As a resource more important to humans than perhaps any other, water touches upon every aspect of human life ranging from food and energy security to societal and environmental health.

In recent years, water has become a centerpiece of global attention, for the total supply of the earth’s water is expected to drop by 40 percent by 2030 unless the world drastically improves the management of this important natural resource, according to the 2015 U.N. Water Development Report.

Reinforcing the need for sustainable water development, the 7th World Water Forum, which kicks off Sunday, will bring together members of the international community in South Korea, to formulate and implement effective solutions to shared water challenges around the world.

Held every three years since its inception in 1977, the WWF, organized by the World Water Council, is considered the largest international platform for discussing issues related to water.


Some 30,000 participants from the governmental, private and civil sectors from around the globe will work together to draw up a collective framework for ensuring water security at the water forum, under the slogan of “Water for Our Future” from April 12-17 in Daegu and Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

From international organizations, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria and others are scheduled to partake in the forum.

Government officials from various states including Singapore’s Minister of Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment Isabel Garcia Tejerina and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will attend the forum.

From the private sector, high-level officials from global water business giants, including Veolia CEO Antoine Frerot and Suez Environnement CEO Jean-Louis Chaussade, will participate in the sessions.

The forum has set three action goals: “Water Security for All,” “Water Development and Prosperity” and “Water and Sustainability,” said the World Water Council, the forum’s organizer.

Over the course of the week, more than 400 sessions will touch upon an array of outstanding water-related issues under these three action goals.

As part of the WWF’s “political process,” high-level government officials, including heads of states, ministers, local and regional authorities, will hold closed roundtable sessions to prepare a set of sustainable development goals and collectively express commitment to future U.N.-based environmental agendas.

Discussions held under the forum’s main “thematic process,” will seek to solidify the three action goals from different angles including social, economic and environmental perspectives.

Major sessions will touch upon diverse water-related issues ranging from water safety, sanitation, disaster management, development of sustainable water infrastructure and water use in agriculture, to blueprints for building green cities, water use for energy and ways to restore damaged ecosystems.

In particular, the Daegu forum aims to not only discuss possible solutions to target water-related issues, but establish concrete methods to turn them into reality through effective implementation, according to the WWC.

“The core value of the 7th World Water Forum is ‘implementation,’” Suh Seoung-hwan, Korea’s former minister of land, infrastructure and transport, said in a welcome announcement in February.

“The seventh edition of the forum will serve to establish a mechanism to turn ideas into actions so that their implementation can actually benefit people suffering from water-related issues.”

The year 2015 also marks the end of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and the beginning of the new post-2015 U.N. development agenda to be set in September.

Given this, a core achievement by the seventh WWF will be the establishment of the “Daegu and Gyeongbuk (North Gyeongsang Province) Implementation Consensus on Water,” to be presented during the closing ceremony.

This consensus will serve as a practical blueprint that countries can follow in the years to come, in order to achieve the diverse sustainable development goals set during the forum, according to the WWC.

“The international community will be making binding commitments for the Post-2015 Development Agenda and concrete recommendations for the CoP 21 climate negotiations,” WWC president Benedito Braga said in a welcome message.

“The forum will be ready to illustrate how water challenges transcend all boundaries of development and influence all sectors of society,” he said.

Alongside the political and thematic processes, the “regional process” will open up discussion on water-related concerns among countries from similar regions. In addition, the newly introduced interregional sessions are slated to act as platforms for regional stakeholders to target common water-related problems and share possible solutions.

Also introduced for the first time at the global forum, the “science and technology process” aims to provide guidance on using science and technology to effectively carry out water-related policies.

Experts from the public and private sectors will together release a white paper outlining the current status of the world’s water-related science and technology.

Meanwhile, the citizens’ forum will open a discussion for various stakeholders to interact with one another, exchange their views on water and find comprehensive solutions in the civilian sector.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)