Sustainable, resilient, and innovative solutions to the global water quality crisis
Date: July 15 or July 16, 2024
Aim: This side event will explore the multilateral and environmental drivers that exacerbate the deterioration of the quality of global freshwaters. Inequitable access to clean freshwater is a major contributor to poverty. Here, we offer innovative scientific, technological, natural, and governance solutions to improve the resilience of freshwater systems.
Format: A 90-minute hybrid panel presented as a side event.
Background: Access to clean freshwater is essential for human survival. Insufficient access to clean water can lead to the prevalence of disease, crop failures, conflict, poverty, and even death. Vulnerable populations and in particular, women and girls, are disproportionately impacted by water insecurity. Multiple environmental crises not only impact water availability, but also the quality of freshwater resources. Climate change, land use alteration, agricultural production, industrial pollution, and extraction interact to deteriorate water quality. Nutrient enrichment, pollution, extreme climatic events such as heatwaves, storms, and droughts, in addition to poor wastewater management, degrade water quality conditions in lakes, rivers, streams, and reservoirs worldwide. Management of our freshwater resources not only requires an understanding of the drivers of water quality, but also of the potential solutions to the water quality crisis, including refining monitoring practices, instituting transboundary governance, and refining policy that will help us achieve SDG Target 6, universal access to clean water and sanitation. In this side event, we offer scientific, technological, natural, and governance solutions to improve the resilience of freshwater systems, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to maintain water quality, empowering women and providing education for children to safeguard water supplies, and developing policies around water cooperation across stakeholders and sectors. We further identify sustainable alternative solutions, including the use of ultraviolet radiation, advanced oxidation processes, and nanotechnology applied to water purification and water treatment, desalination, and recycling. We highlight the importance of building international networks to improve water quality education, capacity building, and fostering resource-sharing across disciplines and political boundaries to respond to the freshwater crisis.