Water Scarcity & Drought Summit
The world’s first action oriented initiative dedicated to building resilience to water scarcity and drought
Brisbane, 10 October 2016
“We need leadership and decisive action to tackle global water scarcity and drought”
Join the conversation on Twitter #DroughtAction
Building resilience to drought and scarcity requires global leadership.
The World Economic Forum ranks the water crisis as the top global risk facing societies, economies and businesses over the next decade. Four billion people throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America are affected daily by severe water scarcity and drought. The chronic problem of water scarcity impairs people, cities, industries, agriculture and the environment.
Historically, public and private sectors have responded to water scarcity and drought by expanding storage infra- structure and by increasing water supply. Water scarcity and drought management needs to go beyond infra-structure and technologies and include water demand-management, effective water allocation policies and incentives. It is about building systems resilient to water scarcity and drought and managing demand and improving supply.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement renew commitment to acting on water scarcity and drought for the benefit of humanity and sustainable business. We need to learn from one another and share best practices more globally.
The Water Scarcity & Drought Summit will:
• Facilitate and strengthen cooperation and partnership to increase exchange of knowledge and experience.
• Mobilize and accelerate necessary public and private investments to upgrade existing, and strengthen existing water institutions and infra- structure.
• Support policy, regulation and institutions that create resilient water systems and prevent drought.
• Redefine the role of business facing this public issue by establishing portfolios of technologies and approaches to reduce water use, reuse water and replenish ecosystems.
The International Water Association and the Australian Water Partnership will engage and challenge 200 leaders from the private and the public sector including ministers, business leaders, scientists and civil society on new ways of collaboration between countries, industries and sectors to address water scarcity and drought.
The Summit will launch the world’s first public-private action-oriented initiative solely dedicated to water scarcity and drought.
Be part of building a new global action agenda to diminish water scarcity and drought.
