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Water for Shared Prosperity

Although it seems ordinary, water is a very important element for human life and every living creatures since we all need water for survival. Water is used by the people in many ways such as drinking, cooking, washing, leisure, and even studying. Therefore, water availability is a crucial aspect in human life considering enough quantity, good quality and timely delivery.

​ People are facing different challenges related to water; some got too little, some has too much; some has very bad quality, and some has it in inappropriate times.

The climate change issues add difficulties  to the complex problems regarding the water availability: where extreme precipitation brings too much water in one area and reduce the events in another resulting to flash floods that never happened in those area and long drought in other areas.

Furthermore, environmental degradation leads to the increased difficulties to obtain clean water. Additionally, the retention area in the upstream lose its ability to delay the run off,  leading to a severe flash flood.

Without proper management, the declining water availability may lead to many aspects that reduce our quality of life. Without sustainable water availability, the crop harvest will be disturbed, drinking water will no longer be adequate, sanitation will not be well maintained, and energy sector will also be affected. This will eventually thwart prosperity that everybody is dream of. Water should be a resource that is available to everyone whenever needed. Hence, managing water appropriately may lead to shared prosperity. The importance of water has high position in human cultures since we realize that water is essential for human lives ever since the ancient time. From daily consumptions, purifications, conservations, cultivations and so on, even some view water as the life itself and the source of immortality.

Nowadays, water management often become the main issues in international events and declarations, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). The SDG’s put a goal that must be achieved in 2030 to ensure the sustainable living. The importance of water is specially mentioned in the SDG’s number 6, Clean Water and Sanitation for all and elaborated in detail in the sub-goals. In order to achieve those targets, all stakeholders needs to work together and understand each other’s needs. With proper water management, we can achieve prosperity together, and for all.

Water plays central role to achieved shared prosperity. In the 10th World Water Forum, we hope that we can give the society what its need to achieve shared prosperities through solving and understanding water-related issues.  The stakeholders in water management can be divided in three main players: people, government, and private sector. People want an easy, inexpensive, and timely access to water, either drinking water, irrigations, raw water, and water for sanitation. The government want to ensure that the public services related to water can be maintained and reach the society, sometimes water can be a political bargain. While the private sector wants to obtain efficient processes in distributing water for a greater profit. Each has its own goals related to the same water, however, all three has a common goal, to achieve prosperity.