AquaFed fully supports the[ call from the Valuing Water Initiative](https://valuingwaterinitiative.org/empowering-youth-for-a-resilient-future/) that any new agenda to increase resilience to climate change must put youth at its heart.

Young people have to be given greater responsibility at all stages of policy development and implementation as a means of achieving more sustainable outcomes.  

This was one the most important things we learned during our work to lead this year’s [World Water Day](https://www.worldwaterday.org/) campaign on the value of water.

The call from the Valuing Water Initiative, which is backed by the Netherlands government, sets out clearly our view and those of other experts who understand how young people should be supported to be more involved in actions and decisions on water and sanitation.

The Initiative will soon be launching a Youth Engagement Action Plan and AquaFed is looking forward to giving our full support.


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Empowering youth for a resilient future

Increasing women’s participation in the water sector and achieving true equality means needs a mix of practical measures taken on the ground backed with system and culture change.

These were the main points made by Nerea Plaza, Head of 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Projects at Agbar, when she represented AquaFed at the [EU High Level Conference on Water and Gender Equality](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpFsnvUCT1k) this week. 

Nerea explained Agbar’s educational program to promote technological and scientific vocation among girls – planning to work with 10,000 girls over 3 years. “If you want more women in the sector, we have to work from the ground up and tackle the gap in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths)”, she said.

Another key point she made was in relation to the solidarity fund that Agbar offers to low-income families to help pay their water bills. 

Nerea said: “We need gender-based KPIs but there are legal restrictions on the data we need, so it is really difficult to understand how effective the social tariffs are in supporting women.

“When we are facing a poverty situation, which usually affects more to women, we need time and a holistic approach to cover basic needs of the whole family so that they can focus on improving their job situation.”

This point on data was strongly supported by Lesha Witmer, of the Women for Water Partnership, who was moderating the conference.

The event was co-convened by The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2021, UNESCO – WWAP and Women for Water Partnership.


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Increasing womens' participation in the water sector

Businesses in water and sanitation need robust tools and guidance to help ensure they provide the best quality services and delivering the human right to water and sanitation.

In some countries, there is a lack of effective regulation and laws that clarify the role of public and private service providers on these human rights, leaving them to have to self-regulate or face extremely difficult operating conditions.
Sadly, the effects of a lack of clarity on rules and regulations can be felt most by users. 

And considering that SDG6 is not on track, and the growing negative impacts of climate change, there is little time left to wait for governments and authorities to provide the necessary frameworks to help ensure access to water and sanitation for all.

The comments came during a recent [webinar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARFMlZMzR6Q) held by the HumanRight2Water organisation, about the role of business and the human right to water and sanitation. The webinar was about how tools such as the HumanRight2Water [Checklist for Businesses](http://humanright2water.org/2133-2/) can help private sector organisations.

Criselle Alejandro, Senior Vice-President of Balibago Waterworks, Philippines, presented a case study on how her company works within the frameworks available, and puts the human right to water front and foremost of her business objectives.

Pedro Arrojo, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to water and sanitation, also presented his views at the webinar.

AquaFed called on him and other leaders in the water sector to clarify the tools they believe are most helpful on the human rights.




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Businesses' role on the human right to water

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