USask and World Water Day 2019

World Water Day is aimed at advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Guest Lecturer delivers the first annual Howard Wheater Lecture:

Claudia Pahl-Wostl, an international thought leader in water governance and management, and the first recipient of the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) Howard Wheater Lecture Award. She will be presented with the award and will deliver a lecture related to the World Water theme, Leaving no one behind:

 

Pahl-Wostl’s lecture will elaborate on challenges posed by the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in general and on SDG 6 in particular. She will highlight how challenges can be translated into oppor­tunities to pave the way towards a sustainable water future.

“Biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems and their potential to deliver important eco­system services is worldwide in decline,” she said. “Even in a rich country like Canada, some parts of the population lack access to safely managed drinking water supplies.” 

More than 800 million people currently lack access to safe drinking water. By 2025, more than half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas. 

Pahl-Wostl holds positions at the University of Osnabrück’s Institute for Environmental Sys­tems Research in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology. She is a member of the Science Advisory Panel of the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Parks, and a member of the International Science Advisory Panel for the USask-led Global Water Futures program which is a Regional Hydroclimate Program of the World Climate Research Programme’s Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Project.

The Howard Wheater Lecture fosters interests and excellence in hydrological sciences. The award honours GIWS founding director Howard Wheater—a world expert in hydrological science and sustainable water resource management, vice-chair of GEWEX, and leader of UNESCO’s arid zone water resources program. Wheater came to USask in 2010 as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security, of which he is now a laureate. 

Interviews with water experts will be made available on request. 

Live World Water Day webcast from Washington, D.C.:

USask professor Jay Famiglietti, the executive director of GIWS, is among a panel of experts speaking on World Water Day in Washington, D.C., on March 22.

Famiglietti, Canada 150 Research Chair in Hydrology and Remote Sensing, will be an expert presenter at The Future of Water event. He will address how global changes are altering where and how we get fresh water, and the need for worldwide co-operation. 

In a live webcast hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, the experts will discuss the latest findings on the world’s limited supply of fresh water—and what can be done.

The event will be webcast live at 7 am Saskatchewan time. click here to watch the live event.

During the event, join the conversation using #FutureH2O on Twitter.

For more information on USask’s World Water Day event and activities, please visit: World Water Day 2019.

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For more information, contact:

Jennifer Thoma
Media Relations Specialist
University of Saskatchewan
306-966-1851
Jennifer.thoma@usask.ca