Twenty-fourth World Water Week underway in Stockholm

THE 24th annual World Water Week (WWW) has commenced in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, where a number of global leaders have convened to address the planet's most prominent water issues and related concerns of international development. This year, they are urging energy and water communities to work together to face some of today's primary challenges, providing clean drinking water and energy for a growing world population.

The conference officially opened on September 1 and will close on September 5, 2014.

The theme of WWW 2014 is "Energy and Water." Water and energy are interdependent in more ways than not. Energy is needed for pumping, storing, transporting, and treating water, as well as for producing almost all sorts of energy. An increase or decrease in one will immediately affect the other. Likewise, the two resources are also inseparable from sustainable development and must be tirelessly promoted in global decision-making.

Addressing the opening session of the week, Torgny Holmgren, WWW executive director and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) organizer, said, "The challenges are immense. With the global demand for water projected to grow by 55 percent between 2000 and 2050 and electricity demand expected to increase by 50 percent in the next two decades, there is an urgent need for a closer relationship between the energy and water communities if we are to provide solutions for all peoples to prosper."

Professor John Briscoe, this year's Stockholm Water Prize laureate, spoke about water as a platform for growth -- of other sectors and society as a whole -- and said that "developing countries face big challenges. They have yet to mobilize those resources." He added that there is "no eternal solution [to the water crisis], neither here nor there. Instead, there is a cycle of challenges and responses."

In over 100 seminars, workshops and events spread throughout the week, delegates will discuss ongoing and future work and collaboration between the energy and water communities. Professor John Briscoe, a native of South Africa, will receive the Stockholm Water Prize from H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, during a ceremony in Stockholm City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 4.