Water Leaders Summit 2010 - The Singapore International Water Week 2010

This annual meeting brings together ministers, mayors, top government officials, global water industry leaders, heads of international organisations, leading researchers and practitioners to consider pressing water governance, technology and business issues. By invitation only, this event targets 200 to 300 distinguished participants.

The ecological footprint of widespread urbanisation has shown to create an unsustainable drain on our natural resources. This has aggravated the impacts on our environment. Our water resources, an integral part of our environment and well-being, bear the risk of being locked in a crisis if we continue in this "business as usual" manner.  

As global economies continue to grow, the strain on the earth's natural resources becomes increasingly apparent, and perhaps one of the most pertinent issues facing us today is that of water availability. How long more can we sustain existing economic and social needs without compromising today's environment, and nor the needs of the immediate future generations?

The picture is not at all bleak, as successful examples around the world have clearly shown, innovative governance, technological and financing solutions can adequately balance between priorities of economic growth and environmental sustainability. Stakeholders' ownership and collaboration are important too: governments, businesses and organizations need to form a viable partnership to bring about efficient and effective provision of clean and affordable water solutions.

This year's Water Leaders Summit (WLS) will serve as a platform to bridge differences in ideas and build upon a three-pillared solution: 
a)  Good Governance: Sustainable and Integrated Resources Management   
b) Innovative Technology: Clean Solutions for Green Growth, and 
c) Sound Financing: Ensuring Affordability and Sustainable Infrastructure,

These solutions will guide water leaders and communities towards building sustainable cities and ensuring clean and affordable water.  These three themes will be discussed at the Joint Opening Plenary of the SIWW and the World Cities Summit (WCS), and also over the three discussion roundtable of the SIWW- Water Leaders Summit. The three threads will also permeate throughout the rest of the SIWW events such as the Water Convention.

Good governance, which will be discussed at WLS Roundtable 1, is a prerequisite for the holistic management of resources; such as the integrated management of water, which ultimately brings about improved sustainability.  WLS Roundtable 2 will touch on technological innovations which help to optimize the use of existing resources, whereby environmental requirements need not be compromised at the expense of economy growth, and water technology innovations by companies need not come at the expense of profits. Finally, sound financing strategies (to be discussed at WLS Roundtable 3) make integrated and efficient resources management and optimisation possible, and of course, affordability needs to be managed in congruence with financial viability, to make the increasingly scarce water resources more accessible.