2013 Budapest Water Summit
Download the Budapest Water Summit Statement
The World Water Council is co-organizing the Budapest Water Summit together with the United Nations System. The Summit builds on Hungary’s achievements during its Presidency of the EU in 2011 and the selection of water as its top priority in the run up to and at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012. To follow up the conclusions of the Conference Mr János Áder, the President of Hungary, announced in Rio de Janeiro Hungary’s intention to organize a major international water event.
The Budapest Water Summit will take place from 8-11 October and aims to contribute to the elaboration of the water-related Sustainable Development Goals and provide concrete guidance on the most pressing water issues – drinking water, sanitation, waste water treatment, integrated water management, international water cooperation, innovative water technologies – with a view to defining the priorities of global development policy post 2015. The Summit will also strive to offer practical and affordable solutions to the water-related challenges of developing and developed countries alike. Integrated into the Summit parallel science, business, civil and youth forums will be organised, creating an opportunity also for the presentation of Hungarian companies, universities, researchers active in the field of water policy.
Among attendees and keynote speakers high-level representatives
from all backgrounds are expected. Read the full program.
Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals refer to an agreement taken by the members states of the United Nations during the Rio+20 Conference (the UN conference on Sustainable Development). Indeed, in 2012, about 190 UN members agreed to initiate a process of formulating sustainable development goals for the Post-2015 agenda. Several working groups have been specially set up to study this subject in order to come up with a set of international sustainable goals. These will have to follow the lines of the Millennium Development Goals and should be, amongst other things “action-oriented, aspirational, and universally applicable to all countries while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities”.
The Council’s role
The Council firmly believes in the necessity and urgency of creating a goal for water. The President of the World Water Council, Benedito Braga said in his opening speech at the Budapest Water Summit : “Water is the common thread connecting all of the sustainable development goals. A stand-alone water goal is critical as part of the Post-2015 development agenda”. For this reason, the Council has established a Task Force on water and the Sustainable Development Goals that looks into critical and cross-cutting role. The Council has also released a Position Paper that will serve to carry the voice of the international water community towards the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.
Areas covered in the Budapest Water Summit
- Striving for universal access to water and sanitation
: Critical issues of access to water and sanitation, urban water infrastructure planning, waste water management, development and maintenance from technological, financial, public health and human rights aspects, with a view to providing sustained access;
- Integrated water resources management for the 21st century:
The challenges of adaptation and resilience in face of a growing population and a changing climate complex solutions for pollution prevention, soil and groundwater protection, food security, disaster risk management including floods and droughts and man-made disasters, water storage and recycling, the water, food and energy nexus;
- Good water governance
: International cooperation, transboundary river basin and aquifer management, integrated institutional strategy in planning and implementation, stakeholder participation in the preparation of water policies; capacity development, education, research, data management, monitoring and assessment;
- Green economy for blue water
: Traditional and innovative water technologies and techniques in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; practical, affordable, local solutions in the various regions of the world;
- Investment in and finan
cing of the implementation of water and sanitation SDG
: The availability and best use of national and international financial resources and institutions; best practices, lessons learned. In addition to official development policy, special attention is to be paid to investment in water and sanitation as a regular course of business.
Links Open Working Group of the General Assembly High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda