Jakarta, February 27, 2025 — In a series of events "Follow Up Meeting of the 10th World Water Forum: From Bali to Riyadh and Beyond," held in Jakarta on February 27 and 28, 2025, the World Water Council hosted a discussion titled "Regional Ripple Effect, Raising Local Practices for Global Water Solutions," with panelists representing the world's regional water sector.

Moderated by World Water Council representative Yoonjin Kim, panelists included World Water Council Honorary President/Latin American Water Council President Benedito Braga representing the American region, Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF) Director Yumiko Asayama, Asian Development Bank Permanent Mission Indonesia Director Jiro Tominaga, and Asia Water Council Vice President Firdaus Ali representing the Asia Pacific region. Also present as panelists were Vikas Choudhary, Head of the World Bank's Water Sector Program, and Tarasinta Perwitasari, World Bank Water Resources Management Expert, representing the youth.

During the discussion, the panelists, composed of regional coordinators, shared best practices from each region, which were then integrated into regional solutions, dialog and global water advocacy, and ultimately regional messages to the upcoming 11th World Water Forum.

Braga said that the regional process led by the Inter-American Development Bank in the Americas produced a report that discusses the universalization of access to water and sanitation, as well as sanitation challenges in rural areas of Latin America. "The efforts and initiatives in the report cannot be realized without collaboration between national and international governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector," he added.

"This year, the Latin American region will host the 2nd Latin America Water Forum, where the problems related to water in Latin America will be discussed in greater depth, as well as the solutions needed to address this issue," he affirmed.

The head of the Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF), Yumiko Asayama, said that there are five sub-regions in the Asia-Pacific region, namely the East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and the Pacific and Oceanic Islands.

"The regional process for Asia-Pacific brings forth five core principles: building resilience and adaptive capacity, promoting inclusiveness and gender equality, fostering a circular economy and sustainable environment, improving governance and promoting finance, and fostering innovation and technological advancement," Yumiko said.

Asia Water Council Vice President Firdaus Ali explained that various initiatives have emerged in Indonesia, both at local and national levels, involving local communities.

"Fostering partnerships with different levels of society is very important to strengthen the commitment to address water issues, leverage national goals and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Firdaus said.

The Head of the World Bank's Water Sector Program, Vikas Choudhary, explained that from a global perspective, there are three things that need to be considered when it comes to water issues, namely people, food and the planet.

"Broadly speaking, efforts to overcome people-related water problems are about reforming water ecosystems, including reforming supply and service providers, strengthening capacity and increasing sub-national financing. Then there is the issue of water for food, which relates to food production, subsidies, supporting climate resilience and accelerating the development of the agricultural sector. And finally, the issue of water for the planet can start with trying to mitigate water-related disasters, restoring rivers and aquifers, and improving productivity and ecological outcomes," explains Vikas.