News from Stockholm Water Week - Monday 18th August 2008

Stockholm World Water Week got under way on Sunday, with a full programme of seminars and workshops. This year’s gathering reflects the fact that the International Year of Sanitation is in full swing, and so the title Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with special focus on sanitation illustrates that sanitation (and even hygiene?) has made it to the big time, here at least, and for now at least.

On an unfortunately damp and grisly late summer’s day in Stockholm, a good start was made, with a packed programme of meetings, and good reports from all concerned of gatherings brimming with energetic exchanges of experience, opinion and varying views on directions to be followed. All as it should be! Examples of the range of events to choose from were the planning for sustainable cities seminar, which attracted a fair crowd given the early hour and the day of the week; the Global Corruption Report 2008 Call to Action session, in which a press style examination of a group of sector stalwarts by a well briefed journalist moderator made a welcome break from the procession of PowerPoints; a candid exchange of views in an excellent examination of the divergence between the evident need for support for sanitation and the reality of a paucity of funds from all sources, and the EMPOWERS thematic group’s lively debate on local water governance in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Looking forward to later today, the Plenary sessions mark the official start of the proceedings. Let’s hope that these are, and indeed the entire week is, characterised by more than standard exchanges of suited politeness and, recognising the sanitation crisis that is the centrepiece of this year and this event, throw down a gauntlet to all participants to continue the good work started yesterday. The presence of committed sanitation luminaries such as the Prince of Orange, the President of Madagascar and Dr Kamal Kar (Community-Led Total Sanitation is largely his brainchild) among the keynote speakers will almost certainly ensure that this is the case.

Not on sanitation, but certain to be worth the admission fee alone, is the address of the Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, Prof John Allen of Kings College/SOAS in the University of London. The day of virtual water is upon us!

After the formalities of the major plenary sessions today, the rest of the week sees a huge programme of seminars and workshops - we’ll try and bring you a flavour of these as the week progresses, through a daily bulletin of snippets from this flagship gathering of the sanitation and water sectors.