The United Nations World Water Development Report 2024, entitled “Water for Prosperity and Peace” launched on World Water Day this year highlights how developing and maintaining a secure and equitable water future underpins prosperity and peace for all. For now, roughly half of the world's population is experiencing threatening water scarcity for at least part of the year, while climate change increases its intensity and reach, with more severe droughts and floods becoming regular occurrences in both hemispheres.
Taiwan is in the middle of this climate crisis in which such cycles of droughts and floods are gradually becoming the norm. The Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has gone out of its way implementing Taiwan’s critical national policy - Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program: Water Environments for the past eight years and has achieved some preliminary results in terms of water and development, water and safety, and water and environment. It helps not only to better address more severe challenges to come in the future, but also to create a high-quality water environment with stable water supply, flood resilience and environmental friendliness.
The international forum of 2024 Taiwan International Water Week on the theme of “Water Towards Safety, Sustainable Environment and Prosperity” will be joined by experts and scholars from home and abroad. In addition to sharing Taiwan's achievements in water resources management with the world, there will also be in-depth discussions on ‘AI-enabled Applications in Disaster Prevention’, ‘Nature-based Solutions and How to Create an Ecological Environment’, and ‘High-Tech Water Supply Strategies and Water Treatment Technology’. It is hoped that cross-field exchanges will spark much innovation that could be turned to new ways of thinking and strategic blueprints for the sustainable development of water resources in the future.
