Under the theme of “Sharing Water”, the 8th World Water Forum was held in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil from 18th to 23rd March 2018.

In collaboration with UN Environment GEMS/Water, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank, National Water Research Center (Egypt), SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation (Brazil), WEPA Secretariat played a role as one of the Session Coordinators to organize an official thematic session on 21st March under Theme 5 on “Understanding Water Quality from Ridge to Reef”. Showcasing several case studies, including transboundary waters, groundwater systems and small island states, this session examined examples of how water quality data can be used to build more robust integrated water resource management models. This includes understanding the competing uses of water, the dominant sources of pollution, who pays and benefits from pollution abatement, and the importance of sharing information. Chairperson of WEPA Advisory Committee, Prof. Mitsumasa Okada, was invited as a panelist to this session. He provided insightful thoughts and ideas based on his accumulated experience and lessons learned from WEPA activities to address one of the key questions raised by session organizers: “What emerging solutions could be proposed or recommended to control water quality? How can we assess its feasibility? How can we provide incentives to reduce pollutant discharges?”

In addition to the above event, WEPA Secretariat also provided significant inputs to the Asia-Pacific Regional Process Report with a theme on “People – Integrated Sanitation for All”, together with Japan Sanitation Consortium (JSC), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and WaterAid India. WEPA Secretariat also co-organized and delivered a speech at the Regional Process Workshop on “Towards Improving Sanitation and Wastewater Management: Challenges and Good Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region”, held on 19th March 2018.

The WEPA’s activities were showcased by posters and demonstration of a Johkasou system model at the Japan Pavilion of the Ministry of the Environment. On this occasion, our new “WEPA Outlook on Water Environmental Management in Asia 2018” was officially launched at the Forum. Nearly 700 copies of the Outlook, including both hard copies and CD, were distributed at the Japan Pavilion.