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International Webinar on Content Sharing of IWA World Water Congress in Copenhagen (IV)

Updated on November 15, 2022

The 4th webinar in a series for Content Sharing from the 2022 IWA World Water Congress in Copenhagen was held on November 15, 2022. The webinar series is jointly hosted by the International Forum of Water Sustainability (IFWS) and Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT). Ms. Nathalie Olijslager, Program Director of the UN 2023 Water Conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands, and Mr. Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of the African Water Association (AfWA), Ivory Coast were invited to hold a discussion with the Chinese attendees of the webinar. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Haiguang Wang, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. Also, over 10,000 researchers, technologists, and students joined the webinar.

Dr. Wang first extended a warm welcome to all the experts from home and abroad who participated in the webinar. He also explained that the webinar will share the main contents of the IWA Copenhagen World Water Congress Keynote and Plenary Panel Discussions-2. After the video sharing, a question and discussion session will be held.

This webinar shared a video of the second keynote report of the IWA Copenhagen World Water Congress, which was titled “A Roadmap for Achieving SDG 6.2, Sanitation for All and How to Connect the Unconnected” by Ms. Nathalie Olijslager, Program Director of the UN 2023 Water Conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands. She called for urgent changes to wastewater management, indicating that “no one drop of water should be wasted.” She stressed that water plays a vital role in food production, disease prevention, transportation, and energy production. Therefore,  to prevent the water crisis from worsening, we must invest more and pay more attention to water and sanitation systems. Ms. Nathalie concluded with a call for us to face the real crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 together. After the keynote report, a panel discussion was chaired by Mr Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of the African Water Association (AfWA), Ivory Coast. The panelists consisted of Mr. Brian Arbogast, Director of the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States, Ms. Kate Medlicott, Sanitation and Waste Management team leader of WSH, World Health Organization, Switzerland, Ms. Jennifer Molwantwa, CEO of Water Research Commission, South Africa, and Mr. Mathivathanan Govindarajan, Principal Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government of Odisha, India. They expressed their perspectives on how to realize sanitation for all and generated broad interest from the attendees.

Researcher Lu Huijie, Zhejiang University, Professor Xiaochang Wang, Ms. Nathalie Olijslager, and Mr. Sylvain Usher also joined the discussion to express their perspectives on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.