Right at the heart of Namibia, “the land of the brave”, in the capital Windhoek was the venue for the 7th SADC Multi- stakeholder Water Dialogue held from the 29th to the 30th of September, 2015. Held under the theme, “Watering Development in SADC: The central role of water in driving industrialization” the dialogue was attended by 150 delegates from across the region representing the water sector, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), cooperating and development partners, academia, the media, and other relevant stakeholders from non-water entities (energy, agriculture, industrialization). The delegates, of which a good number were youth were brought together to deliberate the role that water will play in driving industrialization in the region.
“Water, sanitation and hygiene are absolutely critical for resilient societies. Whether you are talking about resilience to diseases like Covid-19 or resilience to climate change. And for resilience, you need a strong sector and for good water decisions to be made”, says Virginia Newton-Lewis, Director of Policy and Advocacy at WaterAid Sweden.