South Africa will participate in online sessions of World Water Week At Home, a leading annual conference on global water issues from 24 – 28 August 2020.

The World Water Week At Home, under the auspices of the Stockholm International Water Institute, is an initiative that aims to fast-track action on climate change and start a new kind of global dialogue after Covid-19.

South Africa will be represented by the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, her deputy, David Mahlobo, Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Parks Tau, and Water Research Commission Chief Executive, Dhesigen Naidoo amongst others. World Water Week At Home was launched after the regular World Water Week 2020 had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The organizers at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), recognized the need for a different kind of international dialogue because: “We live in an era of rapid and unprecedented changes, where it can be difficult to assess new threats and solutions.

This makes World Water Week At Home so important as an arena where many different perspectives can be presented,” says Gabriela Suhoschi, Director World Water Week & Prizes at SIWI. She was inspired by how many leading international organizations wanted to host sessions during World Water Week At Home.

The 120 sessions in the programme include worldleading experts addressing an extremely broad range of topics.

Examples include: Can the internet of things drive new water innovations? What has Covid-19 meant for sanitation for the urban poor? How should cities be rebuilt to cope with rising sea levels? and many more issues related to major global challenges such as climate change, food security and health.

“At this point in time we really need a global dialogue with people from many different places and backgrounds. We want World Water Week At Home to be an inclusive meeting place where people listen to each other,” says Maggie White, who heads SIWI’s International Policy team.

Anyone can join the sessions for free and participate in the social media conversations under the hashtags #WWWeek and #At Home. Many sessions also actively encourage audience participation.

The week kicks off with a Meet the Ministers session, a panel where anyone can post questions to government representatives from five countries.

Another highlight of the week is the announcement of the winners of the prestigious Stockholm Junior Water Prize, a competition among the world’s smartest water innovators under 20 years of age.

• The Opening takes place at 9.30 am CET on 24 August, with an overview of current trends and what to expect.
• Meet the Ministers: at 2pm CET on 24 August you meet ministers from Colombia, the Netherlands, South Africa and Sweden as well as the President of Senegal in an interview. Anyone can send questions for them.
• Stockholm Junior Water Prize: at 2pm CET on 25 August H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will announce the winner of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Competitors aged 15 to 20 compete with amazing water projects that solve major real-world problems.
• The Closing at 6pm CET on 28 August lets SIWI Executive Director Torgny Holmgren and Gabriela Suhoschi wrap up the week and look into the future.