The WFEO President Prof. José Vieira addresses its statement at the UN 2023 Water Conference plenary session, on 23 March 2023.
The World Federation of Engineering Organizations is committed to mobilizing the global engineering community towards accelerating the delivery of the UN SDGs. Milestones in this strategy include key partnerships with UNESCO, especially UNESCO engineering reports published in 2011 and 2021, and the proclamation of the UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, that we celebrate each 4 March from 2020.
WFEO has recently established a Technical Committee on Water, aiming to provide a strong platform to coordinate the engineering water work around the world and so, WFEO will be able to make a significant contribution to accelerate the delivery of SDG 6.
WFEO also mobilizes its resources to take part in joint projects led by NGOs in partnership with UNESCO, to fund hydrological training sessions for a dozen African countries, in order to support local NGOs projects related to water education, access and sanitation.
Engineers are needed to design and operate dams and reservoirs, channels, pipelines, water treatment plants, and for planning water resources management.
We want to promote the emerging nature-based engineering solutions to improve the rivers, underground aquifers and urban drainage management. We also want to accelerate the technological development for safe wastewater reuse, desalination, and new irrigation technologies for agriculture.
More engineers are also needed to contribute to disaster risk assessment and management, to help prepare for floods and droughts.
Engineers must be deeply involved in the Water Action Decade, to turn words into action, strategy into effective projects. Civil society has the most important role to play here: through our membership, we are linking the scales of UN agencies and the local projects. We aim to articulate the targets of SDG 6 with the relevant stakeholders in the field, and with the right skills and technologies. The point here is mobilizing to leave no one behind.
MAR
2023