SIWI launches “Water Tank”, platform for future water heroes

by Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, o help celebrate the 20th jubilee of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, SIWI has launched an alumni and accelerator platform for finalists – the Water Tank. The platform aims to help finalists turn projects into practice, with support from advisors and organisations from the global water community.

For 20 years, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition has engaged thousands of young people (age 15-20), who design water-related projects of environmental, scientific, social or technological significance. The international final is held in Stockholm during World Water Week. Participating in the competition has changed the paths of many of the finalists and winners.

Through the establishment of the Water Tank, SIWI, together with partners Xylem and Raincoat Foundation, help finalists to connect with the SIWI and World Water Week community and get the guidance, input and support needed to commercialize their projects. Open to all Stockholm Junior Water Prize finalists from the last 20 years, it will also be a great tool for finding water talent.

The platform provides opportunities for more seasoned professionals to participate as advisors or mentors. There are also many ways organizations can support this initiative.

The Water Tank is launched in conjunction with World Water Week and the 20th jubilee of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

World Water Week experts call for green water usage in Africa

Stockholm, August 30(Greenpost)–Water and climate experts have called for a Green Water Initiative in Africa, as part of a Water Revolution in Africa for alleviating hunger on the continent and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Large parts of the world are struggling to adapt to a drier reality, but challenges are especially dire in Africa’s drylands. Africa’s climate is its Achilles Heel”, said Professor Malin Falkenmark, Senior Scientific Advisor to Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) at the beginning of the World Water Week.

In the water-scarce regions of sub-Saharan Africa (mainly consisting of savannah), direct management of scarce rainfall must form an integral part of the development agenda,

Green water refers to the part of the rain that infiltrates into, and is stored in, the soil.

At the onset of World Water Week, a group of world-renowned hydro-climate experts said that rainwater harvesting and other green water management methods, are key to alleviating hunger in sub-Saharan Africa and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Johan Rockström, Director of Stockholm Resilience Center and  Johan Kuylenstierna, Director of Stockholm Environment Institute, Charles J. Vörösmarty and Torgny Holmgren from SIWI attended the  Malin Falkenmark Symposium at World Water Week.

The vast drylands encircling the Congo Basin are home to some 750 million people, a number that is expected to increase to 1.6 billion in the next 35 years. Meanwhile, agricultural yields in this region are very low, on average around one tonne per hectare, as a result of frequent droughts.

The group said that to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture), Africa needs a Triple Green Revolution: green for productive use of green water, green for intensification and enhanced food production, and green for sustainability and building water resilience in watersheds.

Rain, the scientists said, is the ultimate water source in dryland agriculture, as the limited blue water (such as rivers and streams) will be needed for increased urban water supply, industry and energy production.

They suggest rainwater harvesting systems that can offer supplementary irrigation, harvested from slopes and valley bottoms and stored in ponds or dams for use during dry spells and drought periods.

To finance the initiative, the group proposed a Water Harvesting Innovation Fund for Africa, to build water resilience for food security and human well-being.

“Initiatives like the Green Water Initiative in Africa, within the framework of the 2030 Agenda is of great importance if we will have any chance of realizing the Sustainable Development Goals. I hope to see some concrete response to this call,” said SIWI’s Executive Director Torgny Holmgren.