The Asia International Water Week (AIWW), initiated by the Asia Water Council (AWC) since 2017, punctuates the international calendar in three years as Asia’s most influential gathering of water-related multi-stakeholders. The 2nd AIWW, was held in an online-offline hybrid way in Indonesia in March 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 3rd AIWW will be jointly hosted by AWC and the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) of China and lead-organized by China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), and is set to take place from Sept. 23 to 28, 2024, in Beijing.
Water security has been identified as the most fundamental factor and consideration for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. However, water security is currently under multiple threats from climate change compounded with other factors such as public health emergencies and global economic depression. Time waits for no one. Enhancing future water security for both humans and nature needs to be translated to operational targets that can be monitored and guide concrete actions.
The concept figure of the Asia Water Issue is based on a blue map of Asia, reflecting the regional characteristics of the water of Asia.
The middle circle in this figure stimulates the natural-social water cycle in modern society. Facing the grave challenges posed by global climate change and human activities, the water system in Asia is facing severe challenges, Asian countries need to work together to enhance our future water security.
Focusing on the major challenges related to water in Asia, six sub-themes were proposed for “The 3rd Asia International Water Week”, namely Innvotive Strategies and Policies, Digital Transformation in Water Management, Water Disasters and Climate Change, Water for Food and Energy Security, Water and Watershed Ecosystems, Knowledge Base and Dissemination, which are represented by six small circular figures. All the sub-themes are interconneted by blue and green curves, representing “water” and together forming the water cycles in both the nature and human society.
