WaterAid at the UN Water Conference

Starting on World Water Day 2023, the UN Water Conference (UNWC) brought together governments and stakeholders from a multitude of sectors to identify the obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on water and sanitation, and consider the opportunities and innovative ways to accelerate progress towards it.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) was only one part of this conference, so we highlighted how it links to other key conversations around water such as agriculture, food security, health and wider water management.

The UNWC was an opportunity for stakeholders across all sectors to submit voluntary commitments to the Water Action Agenda, which constituted the key outcome document of the conference.

Water security, sanitation and hygiene underpin global, national and household resilience. They transform economies, agriculture and nutrition, public health, gender equality and the environment.

In line with our new global strategy, we used the UNWC as an opportunity to embed WASH solutions to tackle the ever-increasing threat of climate change and the growing impacts of water-related disasters and economic challenges.

UN Headquarters side event: Water security and sanitation for resilience across the SDGs

On 22 March, we co-hosted an official side event at the headquarters of the United Nations, alongside the US government, on water security and sanitation for resilience across the SDGs. The event highlighted how water security, sanitation and hygiene underlie global, national and household resilience, transforming economies, agriculture and nutrition, public health, gender equality and the environment.

Our side event featured high-level speakers from the governments of Bangladesh and Malawi, the African Development Bank, the World Food Programme, the World Meteorological Association, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the EU Joint Research Commission, and Diageo.

WaterAid, the Resilient Water Accelerator and End Water Poverty also led on the following side events:

• 'Women as change makers' cocktail reception, bringing together corporate stakeholders to celebrate the central role of women as leaders in achieving SDG 6 and encourage action, with speakers from Diageo, Coca-Cola and WaterAid.
• The Resilient Water Accelerator side event co-chaired by Zac Goldsmith, the UK Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment. The event brought together the broad water sector and investors to accelerate investment in water supply in low- and middle-income countries.
• End Water Poverty side event, 'Hearing the Unheard: Human Rights to Water and Sanitation', led by the Government of South Africa with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur, 15 civil society organisations and network partners. The event amplified the voices of groups facing marginalisation and engaged responses from national and local governments and the UN.
• 'Achieving SDG 6 through a gender lens on climate change and youth and global goals for menstrual health and hygiene'. Without clear international and national goals, menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) will remain a low priority and progress will continue to be fragmented at best. In this session, a wide range of stakeholders from the WASH and MHH spaces came together to catalyse progress towards a world in which no one is held back because of their period. 

To show countries and partners the need for policy reform, we co-organised a side event with APAA/PASA, World Health Organization, SNV, Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, International Labour Organization, World Bank Group and UN Habitat, 'SDG 6.2 – A pipe dream without a professional sanitation workforce'. We also held a multimedia exhibition of portraits of workers, alongside narrations of their own stories and experiences.

Top image: Pravati drinks a glass of clean water from the Reverse Osmosis Plant, Borokuput, Shyamnagar, Bangladesh. June 2023.