2023•03•09     Virtual

© Jospin Benekire / UNICEF

UN 2023 Water Conference, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, will take place this year at UN Headquarters in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023.

Alongside the Conference, UNU-EHS researchers are organizing and participating in two side events, both of which are virtual and open to the public.

Water for Climate Mental Health Resilience – Integrating inclusive water strategies in climate services

Monday 20 March 3:00-4:30 p.m. CET (9:00-10:30 a.m. ET)

UNU-EHS researchers: Robert Oakes & Kariuki Weru

The session aims to enhance understanding of the following elements by assessing gaps and needs in the existing support mechanisms through capturing reflections from different geographic regions, voices from practices and youth and their capacities to integrate support services in water strategies.

1. Interlinkages of water insecurity, water-related disasters, climate risks and mental health and psychosocial well-being, with a focus on vulnerability factors and inequalities.
2. Environmental degradation and biodiversity and its impact on mental health (e.g., climate change anxiety, eco-grief, solastalgia).
3. What unique advantages could the youth and future generations have/contribute to the vision of an inclusive climate-resilient future?
4. Multisectoral and community-based approaches on how we can build and implement smart water strategies in climate services to enable building mental health resilience for all

Livestream link

Understanding recovery from water extremes: A multi-stakeholder dialogue

Thursday 23 March 3-4 p.m. CET (9-10 a.m. ET)

UNU-EHS researchers: Saskia Werners, Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola

As extreme events are projected to increase, people need the capacity to drive recovery towards resilient and sustainable futures. Moreover, extreme events disproportionately affect people in vulnerable situations, exacerbate poverty, and impact women, men and children differently. Bringing together water practitioners and experts, this session aims to share recovery experiences, and use this experience to shift the focus from passive coping to proactive adaptation, innovation and transformative recovery pathways towards accelerating the implementation of SDG6 and other water related SDGs. With the participants we will discuss recovery pathways from recent extreme flood events. In particular, we will take stock of the summer 2021 floods in the Rhine-Meuse region in the Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the 2021 floods in Lagos Nigeria, and the 2022 floods in Pakistan. During the event we will invite for exchange with other cases from the audience and consolidate our commitments to sustainable recovery from water related extreme events for the Water Action Agenda

Registration link