World Water Week Daily Thursday 30 August, 2018

STOCKHOLM
waterfront
world water week daily | THURSDAY 30 AUGUST | 2018
Caleb Liow Jia Le and Johnny Xiao Hong Yu, winners of this year’s Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
TOMORROW’S
WATER EXPERTS
TEXT | andreas karlsson PHOTO | mikael ullén
Being able to use common food
waste to purify water may sound
too good to be true. Two young
scientists from Singapore have
proved otherwise.
Being 16 years old in the world today,
you would be forgiven for despising
previous generations for leaving you
and your fellow teenagers with a planet
in environmental decay. When asked
about this, Caleb Liow Jia Le and Johnny
Xiao Hong Yu, this year’s Stockholm
Junior Water Prize winners, hesitate
slightly before they choose a more
diplomatic way to put it.
“Every generation makes its own
mistakes, and while we could of course
be upset about the state of the world,
it’s more fruitful to try to make things
right,” Liow says.
Xiao adds:
“Everything we have learned about
the shortcomings of humanities current
lifestyle, is because of previous generations’
mistakes. Ultimately, that is
development. I think the coming years
will provide us with a lot of new solutions
to old problems.”
One such solution is what rendered
the duo the prestigious prize earlier
this week. The jury praised the young
scientists for their simple and costeffective
solution to not only one
pressing problem, but two: waste
management and water pollution.
“We take two types of food waste,
found everywhere in Singapore,
durian rind and sugarcane bagasse.
With these we can produce reduced
graphene oxide (rGO), which can be
used to remove several pollutants from
water,” Liow says.
In a country which partly relies on
imported water, making it vulnerable
to factors beyond its control, any
discovery which aims towards water
independence, is welcome. According
to Xiao, there is still a lot of work to do
before their technique can be implemented
on a larger scale, but the potential
is huge, and they are both keen on
developing it further.
Liow and Xiao have had some intense
and rather turbulent days in Stockholm,
during what is their first ever trip to
Europe. They say they are inspired by
the many experienced water experts
at World Water Week, as well as their
Junior Water Prize colleagues. They both
insist that they are generally positive
about the future.
“My main take-away message from
this week is that everyone can make a
difference and that we, as part of the
young generation, have an important
role to play.”
Liow agrees, adding:
“We will never give up. We will
constantly try to make the world a
better place.”
PUBLISHED BY STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL WATER INSTITUTE

THURSDAY: WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY
South Korean
water rehabilitation
ROYAL CELEBRATION FOR
WATER PRIZE LAUREATES
“There is nothing more hope-inspiring than to learn about new
and innovative ways to conquer our most fundamental challenges,”
said H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria on Wednesday when she presented
the Stockholm Water Prize to this year’s laureates Bruce Rittmann and
Mark van Loosdrecht. The two have revolutionized microbiologicalbased
technologies in water and wastewater treatment. Photo: Jonas Borg
Read more about the laureates in tomorrow’s WaterFront Daily.
“The water has no VOICE”
Indigenous people constitute five per
cent of the world’s population, but
suffer disproportionally from unsafe
and scarce water resources. This was
the message at the Indigenous Peoples:
Promoting Ecosystem Protection and
Human Rights. One of the speakers
invited to give evidence on water as
a human right was the First Nation
water-activist from Canada Autumn
Peltier. Though she’s only 13, Peltier has
chosen to speak up for water “because
water has no voice”.
Her speech had the audience spellbound.
“I’m young and some would say that
I should just be a kid. But I say, one
day I will be an ancestor and when I
have great-great grandchildren they
need a clean planet and clean drinking
water,” she said.
Her great-aunt was an advocate for
clean water and Peltier has picked up
the baton.
“I was born a caretaker of this land,
raised to respect all things. We believe
that water is life and it has a spirit. If
you don’t believe in me, go sit by the
water and listen to it. Connect with
that spirit and you’ll know what I’m
talking about,” she said reminding the
listeners of the destruction caused by
development and exploitation.
“For every generation, we get closer
and closer not to be able to have clean
water. We need to empower the youth
to stand up for the planet. The learning
and the change begin with us.
I’m raising my voice for the ones who
come behind me, for my people and
for the planet.”
At Sustainable infrastructure for
inclusive green growth, Jum Mun Kang,
Director General of Green Environment
Bureau in Daegu, described
how the city, the third largest in South
Korea, had embarked on a journey to
improve its water quality and water
management after the industrial and
economic boom in the country.
Rapid economic development had
had a severe negative impact on the
environment and the rivers running
through Daegu were dying. Today, the
city can be hailed as having turned an
environmental crisis into an opportunity.
Several wastewater treatment
plants have been built, rain water is harvested
from Daegu Samsung Lions Park,
and greywater is recycled and used for
cleaning and toilet flushing.
The effects of the various investments
in sustainable water infrastructure
are: a more efficient use of the water
resources, socio-economic cost reduction,
improved water quality, restored
aquatic ecosystem, and biodiversity.
“Every day the city reuses 27 per
cent of the wastewater from our treatment
plants, the rest is discharged
into the river, but we make sure it’s
pure,” Kang said.
NUMBER OF THE DAY
390
THOUSAND
LITRES OF WATER NEEDED
AT LEDA REFUGEE CAMP IN
BANGLADESH PER DAY.
Source: IOM, UN.

Photo: Istock
LEARNING
FROM NATURE
Increased use of nature-based solutions is
necessary to cope with climate change, said
several speakers at yesterday’s Laureates’
Symposium. They hoped that a shift in attitudes
is occurring.
“The eyes that were closed are now wide
open,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-
General of UNESCO, who thought recent
weather events help people understand the
threats from a changing climate.
Speakers also included Claudia Sadoff,
International Water Management Institute,
Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and
Environment, and this year’s two Stockholm
Water Prize laureates, themselves biotech
pioneers. All agreed that cities must be
rethought, making better use of nature’s
abilities to clean, store and recharge water,
with more infrastructure spending directed
to nature-based solutions.
FORESTRY
AND WATER
rethink, reposition, reimagine
Transforming forest-water policy making
to advance the 2030 Agenda was the focus
of Understanding the forest-water nexus,
convened by FAO, IUCN, IUFRO, and
SIWI-SWH.
“We need to rethink forests as sources of
water, reposition forest-water discussions,
and reimagine what some of those interventions
could be,” Irena Creed, IUFRO,
said, presenting key findings and recommendations
from a report recently presented
to the UN High-Level Global Forum.
Offering hope of positive change, Creed
added that forestry had to respond to the
opportunities of climate change.
“It’s not always a bad news story – there
could be opportunities for different parts of
the planet.”
3
questions to …
Sunita Narain
Director, Centre for Science and Environment, India
How can sewerage management be improved?
“By doing it differently. The problem we have today is that most people
in our part of the world are not connected to the sewage system. They
are actually using on-site systems. So the question is, instead of getting
them onto a sewer, which is an extremely expensive proposition, can
you modernize the on-site system itself? Can you make a box, which
was a sceptic tank, part of the modern sewage system? That’s the
challenge.”
I’m optimistic for the future because
I see that we have an opportunity to
do things differently.
How can wetlands be integrated into urban design?
“Again, we’re becoming increasingly climate-risked. Our cities are
facing an onslaught every time it rains: we get extreme rain, and that
extreme rain means huge amount of floods. And at the end of the
floods, you have drought. So what you need today is a capacity to hold
the water; a capacity to recharge the groundwater so that the flood
does not become a deluge, and the drought never happens. And that’s
where the role of wetlands has to be. It has to be part of the water and
flood management system of every city.”
Are you optimistic about the future?
“I’m optimistic for the future because I see that we have an opportunity
to do things differently. In the case of water and sewage, there is
now much greater understanding that business as usual is not going
to give us sustainable, affordable solutions. Given the crisis, given the
challenges, I think we will find answers.”

A first-hand account of life as a refugee in South Sudan
TEXT | NICK CHIPPERFIELD PHOTO | mikael ullén
Maiwen Dot Pheot Ngalueth spoke
with humour and compassion about
his own experiences as a refugee
at the Refugees and migrants session.
He also provided his own take on how
to improve the water and sanitation
conditions refugees face.
Ngalueth was born into a displaced
family, grew up in what is now South
Sudan, before being forced to move “to
a place I’d never seen” in 2005.
“From 2006, I started to realize the
magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in
South Sudan, so I volunteered and later
joined international organizations,”
Ngalueth said.
“When we moved back there was
nothing, so we moved into camps –
there were no villages, there were no
services. Refugees and returnees joined
us – everyone was living in camps.”
“I was working with the UNHCR.
We were responding to a big influx of
returnees and internally displaced people
(IDP), and I was an IDP myself.”
Claiming not to be expert, Ngalueth
set out a number of ways he believed
conditions for refugees in Sudan and
elsewhere could be improved. These
Maiwen Dot Pheot Ngalueth
included the separation of drinking
sources from cattle and humans, the
wider use of renewable energy such
as solar and wind, and investment in
waste-based fuel sources.
world water week voices
What do you hope to contribute in the water world?
Fritz Ganz,
Water Foundry, US
“Bold solutions
to the water
scarcity problem.
Innovation and
technology
are key and we
need a shift in
use-patterns.”
Jocelyne Hughes,
University of Oxford,
United Kingdom
“I’m passionate
about raising
awareness about
the importance
of ecosystems
for conservation
of water, water
quality and water
management.”
Florence Grace
Adongo, Ministry of
Water and Environment,
Uganda
“I’m a civil
servant and
my duty is to
ensure equitable
and efficient
utilization of
our water
sources.”
Elodia Castillo
Vasquez, Comundich,
Guatemala
“As an indigenous
people we fight
for the right to
our water and
hope that people
understand that
water must be
respected.”
Nandakumaran
Pullare, Ministry of
Water Resources,
India
“Some areas in India
have serious problems
with groundwater.
We try to advise on
sustainable ways for
groundwater management.
Community
participation is very
important.”
Jennifer Membreno,
Wateraid, US
“We bring decent
toilets and clean
water to those with
no access. I hope to
continue to build
alliances with the
private sector to
reach more people
globally.”
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Publisher: Torgny Holmgren
stockholm waterfront daily • 26–31 AUGUST, 2018
SIWI EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: Maria Sköld
Graphic Designer: Marianne Engblom
Tips and comments?
Contact us at: waterfront@siwi.org
WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF
Görrel Espelund, Andreas Karlsson
and Nick Chipperfield
Photography: Thomas Henrikson
and Mikael Ullén