WWF and the World Water Forum

About the 4th World Water Forum

The triennial World Water Forum is organised by the World Water Council, a collection of major stakeholders in the water world including the water industry.

It convenes thousands of government, business, and non-government organizations to discuss measures for a water-secure future and the implicit UN goals of halving, by 2015, the number of people without water and sanitation services.

The overarching theme of the Forum is "Local Actions for a Global Challenge." The Forum features a ministerial declaration at the end, culminating on World Water day, March 22.

WWF urges both donor and developing country governments to implement national water plans, conserve rivers and wetlands, use water more efficiently, and invest more in water management by local communities in place of grandiose engineering schemes.

Water needs to be the pivot of national poverty reduction strategies. Donors should link funding for national-scale poverty reduction strategies in developing countries to the achievement of agreed global targets relating to water, and target those countries with the greatest water needs.

Governments can also renew efforts to collaborate for the sustainable management of shared rivers through UN conventions and river basin management programmes.