“The foundation of the prosperity of nations and regions is water,” observed Yoshirō Mori, former Prime Minister of Japan, on the opening day of the 2022 Asia Pacific Water Summit (APWS), held in the ‘Groundwater Conservation City’ of Kumamoto from 23-24 April.

The Asia-Pacific Water Summit, also known as the 4th APWS, was already held on April 23-24, 2022, in Kumamoto City, Japan. The event brought together high-level delegates from the Asia-Pacific region, including heads of state and representatives from international organizations, to discuss a variety of water-related issues. GWP actively participated in the conference, providing insights on water and its relation to youth, gender, climate, governance, finance, and the SDGs.

Real Water Savings (REWAS) in agriculture online training for Indonesia was the latest collaboration between GWP-SEA Regional Secretariat and FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Real Water Savings (REWAS) is a simple tool to estimate the potential for generating real water savings from various agronomic, water management and technical practices in irrigated agriculture. The tool was developed by Future Water as part of RAP’s developing regional program on water scarcity in Asia and the Pacific. So far successful trainings have been held in Nepal, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Thailand and Iran, with very positive feedback from participants.

Picked up the theme of provision of clean and safe water for emergency response and remote areas, the third webinar from the series was held on 7 April 2022, and invited GWP-SEA partner’ FONTO DE VIVO as the resource person. The webinar focuses on the regional issue in dealing with natural disasters and the existence of a high number of remote areas, and how the innovative technology from our partner can provide a solution for these situations.

The Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF) Webinar is held once every four months, co-organized by the APWF secretariat and its member. The 13th of the series was held on 2 March 2022, picked the topic from the 2021 GWP and UNEP-DHI joint progress report on the IWRM in the Asia-Pacific Region. The report provides the basis for further regional collaboration to take action on the critical next steps needed to work towards achieving full IWRM implementation by 2030.

In 2022, GWP-SEA Regional Secretariat decided to develop a calendar of event to ensure all the activities in the region can be implemented accordingly.

By the end of 2020, GWP PAN-Asia has successfully implemented the PAN-ASIA SDG Learning Exchange on Monitoring and Reporting of SDG Indicator 6.5.1 Degree of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Implementation. The report has been finalized in 2021 and therefore the network discussed the outreach Plan of the report, as well as another regional agendas.

The water discovery industry is known for its risks. It is often difficult to satisfy the needs of both communities and economic activities. Furthermore, water contamination, salinity, and pollution have increased the scarcity of finding water that is available for human consumption according to WHO standards without the need to undertake an additional treatment. Fortunately, with improved technology and methodology, we can now found water in difficult environment.

Indonesia Water Coalition was formed with a mission to improve water management in Indonesia. The Founding Members of the Coalition are Yayasan Aliansi Wali Sumber Daya Air Indonesia (Alliance for Water Stewardship Indonesia), PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, Danone Indonesia, Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (The Nature Conservancy Indonesia), PT L'Oréal Indonesia, PT Multi Bintang Indonesia, PT Nestlé Indonesia, dan PT Unilever Indonesia. Following several discussions, the charter was signed through an online ceremony on the 29 January 2021. To show the coalition’s commitment, a number of events successfully held.

The 1st from the series focused on 'Monitoring ground & infrastructure movements from space' online webinar was held on 27 May 2021. The webinar was organized by GWP-SEA, in collaboration with Viromii and Detektia. Detektia S. L. is a spin-off of the Laboratory of Topography and Geomatics of the Civil Engineering School of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) and has been created with the aim of applying the DInSAR technique to problems of stability and maintenance of dams and road infrastructure. Detektia is a DInSAR based company that aspires to revolutionize the control and maintenance of large engineering works, helping to create safer, more efficient and more durable infrastructures.