Increasing urbanization across the world, and especially in Africa, is set to increase water demand in cities in the next decades. At the same time, climate change, pollution and increased competition for water are significantly reducing the availability of freshwater resources. Consequently, an estimated 2.2 billion people globally have no access to safely managed drinking water. Whereas the State is principally responsible for providing access to water for its inhabitants, non-state actors including entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in enhancing the resilience of urban dwellers to potential water scarcity through the development and promotion of innovative water reuse technologies.
UNU-INRA will facilitate a breakout session at World Water Week 2021 that will examine the current state of entrepreneurship in the water sector in developing countries and discuss the actions thar are needed to increase youth participation in developing and promoting water technologies for enhanced resilience to climate shocks in urban and peri-urban areas. The session will begin with preliminary comments from a water entrepreneur (youth), policymaker and financial sector player, which will set the stage for interaction with the audience.
The breakout session is part of a UNU session on “Building Resilience in Water Management with Multi-stakeholder Engagement” as part of World Water Week on 23 August 2021 from 14:00 – 15:25 JST (05:00 – 06:25 GMT).
The event is co-organised by UNU-FLORES, UNU-IAS, UNU-INRA, UNU-EHS, and EURAC Research.
To participate in the session, please register first with the World Water Week 2021 conference and participate in the session through the webpage exclusively for participants.