 Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for week two of IWA's Digital World Water Congress. I hope you've had time to unwind and relax over the past three days. It was quite an intense start to our Congress last week. We had 27 sessions, we hosted the documentary A Brave New World and of course we had our fantastic award ceremony. And talking of the awards I can see that we have Keith here who's getting ready to send all our awards out to Brazil, to the United States, to India and to Malaysia. And I can see Keith you also have here the IWA's famous talking stick. Do you want to just share with us some stories about that? Thanks, yes Carla, this is the IWA talking stick. Now talking sticks are a traditional Canada's first nation and whoever has the stick respected and up-to-speak, we naturally have to listen to it. Now this tradition with IWA started in 1998 at the Vancouver Congress and has been passed out from Congress President to Congress President ever since. And if you look on the back you can see the engravings from all of the Congresses from President to President. Now this stick was given from Tokyo in 2018 to Copenhagen. Now unfortunately Copenhagen has been postponed until 2022 and so temporarily we've dusted it off and we're giving it out to all of the speakers of the digital world watch box. So thanks a lot, this is the IWA talking stick. Back to you, thanks. And here we have Samuela and Barbara who have really been responsible for registering our delegates and also taking care of our delegates. So Samuela how are we doing in terms of registrations? So Carla we are really excited we are now up to 2,200 Congress registrants from 94 countries across all the world. Oh my god so we have 2,200 so in my opening speech I said there was 1,800 so now we're up to 2,200 that's 400 more that's brilliant. And Barbara what sort of feedback are you getting from our delegates? Actually Carla our delegates are loving the Congress. So far we've had great comments positive feedbacks commenting on our platform our production and overall presentation of the event. Right now we have with us colleagues from our China and India office we have done Dan and Hong from China and Charles from India who will share feedbacks they've been receiving from their region. What was your time? Thank you Barbara in this first digital world of Congress we are proud to share the significant level of interest from the region with registrations of more than 200 plus from India nearly 100 plus registration from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is one of the largest event where IWDA Indian members have ever participated. We have been receiving a train of positive notes about it being a well-structured event especially with the live human assertions and keynote lectures. Overall they even have seen a very successful start. Greetings from Nanjing. We also have had fantastic feedbacks from our Chinese participants. Hundreds and hundreds have registered and enjoyed the best practices and you know the technologies we have shared during this first week Congress. That's great thanks Dan thanks Hong and thanks Charles and thanks also Samuel and Barbara I think you guys are doing a fantastic job and thanks very much take care. And now we're going to start the proceedings of week two of our digital world war to Congress but just before then we're going to play you a short video with the highlights of week one. Enjoy. Good morning everyone and welcome to IWA's first ever digital world war to Congress. Good afternoon and good evening to you all. Greetings to all of you online wherever you may be. We're so glad that you're participating in our first virtual Congress as we at IWA strive to adapt to the restrictions and rise to the challenges brought about by the current pandemic. One water the circular economy of water integrated water resources management. All of these terms have one thing in common it's the recognition that we're going to have to increasingly access new forms of water that we thought previously were unusable and that we're going to have to pay more attention and be more systematic thinking about the impacts of our use of water and other people in the downstream environment. First we will enhance promotion of water conservation for education and enhancement measures on increasing water use efficiency. The fiber optical cables installed in the wastewater pipe are pulsed with a laser. The detector end of the DTS unit captures the light records and stores it. Here offer the new insights into optimized asset management. I can I can say that it is possible to use this flexibility in the algae composition for the wastewater treatment process and it is also possible to react to environmental changes. Within our model then we can estimate the how the chemical will partition between the solid and the water phase as well as the water and the air phase. And once we have this we can make a simplifying assumption. With greenhouse gas emissions taking center stage about so many of the discussions on net zero targets and those from solid copper electrodes which actually enables a dosing at very low range and a flow proportional to the water to the treatment. Low oxygen conditions promote by logic concepts catalytic iron oxidation and removal in filters which means that filters can be operated higher filtration rates. With regards to iron I wouldn't be so concerned. Ammonium I would definitely see a delay especially moving from first step of nitrification to the second. I am extremely happy and honored to be the recipient of such a prestigious award. I have been an IWN member for around 35 years and I always felt very well received and embraced all the activities I had with the association. The thousands of women leaders we know and work with us are not stuck in the past. For them reviving traditional systems of rainwater harvesting and conservation is also about innovating sustainable approaches. We live in extremely challenging times. I'm speaking to you from India where COVID-19 has ravaged cities and villages alike. But unsafe water also affects hundreds of millions here and worldwide. I'm deeply honored for IWTQ have been selected as the recipient for IWU's professional development award 2021. Justice climate change has sparked grassroots activism across the planet. The water crisis too requires massive mobilization of people who truly care about our shared future. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to the second week of IWA's Digital World Water Congress. And what a wonderful video we just showed and it really shows how inspiring week one was. We have plenty more in store for this week. As well as more presentations from the three themes that we showcased last week, we will also be hosting discussions on the three other Congress themes. City scale planning and operations, communities, communications and partnerships and water resources and large scale water management. We will also feature another exclusive documentary entitled Lords of Water. It will be shown on Wednesday with a documentary available on demand for 24 hours on our platform. We will also have more awards to follow with the two IWA membership awards coming up in this section, followed by the Water Industry Film Awards on Friday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our event sponsors, our platinum sponsors, GrandForce, Camstrup and Xylem, our gold sponsors, Arsilef, Kaui, Kamira and Rambo, and to our silver sponsors, DHI, DanForce, Sehoka, Eurowater and Eurofins. I'd also like to give a special thank you to Xylem for sponsoring our plenary sessions and to Rambo for sponsoring the thematic program. Last week, we had a great keynote speech from Professor David Sedlak, who talked about the challenges and opportunities for our sector moving into the 21st century. And I know from the feedback we received that you all really enjoyed his keynote and found it quite inspirational. This week, we have the pleasure of welcoming to you another great keynote speaker who is a champion of environmentalism, Emma Howard Boyd. Emma is the chair of the Environment Agency, a public body responsible for the protection and enhancement of the environment in England. Emma is also a board member of UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA. She has a background in finance and has been involved in senior leadership roles with a number of environmental organisations, such as the Green Finance Institute, the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment and the European Climate Foundation. Thanks for joining us, Emma. Thank you. Simone de Beauvoir said, change your life today, don't gamble on the future and act now without delay. And here's why we need to do just that. Floods and storms are responsible for almost three quarters of climate disasters. At the Environment Agency, we know that for every person who suffers flooding, around 16 others are affected by a loss of services, such as transport and power. Yet all around the world, resilience to climate shocks does not get the same air time as net zero. And resilience measures are too reliant on the public purse. Just 3% of private finance mobilised under the Paris Agreement in 2018 went towards adaptation, with over 95% going towards mitigation. The Global Commission on Adaptations report, state and trends in adaptation 2020 said, while there are gaps in the global data, the low figure indicates that the private sector, businesses and financial institutions alike is failing to respond to the climate risks in their midst. In global finance, we are robbing climate resilient Peter to pay net zero Paul. The debt is an inflated because we are not learning the mutual benefits of action on both agendas. The impact of global warming on water is already at crisis point. But we can't win a war against water. So we need to learn how to live with it. And also with less of it better. Last year, more than 50 million people were affected by droughts, floods and storms. In 2020, the rainy season across most of southern China was the longest in 20 years. This meant that severe flooding and landslides were particularly intense with more than 2.2 million people evacuated from their homes and surroundings in July. It was a tragic event. But there are also ways it indicates progress. In 1998, similar levels of flooding led to more than 4000 deaths and the destruction of 7 million homes. Last year, far fewer lives were lost in large part because of a new approach focused on environmental improvements rather than relying solely on hard gray engineering solutions. The restoration of close to 300,000 hectares of flood plains alongside reforestation has increased flood retention capacity and also supported nature. In England, the Environment Agency is an environmental regulator and delivery body. We regulate water waste and emissions from industry. For example, in the two years between January 2017 and December 2018, the climate change agreements we administer saved about 45,000 gigawatt hours of power. This is equivalent to 9 million tons of carbon dioxide or enough energy to supply over 2 million homes a year. We also deliver flood protection, building and maintaining defences and responding in emergencies. These objectives offer required advanced technology and hard engineering. But many nature based solutions help multiple outcomes. For instance, working with local authorities, businesses and community groups, we have created 531 hectares of blanket bog and restored a further 2148 hectares in 2019-2020. Restoring peatland filters water, meaning water companies use less chemical treatment, while also slowing the flow and reducing downstream flood risk. Innovation is crucial. Greta Thunberg has talked about cathedral thinking, that the urgency of the climate emergency means we must lay the first stone without knowing exactly how to construct the ceiling. That spirit of innovation is alive in India, where the government has established six small scale adaptation projects in diverse regions of the country. The projects range from mangrove restoration to the use of short duration crops that mature in 70 days to adapt to late sowing conditions. Instead of pursuing one large national project, the approach is piloting different models designed so that they can be replicated elsewhere and is establishing new networks to share knowledge across the country. Elsewhere, Norway's government emphasises that if municipalities do not choose nature based solutions, they must explain why. These include measures such as restoration of wetlands and expanding existing streams and rivers to cope with rainfall. If more countries followed this lead and insisted on nature based solutions by default, then the world would be a lot closer to the UN's sustainable development goal of integrated water resources management by 2030. I recently visited the Lower River Otter in Devon in England, which was separated from its flood plain to create farmland in 1812. This artificial alignment of the river increases water pollution from cattle slurry and fertilisers and now severe and regular storms increased by climate change threatened to overwhelm the embankments. To address this, the landowner Clinton Devon Estates, alongside the Environment Agency and East Devon Pebble Bed Heath's Conservation Trust, have created a 15 million pound scheme over 150 hectares to improve resilience in the valley. Embankments will be breached to allow land to flood at high tide. It will also create a wildlife reserve, including salt marsh and mud flats, providing habitat for wading birds, reed bed and grazing marsh. The project is partnered with another in France and if successful, the model will be rolled out further. Enhancing nature has an intrinsic value we can all appreciate, but it is also hugely important to the economy. There were 135 million day visits taken to the seaside. Enhancing nature has an intrinsic value we can all appreciate, but it is also hugely important to the economy. There were 135 million day visits taken to the seaside in England in 2019. These, combined with overnight stays, will worth 8.1 billion pounds to the economy. The high standards of bathing waters on the coast have taken significant investment, partnership, regulation and decades of hard graft. Now, following the groundbreaking decision to designate a stretch of the River Wharf in Yorkshire as a bathing river, we needed a similar effort inland, which the Environment Agency will help coordinate. Last month, Offwatt, the UK Economic Regulator, announced that the water sector plans to invest 2.7 billion pounds in environmental projects. This follows a joint letter to water companies from DEFRA, the Environment Agency, Offwatt, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Consumer Council for Water, calling for greater support for a green recovery. As part of this new package of investment, companies will commit over 157 million pounds to help eliminate harm caused by storm sewage overflows, which are being used with increasing and alarming regularity, and trial the creation of two new bathing rivers. It demonstrates a new commitment to reduce pollution incidents and make the country more climate resilient. COP26 President Alok Sharma recently said, I asked ministers from developed nations to imagine what it is like for communities on the front line of climate change struggling to deal with a crisis they did next to nothing to create. Many low-lying at all nations are only meters above sea level and face more extreme events. The Republic of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and the Maldives are protecting their coastal areas by planting mangroves and restoring wetlands. But if temperature rises continue as they are, these efforts won't be enough. Kiribati has brought land in Fiji in case they need a managed retreat. In 2016, tropical cyclone Winston, a severe category 5 storm, wiped out more than a third of Fiji's GDP in 36 hours. In response, the Fijian government launched a program to rebuild more than 200 public buildings so they could withstand comparable future storms. This isn't only an issue for Fiji. In a recent essay for the New York Times called We're Not Ready for the Next Big Climate Disasters, David Victor, Sadie Frank and Eric Jessick revealed research that showed the federal government in the United States is spending about $46 billion per year on recovery from disasters, which is seven times the level of investment in resilience. The world cannot afford to respond like this. We need to be better prepared. We are seeing change in the investment community with initiatives like the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment. I'm one of the co-chairs with John Haley, the chief exec of the insurance company Willis Towers Watson, and Samir Asaf, chair of Corporate and Institutional Banking at HSBC. The Coalition's members now represent over $10 trillion in assets, and by including physical climate risks in upfront financial decision-making, members want to incentivise a shift towards greater resilience. And at a state level, too, there are signs of change. Last month, the Climate and Environment Ministers of the G7 secured historic commitments to put climate, biodiversity and the environment at the heart of worldwide COVID-19 recovery. All G7 members signed up to the Global 30 by 30 Initiative to conserve or protect at least 30% of the world's land, and at least 30% of the world's ocean by 2030. This year is the first-ever net zero G7 with all countries committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest, with deep emissions reduction targets in the 2020s. The G7 has also agreed to increase the quantity of finance for climate action, including for nature, in order to meet the $100 billion per annum target to support developing countries. So there are signs of change, but despite these historic agreements and the uphill struggle, it will be for governments to deliver them. No one would argue that 30% is enough. If we are going to improve humanity's quality of life in the face of worsening floods, storms and droughts, we need to embed a shift in global finance towards nature's recovery, climate resilience and net zero, a race to zero and a race to resilience, fueled by trillions of dollars and engineered with nature. The International Water Association, representing water professionals and inspiring change for a water-wise world, has a crucial leadership role to play. So to repeat the words of Simone de Beauvoir, don't gamble on the future, act now without delay. I hope that at next year's World Water Congress we will be able to share more stories of leadership and success. And I'd now like to hand over to Mike Morgan-Giles of IWA who will be discussing a new partnership between IWA and a major international broadcaster. Thank you very much. Thank you Emma for that interesting contribution. Hello everybody, I'm here today to talk to you about the exciting development of the IWA and the water sector in general. We're all here striving for a more water-wise world but if we're to achieve this we cannot limit the scope of our engagement and reach to the people who are working in the water sector. If we're going to appeal to the wider public we must explain to them more about the challenges and the opportunities that we face. This is why I'm delighted to announce to you today a compelling partnership with the BBC. This will be a series of short documentary videos focusing on case studies from across the world. We'll be looking to find out more about the most compelling projects, innovations and technologies that are available that are transforming our sector and it will be a great opportunity for members to become involved and showcase all of the activity that you've been doing to make this a more water-wise world. So today I'm delighted to introduce to you Simon Shelly, BBC Global News Vice President of Programme Partnerships. Welcome Simon. Hello everybody I'm Simon Shelly the Vice President of Programme Partnerships at BBC Global News. I'm absolutely thrilled to be speaking to you today. I hope you're all having a wonderful Congress and we're very, very excited to be making a series on water, more specifically their clean, circular, efficient, circular production, use-reuse of water. To explain BBC Global News in the context of the BBC we're everything outside of the UK. So all of the dot-com sites, all of the feature sites, world news we have 468 million weekly viewers, 155 million of those are online. They're really important to us because we can track their interests and behaviors and ultimately serve them the type of content that they want to see and that data has been crucially informing our decision to make this series. We're all part of BBC Studios you'll know that as the makers of Planet Earth and Top Gear and Strictly Come Dancings as the creative soul of the BBC. A lot of what we make at BBC Global News is very snackable. We tend to talk in headlines and we have had a desire to make more in-depth, more exploratory content about the issues that are shaping society. We all know how important water is to us of course, historically it's shaped where we've lived, where we've settled as humans. It's key to our health. It's always been key to our hygiene but that's really come to the fore most recently as we've been relentlessly washing our hands over the last year. Water is quite simply a requirement for life but it seems that most of us aren't fully aware of the challenges in supplying safe and secure water. Perversely as many of us take for granted the clean water that we get when we turn on the tap there are of course two billion odd people who lack access to adequate water services. When you take all of that into account this is possibly one of the most important series we will make and it feels as though this is an important juncture for the water industry. So this series can capitalise on that interest and build that understanding on the pressures about climate change, population growth aging infrastructure and potentially be a platform for those creative solutions at every stage of the water cycle and really portray the dynamic industry that the water is and the dynamic and exciting professionals that exist within that industry. We'll be creating a dedicated bbc.com space for the series to the millions of browsers globally but also amplifying beyond that in 2022. And ultimately the goal of this is to appreciate water as a resource and hopefully have curious viewers get involved in conversations to ultimately create a water wise world. I'll say just a note we are so honoured to be working with the International Water Association the partnership is vital a strategic partnership so important to the bbc because we know a little about a lot and if we go in depth in a series we need someone to guide us on the themes we need to make sure it's accurate but most of all we want to uncover the most compelling stories and characters to bring to screen and that last point is crucial so this really only succeeds with your support and the aim is to uncover those gripping human stories from various settings around the world at all stages of the water cycle and so we ask you to get in touch and let us know your thoughts there will be a communication that comes around with more details shortly but in the meantime it remains for me to say hello we're very very excited to at the prospect of working with you all and I hope you have a wonderful conference all the very best bye bye. Thank you. This trend signals a dire impact for global health. Today 4.2 billion people lack safe sanitation and in 2017 poor sanitation resulted in 775,000 premature deaths at the same time more than 50% is expected that by 2025 half the world's population will be living in water stressed areas this trend signals at the same time water use is intertwined with environmental impacts 80% of wastewater flows back into our ecosystem without being treated or reused with the water sector at a critical inflection point how do we build a future where water systems are safe, sustainable and equitable serving everyone no matter where they live or who they are Organisations around the world are applying groundbreaking research, technology and collaborative action to reshape the future of water be a part of the transformation Thanks Mike and Simon for sharing with us this great initiative we at IWA are really excited about working with the BBC and I encourage all our members who are interested in this initiative to actively get involved it is really going to be a fantastic thing now we are going to move on to our two very important IWA membership awards ceremony and I am really pleased that we have with us today the IWA President Tom Molenkoff who will make the announcements for these two very important awards Tom over to you Hello, it's good to be back with you Welcome to IWA's membership awards these awards acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of IWA members who make significant contributions both to the IWA and to the water sector I am delighted to announce that this year there are two recipients of the award of honorary life membership of IWA this award recognizes those who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to progress in the water sector and the association over their professional career I will announce each of our deserving winners one at a time and then we will hear briefly from each of them our first award of honorary life membership goes to a person who has made a great contribution in the field of sewage treatment and large treatment plants an IWA distinguished fellow his involvement with IWA spans some 35 years contributing to the network around his specialist areas through specialist groups and conferences and supporting the association's activity in central Europe including 25 years on IWA's governing assembly a man that I know and who I respect greatly I am delighted to extend the honour of honorary life membership to professor Yiri Vana of the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague in the Czech Republic Yiri Dear Mr President Dear colleagues and friends ladies and gentlemen I would like to use this opportunity to express my gratitude for the honour of winning the honorary membership award I have been dealing for decades with biological wastewater treatment in different areas from microbial ecology of activated sludge to design an operation of large wastewater treatment plants my work was mainly focused at control of activated sludge separation properties improvement of nutrient removal processes and reuse of treated wastewater during my professional career I always benefited from my cooperation with international water community organized in IWA in the association I was active in various positions from national committee to governing assembly and in the management of specialist groups dealing with activated sludge and wastewater treatment plants thanks to these contacts I was able to organize several IWA conferences in my country and in Central Europe including the young water professionals conference the award will be for me a great motivation for my future work for our international community for our international community and for educating new generations of water specialists at my university thank you very much Yuri our second honorary life membership award goes to another IWA distinguished fellow this person has had an outstanding career he is a leader in the wastewater field with achievements in the development of new treatment and recovery processes his work has earned him the stock award to prize Singapore's Li Kuan Yew award to prize and previously the IWA global award over more than 30 years he's contributed to IWA across the association's including chairing specialist groups and around 15 IWA conferences and serving on IWA's strategic council I'm delighted to extend the honour of honorary life membership to Professor Mark van Loestrecht of Delft University in the Netherlands thank you Tom for this honour to nominate me as honorary member of IWA we are proud of this and let me also congratulate you as new president of IWA and Yuri as also as also new honorary member of this society and maybe the election of me and Yuri as honorary members also illustrates the importance of is given to the biological aspects of treatment in the last 30 years when we have been working on ways for treatment and microbiology I also assure that in the future we can further fully support the further development of not only ways for treatment but also resource recovery using microbial processes to recover all kind of interesting compounds such as biopolymers thank you again for this honorary announcement and I hope to meet you next year to have a drink in Copenhagen on this see you the IWA membership awards presentation and it's really great to see Jerry and Mark receive such a prestigious award they have both been so influential within IWA and we are really really grateful for their sustained support that they have given to the association so congratulations again to Mark and Jerry it's very well deserved I would now like to introduce to you our final keynote speaker Dr. Akinwami Adesina president of the African Development Bank Dr. Adesina is a globally renowned development economist and agricultural development expert with more than 30 years of international experience Dr. Adesina won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation social science fellowship in 1988 which launched him into his international career he is really a bold reformer and as minister of agriculture in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015 he turned the agricultural sector of Nigeria around within four years in 2010 Dr. Adesina was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General Banki Moon as one of the 17 world leaders to galvanize international support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals the MDGs thank you for joining us Dr. Adesina Your Excellences ladies and gentlemen I would like to start by first thanking Dr. Vera Vamuti the Executive Director of the International Water Association for inviting me to this event distinguished ladies and gentlemen we are talking water water is the source of life without it we simply will not be here today as we speak 323 million kilometers away robots are exploring the planet Mars inside your water this is because scientists know that water means the potential for life more than 70% of the art surface is actually covered by water with 98% of these been salt water and about 3% been fresh water now of the fresh water only 0.3% is in liquid form on the surface water is a lot less abundant that we actually think or than it seems as the people in sub-Saharan Africa now they will tell you what is like to live without access to clean drinking water water scarcity is predicted to read dangerously high levels by 2025 and that is only 4 years from now audience action is required to turn the tide in Africa's favor I'm sure you all familiar with the United Nations sustainable development goal number 6 ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all now as Africa's premier finance and institution the African Development Bank is working very closely with United Nations and a range of other partners to achieve this goal by sustaining water resources delivering services and building resilience the world economic forum identifies water crisis as one of the top 5 global risks now around 2 thirds of the world's population that's about 4 billion people currently live without sufficient access to fresh water for at least one month of the year although the average water stress level in sub-Saharan Africa is 3.5% to 13% globally population growth combined with overabiding water infrastructure systems weak governance, low investments accelerate water scarcity on the continent water related risks have impacts on production now as economies develop of course water consumption patterns shift and overall demand rises to meet the needs of food production thirsty industries thermal power plants and of course households in sub-Saharan Africa rain-fed agriculture contributes nearly one quarter of the gross domestic product and employs about 30% of the population both the livelihoods of rural communities and the food security of predominantly urban population are therefore at risk from water related impacts to climate variability measures to improve the efficiency of water used in agriculture while ensuring water access for vulnerable groups for their smallholder farmers are in a strict cable linked to many sustainable development goals of course that includes those related to zero hunger availability and access to water climate action and of course ecosystem services major cities with low elevation coastal zones like Lagos Banjul Abidja and Alexandria are also vulnerable to climate risks threatening livelihoods in public health as well as generating huge economic losses a study of impacts of storm surges in coastal areas reveal that about 30 million people around Africa's Atlantic and Indian Ocean coast live within flood hazard zone of this number about 2 million people could potentially be flooded in the 2020s as sea levels rise so does the risk that hard one development goals could be washed away this is one of the reasons why the African Development Bank forces the former United Nations secretary general banking moon to establish the global center for adaptation in Africa now on the 6th of April this year modern 30 leaders from Africa and around the world convened to discuss how we can accelerate climate adaptation in Africa together we launched what's called the Africa adaptation acceleration program we're working hard to establish a facility to implement this landmark program it will mobilize $12.5 billion and that's on top of $12.5 billion that the African Development Bank has already committed to from a range of very innovative sources these funds that we mobilize will be used to speed up change adaptation to digital climate smart technologies for agriculture and infrastructure resilience accelerator a huge entrepreneurship and your creation in climate adaptation and resilient component and of course an innovative financial initiative component the African Development Bank with quadruple is financing for climate to reach $25 billion by 2025 averaging about $4 billion a year by promoting climate informed design and detailed risk and vulnerability assessments of its investments now in 2020 that's by the challenges posed by COVID-19 which of course affected lending operations the bank channeled a total of $2 billion as climate finance and sectors the bank also leverages external climate finance to assist African countries to scale up their access to climate finance since 2010 the African Development Bank has invested an estimated $6.2 billion in water supply and sanitation delivery services our active water portfolio stood at $4.3 billion at the end of 2020 of course it's made up of 100 national projects implemented in 40 different countries and 6 multinational projects ladies and gentlemen water is a vital factor of production so the managing water supplies translates into slower growth we are particularly focused on the challenges in the Sahel region according to a 2016 World Bank report that's titled high and dry the Sahel region of Africa could see growth rates decline by as much as almost 12% by 2050 because of water related losses now take the lake chart basing for example it's a fragile and vulnerable social ecosystem exposed to hydrological ships climate change and high population growth in the northern part of this basin drought compromises food security of an estimated 4 million people the situation is exacerbated by insecurity due to insurgency that prevents more than 49 million people from obtaining their livelihoods in agricultural production global warming risks combined with current geopolitical crisis have prompted the lake chart basing commission to prepare a lake chart development and climate resilience action plan for 2016 to 2025 period the investments associated with this action plan are estimated at 1.1 billion dollars of course the core idea of this action is that in parallel to the restoration of course of peace and security there is a need to turn lake chart into a rural hub for regional development the African development bank intends to contribute significantly to food security employment and social inclusion of youth by improving living conditions of populations settled on the lakes banks and of course the islands we also want to improve the resilience of this system characterized by demographic growth hydrological variability and of course climate uncertainty there friends the irrigation potential of the continent is estimated at more than 43 million hectares construed in land and water resources but only 7% of that is developed Africa needs to strengthen water governance and develop its irrigation capacity while of course improving water use efficiency in the agricultural sector for food and water security ladies and gentlemen Africa can easily be a vibrant blue economy that's because 38 African countries are coastal and 70% of them have exclusive economic zones in the sea that are largely on tap today maritime zones under Africa's jurisdiction cover about 13 million km2 and approximately 6.5 million km2 of the continental shelf itself Africa's blue economy especially the aquatic and marine spaces remains largely under exploited but is recognized for its potential contribution to inclusive development think of it more than 12 million people are employed in fisheries alone largest of the African blue economy sectors providing food security and nutrition for over 200 million Africans and of course generating value at it estimated at a whopping $24 billion and that's about 1.3% of Africa's gross domestic product the international energy agency estimates that ocean renewable energy alone can provide up to 400% of global current energy demand the blue economy of course faces challenges which include weak policy and regulatory frameworks on sustainable human activities which includes overfishing pollution and coastal erosion these compromises human health and food security coastal erosion in West Africa is estimated to put an average of 500,000 people at risk annually with the economic losses amounting to about 2.3% of the GDP in total alone now if current fisheries management practices are not reformed marine fish catches African coastal states are projected to possibly drop by 50% by the year 2050 in the western Indian ocean between 1950 and 2009 sea temperatures increased by 0.6 degrees Celsius triggering climate-related disasters the economic costs of the 1998 Correlation event for tens of years Kenya's tourism sectors are up to $2.2 million in Zanzibar and up to $15 million in Mubasa respectively ladies and gentlemen the African Development Bank encourages African countries to respond proactively to the prospect of water stress by adopting new ways of managing water strengthening water governance and recognizing the finite value of a limited resource for their friends it's also time for developed countries to do their bit and to make good on the $100 billion per year in climate finance promised to developing countries and to ensure at least half of these goes to climate adaptation currently only 5% of climate finance goes to resilience with just 3% going to water very often the most vulnerable communities are at the back of the queue this must change before it is too late the lays in climate finance and failure to deliver on pledges are not just limiting climate action they make for a missed opportunity to be part of a trillion dollar challenge that will shape the future not just of the African continent but the global economy by deference like drops of rain build up to recharge rivers oceans and the seas let us join hands together to provide water for the world water for women and girls water for arid lands water to sustain cities water to support residents but after all water is life so let's give life to our world thank you all very much many thanks Dr. Adesina for that powerful contribution I would now like to wish everyone a fruitful second half of the digital world water congress thank you have a great week and enjoy the upcoming sessions water it's vital to human life the very survival of our planet but water challenges 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