Jakarta, February 28, 2025 — Ahead of the 11th World Water Forum in Riyadh and as an effort to bridge the policies and concrete actions formulated at the 10th World Water Forum in Bali in 2024, the World Water Council and leaders of international organizations, practitioners and academics from various countries formulated six thematic agendas for collaborative and real action in global water solutions on February 28, 2025 in Jakarta.
At the 10th World Water Forum themed "Water for Shared Prosperity" which took place on May 18-25 in Bali, leaders, experts, academics, entrepreneurs and policy makers gathered and agreed to share views, experiences and best practices around the six sub themes of the Forum, namely "Water for Humans and Nature", "Water Security and Prosperity", "Disaster Risk Reduction and Management", "Governance, Cooperation and Hydro Diplomacy", "Sustainable Water Finance" and "Knowledge and Innovation".
On the occasion of the 10th World Water Forum Follow-Up Meeting in Jakarta, the six subthemes were re-elaborated and ready to be the framework that will be brought to the 11th World Water Forum.
The subtheme "Water for Humans and Nature" was presented by the Representative of the World Water Council and Former Head of the Turkish Water Institute (SUEN) Ahmet Saatçi who said that there are several important keys that have been agreed upon in the discussion of the subtheme. "First, it is important to respect human rights and nature rights. All programs and policies related to water must involve various parties and pay attention to the impact on nature for better environmental and community health. Second, the "One Health" approach that emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the health of nature, humans, and existing fauna, increasing the response to water issues by increasing capacity, paying attention to the level of basic water quality so that nature conservation is maintained and the utilization of innovation and technology for water resource management," said Ahmet.
Representing the "Water Security and Prosperity" panel, Regional Coordinator of Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia Raymond Valiant said that water security is the key to prosperity. "The key to water security is the relationship between water, food, energy and the environment. Several things have been agreed to achieve water security, namely the Grey-Green Infrastructure Compact, Global Multi-Sector Hub, FAO's National Water Roadmaps Initiative, Center of Excellence for Water & Climate, Resilience, Water and Climate Incubator."
Meanwhile, representing the Subtheme "Disaster Risk Reduction and Management", Deputy Head of the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan explained the urgency of an integrated, holistic, and proactive disaster management strategy, as well as an approach that involves all elements of the local community. "There are three results that have been agreed. First, flood and drought disasters are a hydroclimatic spectrum. Second, the need to increase knowledge about water to understand the diversity and changes that exist. Third, the importance of putting forward investment in the right parties and based on diversity," explained Ardhasena.
Representative of the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works Isnaeni M. Hartanto, also representing he Subtheme "Governance, Cooperation and Hydro Diplomacy” affirmed, "In order to realize water-related governance and cooperation, a cross-border, sector, and community system approach is needed to be able to encourage the progress of water resource management, this includes the importance of involving the local community, especially youth and women as agents of change. Then, no less important is the alignment of policy, legal, and institutional frameworks at various levels of government in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” said Isnaeni.
Director of the Strategy and Partnership Team of the Water and Urban Development Sector Group of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Satoshi Ishii as a panelist of the Subtheme "Sustainable Water Finance" in his presentation via video stated that water is a vital resource and therefore qualified funding is needed. "The existence of funding for water resources is not only for sustainable water resource management and water crisis mitigation, but also to encourage climate resilience. In addition, it is also necessary to implement a qualified strategy and collaboration with various parties," said Satoshi.
The last subtheme "Knowledge and Innovation" represented by the Director of Implementation, Financing of Infrastructure and Water Resources of the Indonesia Ministry of Public Works Agus Sulaiman said that the presence of the Center of Excellence can be a forum that is able to bring positive changes. "The presence of the Center of Excellence can generate various water-related initiatives, both existing and new. In detail, there are several contributions and activities that can be carried out in the Center of Excellence, namely cutting-edge research to create solutions that are relevant to the world's conditions. Then a training and certification platform for specific skills, the creation of financing models, and the exchange of know-how with experts in the fields of environment, hydrology and policy," said Agus
