STOCKHOLM: “it is time to do better on global poverty, sanitation, water scarcity and climate change”

The conclusion drawn from the 2007 World Water Week (WWW) in Stockholm was that progress was being made, “but in the face of global poverty, critical lack of sanitation, water scarcity and climate change, we all need to do much better”. The annual event attracted 2,500 participants from 140 countries, and there were 140 co-convening organisations.

Several new initiatives were launched in Stockholm, including:

 * the Global Water Operators’ Partnership and the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, by UN-HABITAT
 * the Global Water Tool by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
 * a partnership agreement by the Government of Singapore and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to jointly promote the safe management of drinking water globally
 * the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC)

A group of international water activists staged a protest at Stockholm on 15 August “against the creeping corporate takeover of World Water Week (WWW), exemplified by the role of Nestlé, the main sponsor of this year's conference”. In postings to their own WWW blog [http://worldwaterweek.blogspot.com], activists complained about the exclusive character of the event as result of prohibitive costs of attendance, and about the holding of closed-door meetings, most noticeably one by the Water Integrity Network (WIN).