Officials and experts call for spreading the culture of living in balance with the precious resource

A wake-up call at the "Expo Dubai" .. for the "secret of life"

• The symposium was held at the Nexus on the occasion of World Water Day.

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• Maryam Al Muhairi: “It is necessary to look at water not only in terms of supply, but also in terms of demand.”

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The Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Maryam bint Mohammed Al Muhairi, affirmed that the current ecosystems are facing enormous pressures to meet the increasing demand for life-sustaining resources without placing more pressure on the environment, noting that the challenge is exacerbated by climate change, which makes it difficult to predict the availability of water or their rarity.

Al Muhairi added, during a seminar held the day before yesterday, at “Nexus” at “Expo 2020 Dubai” on the occasion of the World Water Day, which is the secret of life: “It is necessary to look at the issue of water not only from the side of supply, but also according to demand, and unfortunately, it represents Unsustainable water consumption habits, coupled with an increase in population, put great pressure on our limited water resources, so we strive to manage the community’s demand for water.”

She continued: “The National Program for Water and Energy Demand Management, led by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, helps to adopt the best international standards, and runs awareness campaigns that promote water conservation practices throughout society.

By adopting responsible water consumption patterns, individuals are at the forefront of addressing critical water issues, and simple steps to reduce water consumption can go a long way when taken collectively.”

Foundation stone

The symposium highlighted the complex issues related to water resources and our collective responsibility to address them, as the cornerstone of sustainable development and human survival, especially in light of the fact that more than 2.7 billion people are affected by their scarcity for at least one month each year.

For his part, Executive Director of the non-profit Water Footprint Network, Dr. Rick Hogboom, stressed the importance of calculating the water footprint of products when calculating the net consumption of natural resources.

He said, "We, so to speak, live at the expense of future generations' share of water."

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In turn, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water in the Netherlands, Mark Harpers, stressed “the importance of having a stockpile of groundwater that we may not see with our naked eyes today, but its impact is great and can be seen everywhere, especially with the increase in population and economic activities that many countries may face. A scarcity of water resources, which imposes restrictions on economic development.

He added, "The Netherlands has gone through three years since 2018, which witnessed a remarkable rise in temperatures, and this is a wake-up call. The fate of future generations is at stake, and we must find new answers, knowledge and strategies to confront this challenge," as he put it.

Successful experiences

The symposium witnessed the presentation of successful experiences from around the world to find solutions to the water challenges faced by humans.

In some countries, such as Pakistan, Faryal Salahuddin was inspired by solutions for some local communities that are unable to obtain clean water, by returning to the system of bartering assets in those communities, and exchanging circulating currencies for sheep in exchange for providing solutions that contribute to facilitating access to groundwater in those areas.

Ajibo Barry, from Guinea, presented his project to provide locally produced water pumps that allow access to water in the desert regions of Africa.

• The symposium looked for solutions to the water challenges faced by humans.

Rick Hogboom:

• “We, if you will, live at the expense of future generations' share of water.”

Mark Harpers:

• "The fate of future generations is at stake, and we must find new strategies to challenge the water."

The future is in danger

The speakers at the symposium unanimously agreed that the biggest challenge lies in our inability to manage our water resources sustainably, which puts our future at risk, and that it has become necessary to be guided by the ancestral approach to living in balance with water, and to play an important role as responsible for preserving the environment.