| World Water Week 2010 to focus on water quality |
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The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. The thematic scope for 2010 is «The Water Quality Challenge – Prevention, Wise Use and Abatement». Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the Week brings together experts, practitioners, decision makers and leaders from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions.
Driven by demographic change and economic growth, water is increasingly withdrawn, used, reused, treated, and disposed of. Urbanisation, agriculture, industry and climate change exert mounting pressure on both the quantity and quality of our water resources. Our water resources – green and blue – face a daunting future and the costs of inaction are very high. We are confronted by a combination of escalating water scarcity, increasing demand for clean water, and worsening water quality, which severely restricts water-related human activities, affects human health, and impacts the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Virtually every corner of the world is exposed to the water pollution challenge. Although improvements have been made in some regions, water pollution is on the rise globally. Every day, an estimated two million tonnes of human waste are disposed of in watercourses. Seventy percent of industrial wastes in developing countries are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply. The complexity of the challenge is revealed by the many different forms that pollution can take, the range of pollution sources, and the varying scales – local, regional or global – at which pollution can develop. Lack of monitoring and enforcement also makes it difficult for countries and regions to understand and deal with this challenge. As with most challenges, however, opportunities exist that can reverse the water degradation trend, contribute to economic growth and improve human and environmental health.
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