One of the major accomplishments of the World Water Council is its contribution to increasing the awareness of global water issues and the political mobilization it has reached through the World Water Forum. Serving as stepping-stones towards global collaboration on water problems, the Forum is a unique platform where the water community and the policy and decision makers from all regions of the world can link together, debate and attempt to find solutions to achieve water security.

The Council's World Water Forum, organized every three years in close collaboration with the authorities of the hosting country, is the largest international event in the field of water. It primarily serves four main purposes:

• To raise the importance of water on the political agenda
• To support the deepening of discussions towards the solution of international water issues in the 21st century
• To formulate concrete proposals and bring their importance to the world's attention
• To generate political commitment

Over the years, the Forum has led the movement from the World Water Vision, a unique prospective exercise on the future state of global water resources whose results were presented at the 2nd Forum, to the establishment of concrete actions and commitments derived from the 3rd Forum.

With the 4th World Water Forum, on the path to the achievement of the water-related Millennium Development Goals, whose deadline was set as 2015, the Council will look to establish mechanisms of cooperation and coordination to transform a global vision into concrete actions that integrate local knowledge.

6th World Water Forum

Marseille, France, March 2012

www.cawater-info.net/6wwf/

5th World Water Forum:
“Bridging Divides for Water”

Istanbul, Turkey, 15-22 March 2009

This main theme underlines the geographical crossroads between Europe and Asia, the Middle East and Africa, North and South, but also the conceptual barriers among various water cultures, between rich and poor, between developed and developing regions of the world. The concept of “bridging divides” also implies creating enhanced understanding and improved information exchange between and amongst water users, decision makers, experts and water practitioners, at local, national, regional and global levels. Building bridges for exchange between these contrasting perspectives will provide an opportunity to rise above differences and bring various stakeholders and sectors closer together. Finally, this theme also calls upon the international water community to make concrete proposals so that better management of the resource may contribute to achieving the entirety of the Millennium Development Goals.

www.cawater-info.net/5wwf/

4th World Water Forum:
“Local actions for a global challenge”

Mexico, 16-22 March 2006

The objective of the 4th Forum is to come up with concrete measures and indicators that will create the enabling environment to boost progress on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

www.cawater-info.net/4wwf/

3rd World Water Forum

Kyoto, Shiga and Osaka, Japan, 16-23 March 2003

The 3rd World Water Forum took the debate a step further also within the context of the new commitments of meeting the goals set forth at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in New York (2000), the International Freshwater Conference in Bonn (2001) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002). The large number of participants ensured that a variety of stakeholders and opinions were represented aiming at accepting differences and .nding a common way forward.

http://sic.icwc-aral.uz/releases/eng/019.htm

2nd World Water Forum

The Hague, The Netherlands, 17-22 March 2000

The Second World Water Forum generated a lot of debate on the Water Vision for the Future and the associated Framework for Action, dealing with the state and ownership of water resources, their development potential, management and financing models, and their impact on poverty, social, cultural and economic development and the environment. The Ministerial Declaration identifed meeting basic water needs, securing food supply, protecting ecosystems, sharing water resources, managing risks, valuing water and governing water wisely as the key challenges for our direct future.

1st World Water Forum

Marrakech, Morocco, 21-25 March 1997

To encourage the development of such positive international trends, to support the deepening of discussions towards the solution of international water issues in the 21st century, to formulate concrete proposals and to bring their importance to the world's attention, the World Water Forum was proposed by the World Water Council. At this Forum the WWC was given the mandate to develop a vision for Water, Life and the Environment in the 21st Century.