More than 3,000 practitioners and decision-makers gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, at the end of August 2018 for World Water Week. Hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), this annual gathering encourages new thinking and positive action on water-related opportunities and challenges.
Around the world, pollution and disease contaminate essential supplies of drinking water. In the third event of the Woodrow Wilson Center's “Sustainable Water, Resilient Communities” series, experts discussed approaches to meeting the challenges of poor water quality: improving sanitation and hygiene, addressing agricultural pollution, and increasing water supplies through wastewater reuse. The series is organized by the Environmental Change and Security Program. Eric Viala, director of USAID's Sustainable Water Partnership, moderated the discussion.
Why it Matters
On November 19, World Toilet Day will be celebrated around the world, drawing attention to the crucial role that sanitation improvements play in creating healthier communities.
This Sunday, November 19, let’s take some time to reflect. For billions in the developing world proper sanitation can mean the difference between education and ignorance, health and illness, prosperity and poverty. But 2.5 billion people still don’t have access to a toilet, and 11 percent of the world’s population still defecates in the open.
Jesse Shapiro is the Environmental Health Team Lead, Senior Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Advisor, and Sanitation Focal Point at USAID based in the Global Health Bureau. He provides WASH technical support to USAID missions in Africa and South East Asia with a focus on new project development and an increased emphasis on sanitation programming. With World Toilet Day 2017 coming up, he talked with Global Waters about about the importance of wastewater treatment and USAID's work in the sanitation sector.
Water Currents is produced biweekly by USAID’s E3 Water Office. Each issue contains recent news and articles on water sector issues, partner and donor updates, latest sector research, and a special focus on one topic. Please provide your feedback and suggestions by contacting the waterteam@usaid.gov.
USAID’s Global Development Lab hosted an Innovation Marketplace at the 2017 Global Innovation Week in Washington, D.C., September 28 and 29. This is one of those truly inspiring events where creative and entrepreneurial minds are being applied to some of the world’s most intractable problems.
USAID’s Water for Africa through Leadership and Institutional Support (WALIS) project was one of the panelists for a Stockholm World Water Week (SWWW) 2017 session “Building Africa’s Leadership in Sanitation,” which included participants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/UNESCO and AMCOW Innovations.
This is the first in a series of blogs in which participants provide a recap of their Stockholm World Water Week event
