International Water & Irrigation

8 The World Water Council The World Water Forum is the world’s biggest water-related event and is organized by the World Water Council (WWC), an international organization that brings together all those interested in the theme of water. Its mission is “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on Earth”. The World Water Council organizes the Forum every three years together with the respective host country and city. To date, there have been seven editions of the World Water Forum, in different countries, on four different continents. Brazil is hosting the 8th edition of the World Water Forum in 2018. It is the first time the event is held in the Southern Hemisphere . UN-Water and IISD team up on SDG 6 information On March 22, UN-Water and the International Institute for Sustainable Development announce a new agreement to collaborate in providing information on implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6. If we continue to develop on our current path, some five billion people will be living in areas with poor access to water by 2050 according to the recently launched World Water Development Report. The collaboration seeks to inform and engage actors in an effort to set the world on a different path. International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent think tank, reports on and organizes information on efforts to implement each of the SDGs through its SDG Knowledge Hub. The stream of information flowing into the SDG Knowledge Hub about water and sanitation projects and solutions will be enhanced through this collaboration and will incorporate linkages with the other SDGs, to ensure that water and sanitation challenges are seen within a wider context, and taken up in relationship with other Goals, and vice-versa. About The International Institute For Sustainable Development The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an independent think tank that delivers the knowledge to act. Our mission is to promote human development and environmental sustainability. Our big-picture view allows us to address the root causes of some of the greatest challenges facing our planet today – ecological destruction, social exclusion, unfair laws and economic and social rules, a changing climate. With offices in Winnipeg, Geneva, Ottawa, Toronto and New York, our work impacts lives in nearly 100 countries. About The Sustainable Development Goals SDG 6 is one of 17 Goals that all member states of the United Nations adopted in September 2015. The SDGs identify a set of interconnected actions to end poverty and hunger, deliver quality education and clean energy, and spur economic growth and innovation, among other targets to be achieved by 2030. The achievement of universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, as two of the eight targets set out in SDG 6, will require concerted action by community groups, government leaders and everyone in between. But this action will benefit from parallel efforts to enhance education, foster biodiversity and ecosystem services, and develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, to name just three targets under other Goals. Michigan Will No Longer Provide Free Bottled Water to Flint Michigan will stop providing free bottled water to the city of Flint. City officials criticized the decision, in part because Flint is still recovering from a crisis that left residents with dangerous levels of lead in their tap water beginning in 2014. But Michigan officials said lead levels in the water there have not exceeded federal limits for about two years, so the state was closing the four remaining distribution centers where residents have been picking up cases of free water since January 2016. Although state officials said Flint’s water supply met federal standards, the water can still pick up lead when it flows through the thousands of lead or galvanized steel lines that