World Water Day 2023 marks a once in a lifetime event: For the first time since 1977, the United Nations hold a Water Conference. IAWD and DWP will be there – and will be heard.

It's World Water Day again, and this year, the headline is “Accelerating Change” because there's need for speed and wide commitment to solve the water and sanitation crisis and to fulfill the UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG 6 – “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”

The sum of all these commitments will be the Water Action Agenda, scheduled for launch at the UN Water Conference 2023. Formally known as the “2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028)”, it will be held 22-24 March 2023 at the UN Headquarters in New York, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.

While this is exceptional in itself, being the first UN Water Conference in 46 years, our community has even more reason to be excited: IAWD, the International Association of Water Service Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area and the Danube Water Program (DWP) will contribute a Side Event to the Conference program.

On 24 Mar 2023, 13:00 CET (08:00 EDT), at the UN Headquarters, Room ECOSOC Chamber, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, World Bank, IAWD, SHUKALB and AQUASAN will host “Regional cooperation as a key to accelerate SDG 6 implementation – The Danube Water Program as lighthouse example to improve water and sanitation services within the Danube region”.

This event aims at highlighting experiences and best practice examples from two countries participating in the DWP and to demonstrate how these activities contribute to SDG 6 implementation. Speakers representing the Austrian Government, the World Bank, IAWD, the Water Supply and Sewerag Association of Albania SHUKALB and the AQUASAN Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina will discuss approaches and the lessons learnt during a successful regional cooperation striving for smart policies, strong utilities and sustainable water services in the Danube region, to make them applicable in other regions of the world for green, resilient and inclusive water service delivery.

This is our community's proudest, but not the only contribution to the Conference schedule: IAWD will join the panel of “Scaling Urban WSS Services through Data Culture: from Data to Action (the New IBNET)” a side event dedicated to the International Benchmarking Network which IAWD represents in the Danube region.

IAWD jointly with AQUASAN and SHUKALB will set a stakeholder intervention in the interactive „Water for Health“ dialogue, stressing the importance auf capacity development for sustainable and equitable water and sanitation services and showcasing D-LeaP, the Danube Learning Partnership as a proven mechanism in this respect. 

Noteworthy in the “Accelerating Change” context is the Water Action Agenda Commitment by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management “to strengthen and enhance the support to the water sector in the Danube region on a long-term basis using networks and products created under the DWP relevant for SDG 6 implementation and to support potential outreach and know-how transfer to other regions of the world to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6.”

For the Voice of the Danube community, the IAWD adds this Water Action Agenda Commitment: To further advance the implementation of D-LeaP, the Danube Learning Partnership, in the Danube region, and to potentially copy D-LeaP in other regions across the world, to support the implementation of SDG6, and to achieve sustainable water and sanitation services for all.”

Committed to accelerate change for the better, the IAWD team greets you from New York, extending best wishes for a happy and productive World Water Day 2023!  

For further information on the Side Event including the link to the live stream, please review the links below!