The Second International High-Level Conference on "the International Decade for Action Water for Sustainable Development" was held on June 10 -13 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Tina Tan Shared Innovative Solution
Under the collaboration programme, "Innovators in Change", hosted by GWP China and UNICEF China, Tina TAN, one of the innovators, was invited by UNICEF, in cooperation with the Committee on Youth Affairs and Sports, Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and Committee of Environmental Protection, to be present at the Youth and Children's Water and Climate Forum as part of the Dushanbe International Water Conference, Water Action Decade "Water for Sustainable Development."
Tina shared "New Functional Material for Atmospheric Water Generation Products and Solutions", an air-to-water solution that supports SDG6 for children and families impacted by climate change.
This technology is equiped with self-developed new materials for surface enhanced adsorption that can produce large quantities of clean water for the air in a portable and transportable way without water source restrictions. It is a new direction to solve the crisis of human drinking water shortage. It has already achieved a cost close to that of desalination on the end-user side, and further to reduce the cost to half that of desalination through mass application in the Middle East region, so as to promote it on a large scale and enable it to be applied in Africa, India and other vast regions lacking pure and safe drinking water.
In Dushanbe, the Youth & Children's Water and Climate Forum brought together youth representatives and decision-makers from around the world to discuss and prioritize how governments and young people can work together in an inclusive way to accelerate the achievement of the water-related goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Youth for Water and Climate Network aimed to build the capacity of the young people to address climate challenges, advocate for youth-led water and climate actions and implement and monitor the Tajik Youth for Water and Climate Plan.
The global young innovators, in Tajikistan, identified key barriers, challenges, opportunities, and solutions related to youth engagement in water and climate initiatives. From a youth perspective, they evaluated the progress of selected countries in meeting the voluntary commitments made at the UN Water Conference in 2023. It also created a space for all junior scientists to share their journeys and learnings to be explored for potential piloting and scaling up in different countries, while advocating with governments to create an enabling environment for innovation.
Youth delegates from different countries and high-level guests from the Ministry of Education and Science of Tajikistan, Committee on Environmental Protection of Tajikistan, UNICEF, Kingdom of the Netherlands, European Union, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, USAID, JICA, UNIFY and other key experts gathered to expand the youth for water and climate network during the Forum.