WaPOR at the World Water Week

This morning, in Stockholm and online, three stakeholders from the fields of water, agriculture and international cooperation connected to the WaPOR project gathered for a talk show where they discussed the database and the project in light of the 2023 UN Water Conference.

Ms Kitty van der Heijden, Director General International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, spoke about the importance of open data as a public good. 

Mr Lifeng Li, FAO Land and Water division Director, went a bit more in depth on WaPOR talking about two facets of the support that the FAO is providing to partner countries through WaPOR: with data provision but also through capacity building.

Ms Roda Nuvunga Luis, Director of Water Research Institute of Mozambique, spoke about the challenges of a new organization such as the one she leads in setting the pace of research and innovation in the country. She spoke about the use of WaPOR data in the country as an opportunity to gather all relevant stakeholders in dialogue and emphasized the need for institutional coordination. A country like Mozambique that has many water issues such as floods, droughts & sanitation, is trying to use WaPOR to help with the sustainable management of that water & combat these issues to serve the local community, where water is very scarce. Such an endeavor requires the mobilization of many stakeholders at different levels.