfaces at Birmingham, the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability & Climate Action and the University's Institute of Global Innovation in collaboration with The Green Institute, Nigeria.

This event is free to attend and is open to all, both within and outside the University. If you wish to attend, please register here.

Further events

In the lead up to this panel discussion, we have also organised a weeklong timetable of events, which you can learn more about and register for here.

Speakers for the week include:

• Monday 18 March 2024: Prof. Berit Arheimer, IAHS – International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 'The IAHS Science for Solutions decade, with Hydrology Engaging Local People IN a Global world (HELPING)'
• Tuesday 19 March 2024: Dr Anabelle Houdret, IDOS Bonn, 'Conflict or cooperation? Test the water!'
• Wednesday 20 March 2024: Dr Tahmina Yasmin, University of Birmingham, 'Pathways to Sustainability: Navigating the contested regime of freshwater sand mining through a nexus perspective'
• Thursday 21 March 2024: Prof. Wouter Buytaert, Imperial College London, 'Hydrological knowledge co-production and inclusive governance in mountain river basins'