Throughout World Water Week 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden, researchers from IWMI (the International Water Management Institute) will bring a wealth of experience and insight to the event’s central theme: Water, ecosystems and human development. Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), World Water Week provides an important opportunity for scientists, policy makers and representatives of the private sector and civil society to foster new thinking and collaborative action on today’s most pressing water-related challenges.
A string of recent water disasters – from the crisis in Cape Town to the dam collapse in Laos – has thrown into sharp relief the need for more effective and reliable options to achieve water security worldwide. Appropriately planned dams and other “grey” infrastructure offer part of the solution, delivering major benefits through hydropower generation, flood control and other services. But given the downside of this approach in terms of risks for local communities and the environment, we need to bank as well on a wide variety of other options that use nature’s own resources to temper its extremes and reap more of its benefits.
Some of this natural capital or “green” infrastructure meets the eye, like wetlands and floodplains, while much of it is hidden below ground in the form of aquifers. Though none of it has yet received due attention, we are at last seeing increased recognition of the enormous potential of natural capital to deliver multiple benefits for people, especially the poor, and for the planet. Bringing the value of these resources out in the open is a key first step toward changing attitudes and fostering informed action. This is the goal to which we at IWMI will contribute through a full program of events at World Water Week 2018.
IWMI sessions and events at World Water Week 2018
IWMI delegation at World Water Week 2018
In Colombo, Sri Lanka, IWMI’s host country, we are helping discover and promote the true worth of the city’s unique wetland ecosystem – to mitigate flooding, incentivize green investment, bolster food security and in other ways make the city more livable for all. This is the compelling message of our new video on the Colombo Wetlands Complex, which is a nominee for the urban wetlands accreditation scheme of the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty that promotes the conservation and wise use of wetlands. Heightened awareness of the multiple benefits of urban wetlands is vital for mobilizing support to enhance their management.
Groundwater and the aquifers containing it constitute a large and valuable component of natural capital, supplying water and performing a variety of ecosystem services. Drawing on the considerable knowledge and expertise of its many partners, the Groundwater Initiative for Policy and Practice (GRIPP), which IWMI coordinates, has assembled a portfolio of solutions that make it possible, through improved management, to derive greater development benefits from groundwater-based natural infrastructure.