World Water Week 2022: World Water Week is celebrated by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) every year in order to highlight the global water issues and related concerns of international development since 1991.

World Water Week 2022 is being observed between 23rd August to 1st September, 2022.

Theme of 2022:

The theme of the 2022 World Water Week is: “Seeing the unseen: The value of water”, which helps us view water in new and fascinating ways.

The theme focusses on three main perspectives:

1. The value of water for people and development.
2. The value of water for nature and climate change.
3. The financial and economic value of water

World Water Week 2022: Significance

• A community of changemakers known as World Water Week collaborates together to find solutions to the biggest water-related issues around the world.
• The Week is a meeting place to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and other international processes.
• Here, individuals can also test their ideas, learn from peers in other countries, and share their knowledge.
• This year’s World Water Week is an important milestone on the way the UN 2023 Water Conference.

About World Water Week:

• It is a week-long global water conference held each year in late August or early September.
• The weeklong event is attended by some 4,000 participants from 135 countries.
• During the week, awards such as the Stockholm Water Prize, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, and the Stockholm Industry Water Award are given out at their respective award ceremonies.
• The event consists of a broad array of parallel activities convened by leading international organizations on a broad array of water-related topics, ranging from food security and health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity, and the climate crisis.

Stockholm Water Prize:

• The world-famous Stockholm Water Prize is awarded during World Water Week which is presented by SIWI.
• In 2022, the prize was won by Wilfried Brutsaert. Wilfried received the award for his work on “Effects of climate change on water resources and local rainfall”.
• He provided a tool to predict the availability of water resources in the future and also to measure the local rainfall.

History:

• The World Water Week was started in Stockholm, Sweden as the Stockholm Water Symposium in 1991.
• In 2001, the Stockholm Water Symposium was officially named as the World Water Week.

About Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI):

• SIWI was founded in 1991.
• It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
• The current Executive Director is Torgny Holmgren.

World Water Day:

• Every year World Water Day is celebrated on March 22.
• The day is celebrated to spread the significance of freshwater.