UN-Water to Hold High-Level Symposium on Water in Lisbon, Portugal

Peter Thomson: Lisbon event to generate new ideas, innovation on Water solutions

By Dr.Muhammad Arif

Geneva, Switzerland: The High-Level Symposium on Water, to be held on Monday 27 June in Lisbon during the UN Ocean Conference, is one of the preparatory meetings for the UN-Water Conference 2023.

Delegates from Member States, non-governmental organizations, and universities attending, as well as entrepreneurs will be looking for ways to sustainably develop the “Blue Economy”, during this event, taking place in the Portuguese city of Lisbon between 27 June and 1 July, will mark a new era for the Ocean.

This Symposium on Water will be hosted by the Government of Portugal with the support of UN-DESA and UN-Water.

This event will provide a critical opportunity to mobilize partnerships and increase investment in science-driven approaches to achieve SDG 14. Organizations in Geneva are actively supporting processes in the run-up to the conference, officials stated.

According to Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Lisbon “is going to be about providing solutions to those problems”.

Peter Thomson added: in Lisbon, we want to generate, outside of the formal process, the excitement of new ideas, of innovation, and that will take place in the side events.

I’m very confident that there’s going to be this innovation, which is going to be visible in that carnival type atmosphere that you develop around the central core of the conference.

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Trying to bridge and explore the interlinkages between Sustainable Development Goals 6 (“Clean Water and Sanitation”) and 14 (“Life below Water”), this Symposium will bring together political leaders and high-level decision-makers dealing both with “fresh” and “salt” water, to reflect on how to connect these two communities to guarantee an integrated vision of the water cycle.

The aim of the event provides an opportunity to strengthen the role of water and ocean in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement and offers a platform for presenting successful best practices and partnerships.