The launch of the Arabic edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2021 took place on 24 October on the opening day of Cairo Water Week. Mr Engin Koncagul, the UNESCO WWAP Senior Programme Officer was the Master of the Ceremony for the event and welcomed the participants on behalf of UNESCO WWAP and other co-organizers of the session. Mr Bisher Imam, the Officer-in-Charge of UNESCO Cairo Office was the Chair of the Opening Ceremony.
In the high-level opening of the session, Mr Mohamed Abdel-Ati, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt, Dr Abdulaziz bin Muhareb Al-Shaibani, Deputy Minister for Water Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia and Dr Abdul Aziz Al Magushi, Assistant Director-General for Media and Cultural Affairs, Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Foundation of Saudi Arabia took the floor.
Speakers expressed appreciation to UNESCO and the UN-Water family for production of the UN World Water Development Report and to Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Foundation for supporting its Arabic translation.
Following the content presentation by Mr Koncagul on main findings and key recommendations of WWDR2021, representatives from FAO and UNDP talked about agriculture and governance aspects, respectively. UN ESCWA representative underlined the importance of the theme of the Report ‘Valuing Water’ in the Arab region. The representatives of UN agencies, underlined ‘one UN’ aspect of the WWDR series, showing UN family at work.
Mr Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation sent a video message which was shown at the event.
Closing remarks were done by Dr Hammou Lamrani, Senior Expert, The League of Arab States.
Videos of speeches from high level speakers and other video pills will soon be shared on WWAP’s youtube channel.
Complimentary copies of the Report were presented to the speakers and to the audience.
UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme is in consultation with Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Foundation of Saudi Arabia for to identify potential venue for a training in the Arab region that will focus on 2021 edition of WWDR.