Denpasar: Hosting the 10th World Water Forum is a diplomatic victory for Indonesia, and this year’s event will be different from its previous editions, according to Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono.
“(The 10th World Water Forum) is Indonesia’s diplomatic victory on the international stage for water management,” he said after attending the Segara Kerthi (water purification) ritual here on Saturday.
This year’s forum will be different because its first agenda after the opening ceremony will be a summit. The minister highlighted that the five previous WWF editions he attended began with a panel forum after the opening ceremony.
“We will organize a summit. There will be 11 heads of state (participating in the summit). After the opening ceremony, the President will preside over the summit,” he informed.
During the summit, President Joko Widodo will listen to the views of all summit members regarding water resources management, Hadimuljono said.
Further, one of the outputs of the forum will be a ministerial-level declaration. The minister emphasized that the declaration, drafted with the assistance of UNESCO, is the result of the hard work carried out by Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry.
The ministerial-level declaration will also have a compendium of concrete deliverable in its appendix, he added.
Hadimuljono said that Indonesia aims to push for an agreement on three things during the forum, namely the development of the Center of Excellence on Water and Climate Resilience (COE), the streamlining of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), and the declaration of World Lakes Day.
