The 2nd CWW will be held under the auspices of H.E. Mr. Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and will be organized by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in collaboration with national, regional and international partners. The CWW became the focus of attention of every one cares about water as a basic element for life and turned to be the main and largest water event in Egypt. Thus, it has gained the interest and support of all water stakeholders at all levels.
The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 (UN, 2017). With increasing population; the water demand is increasing while the world fresh water resources are limited to only 2.5% of all the water on earth. Out of this amount of freshwater, only 1% is accessible and the rest is trapped in glaciers. Moreover, the problem gets worse due to climate change, thus water scarcity has become one of the most serious global challenges especially in arid and vulnerable regions. It was listed in 2015 by the World Economic Forum as the largest global risk in terms of potential impact over the next decade.
According to different global water scarcity indicators, most of the African continent faces economic water scarcity where water is inaccessible, while in the Middle East and North Africa the physical water scarcity is the predominant-inadequate natural water resources to supply the region’s demands. As one of the North African arid countries, Egypt faces physical water scarcity, in addition to its vulnerability to the effect of global warming, sea level rise and the fast growing population that pose many challenges that need a lot of efforts and innovative ideas for achieving sustainable development.
Driven by the success of the1st Cairo Water Week, it has been decided to make the CWW an annual event. Thus, the 2nd Cairo Water Week will be organized on October 20-24, 2019 in Cairo, Egypt. As a natural sequence after the 1st CWW, the title of the 2nd CWW is chosen to be “Responding to Water Scarcity”. It will be an opportunity for academics, scholars, and policy makers, water resources experts from all around the world to present and discuss the key issues, plans and actions related to responding to the challenges of water scarcity. Thus, the 2nd CWW aims at translating the vision created during the 1st CWW into actions towards best practices and suitable implementation plans. CWW ensures knowledge transfer and how it can be acquired through successful public or private business models, political opportunities and obstacles, capacity building needs.
