62. Water Week 2024 launch, Houses of Parliament, 7 November 2023

Representing the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators I was invited by Alex Sobel MP, Vice Chair of the United Nations All Party Parliamentary Group and Baroness Verma, Co-Chair of the United Nations Women All Party Parliamentary Group to attend the launch of Water Week 2024 in the Churchill Room.

The theme was about uniting young people to make waves of change, and the launch focused on the involvement of young people in water issues.

Picking up the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Water Week aims to engage, educate and empower children and young people worldwide to tackle water pollution and climate change with STEAM and citizens’ science, to inspire a generation to live more sustainably, protect our ecosystems and help ensure safe and clean water for all.

We heard several speakers talk about why it is important to work across sectors to tackle water pollution and promote the sustainable use of water and protection of ecosystems and why engaging, educating and empowering young people to make/lead change is important. Developed countries use six times the amount of water per head as developing countries.  3.5 billion people are without basic sanitation.  We are already seeing wars over water.  We must give people what they want, not what we think they need.

The event was targeted at engaging the media and there were representatives from various media companies present, as well as water, rivers and waste related organisations.  I have to admit that it felt slightly odd talking to a Womble about waste management.