Did you know that we are in the middle of “World Water Week”? It runs from Sunday 26 August to Friday 31 August

I was not.

I was made aware when I was sent two stories for publishing from World Water Week – “Caleb Liow Jia Le and Johnny Xiao Hong Yu from Singapore win Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2018” – and the Inter-American Development Bank – “Green infrastructure for Latin America and the Caribbean: rich in water, yet thirsty”.

I find it strange that a commodity so precious as water has passed us by here in the Cayman Islands.

No Minister has sent in a Press Release about the importance of this week and there is no government initiative to highlight just how precious water is.

The World Water Week 2018 theme is “Water, ecosystems and human development”.

World Water Week is the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues. It is organized by SIWI.

In the third year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Water Week 2018 focuses on the very basis of our existence: the ecosystems on which all life depends, and the critical role of water in their functions. We depend on healthy ecosystems as habitats for plant and animal life, and for services for human development and well-being. In our development efforts we invariably affect and change our environment, but we need to do so without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The UN focuses on “nature-based solutions” as the theme for the 2018 World Water Day and World Water Development Report. In Stockholm we align the present 2018 Thematic Scope with this, and we go further to explore the wider water, ecosystems and human development agenda.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement, set ambitious targets for our future development. The present Thematic Scope focuses in particular on SDG 6, target 6: “by 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes”; SDG 15, target 1: ”by 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands”; and SDG 9.1 “develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and trans-border infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all”. While each of the SDG targets have one or more indicators through which the performance in achieving the targets is monitored, the inter-dependence between them needs to be recognized and guide integrated development. Considering the 14th global Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention in late 2018 the bio-diversity dimension of ecosystem development and management will be given special attention.

SOURCE: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/programme/#thematic-scope

Perhaps next year someone here in government will realise just how important water is and how we should be recognising World Water Week” ……?