The video illuminates the environmental cost of food waste and presents a comprehensive overview of the negative effects of wasting food. A tremendous amount of water can be saved by reducing losses and waste of food. By curbing food waste, energy is saved and the emission of greenhouse gases can be reduced. Equally important, consumers can save a great deal of money by not letting their food go to waste.

The video will be screened during the UNEP Side Event “The Global Environmental Impact of Food Waste”. Read more on the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit website.

Watch the video directly

Watch the video in different languages

• German
• Spanish
• French
• Chinese
• Russian
• Arabic
• Portuguese

Videos can be shared and embedded. For journalists, we offer downloadable broadcast quality footage. The World Water Week content can be found under “World Water Week” in the menu, and includes upcoming live webcasts, background stories for journalists and coverage of the various key events as they happen through the week, including the Stockholm Water Prize. The full schedule of the 2013 World Water Week live webcasts is available on the World Water Week website.

SIWI is tasked with the overall project management, and contributes with policy research, outreach efforts and reporting. SIWI and the buying companies have formed a Management Group (MG) that meets regularly over the course of the project to plan and monitor implementation in close touch with the Indian consultant, cKinetics. The consultant’s role is to identify saving opportunities, build capacities, and provide technical assistance to the Indian factories throughout the programme.

The model that this project works on showcases opportunities for resource-savings, which lead to increased profitability margins. The participating units will then receive training and technical sup-port to achieve such savings on both the short- and long-term.

The SWAR programme involves 16 factories in the National Capital Region of Delhi, of which seven dyeing and printing and nine garment units; the factories are spread out over an area of 2,000 km2. In Rajasthan, the Jaipur Integrated Texcraft Park Ltd (JITP or ‘Jaipur Bloc’) is a new and aspiring state-of-the-art textile park set up some 25 km outside Jaipur with support from the Government of India’s ‘Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks’.

As members of the JITP, 13 hand-block printing factories and four partly new and relatively small dyeing factories have signed up to the SWAR programme (the JITP also counts as a SWAR unit). These are prepared to move and start operating as soon as all due consents are in place and the Park officially opened (tentatively in September); some block printing units are however already in full swing. The Park and its facilities being new, assessments, baseline figures, systems for tracking and measuring resource consumption, equipment and savings advice and targets all look different compared with the Delhi factories. The programme is hence divided into four different segments: Delhi dyeing units; Delhi garment units; Jaipur dyeing units; and Jaipur block print units, respectively. These have by necessity been treated differently along with the diverge conditions and needs applying to them.

Both the financing and technical models of this programme have so far received significant attention in Sweden, India and internationally.

Project Info

• Project Team: Rami Abdelrahman, Jenny Grönwall
• Partners: Indiska, KappAhl, Lindex and 39 of their suppliers and sub-suppliers in Delhi and Jaipur.
• Consultant: cKinetics
• Co-financed by: project partners and Sida.
• Timeline: 2013-2014

Text: Ms. Sanna Gustafsson, Communications Officer, SIWI

2013 World Water Week – What’s New?

The UN World Water Day on March 22 has become an important moment for actors around the world to advocate the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This year, hundreds of events were held worldwide to raise awareness on water issues. Here in Stockholm, the Swedish Water House at SIWI marked the occasion with a seminar that brought together the leading minds and organisations working with water in Sweden, including the Global Water Partnership, FAO Nordic office, UNDP Sweden, UNEP Sweden, Swedish National Commission for UNESCO and Water Aid.

Development Under Water Duress by Ms. Chibesa Pensulo, Programme Manager, Knowledge Services, SIWI

The most arid country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia is a country fully aware of its need to manage its water resources efficiently. This year, Namibia’s bulk water utility, the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) has entered into a one-year collaborative programme with SIWI together with the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) to build local capacity to better address some of the country’s water sector challenges.

The year of water cooperation
Today on March 22 we celebrate the UN World Water Day to highlight the importance of sustainable management of freshwater resources and tackle the water related challenges we face globally.

Our blue planet is at a most interesting crossroad. The physical water situation is in quite dire straits; the demand for freshwater is increasing rapidly due to both population and economic growth. The requirements to produce more food and energy, as well as the variability of water availability, are putting our water resources under significant stress. There is little progress towards the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

We are also seeing strongly increasing water demand from areas that have been less thirsty in the past. Demand from manufacturing industries is projected to quadruple to 2050, and water use by both thermal electricity generation and households is set to more than double.

At the same time, attention to water issues also seems to be rising up the charts. It is hard to measure, but I hope and believe, that global water awareness actually is increasing quicker than global water demand!

In a survey to member states compiled by the UN on priority areas for post-2015 goals; food, water and energy was a distinct top trio. For the second year in a row, water supply crisis was among the top three global risks in the yearly survey by World Economic Forum. We are also seeing how water issues are being prioritized by actors outside of the traditional water community, most significantly from the food and energy sectors.

Amidst all this, there is significant talking and thinking going on to develop new wise ambitions that will support the movement towards a sustainable and desirable world for all – the so called post-2015 development agenda. I am optimistic that the newfound awareness about the importance of water will be converted into far-reaching goals and targets on water as a resource, as a right and as a service.

I am also seeing clear indications of both the need for and the openness to new collaborations and ideas. The post-2015 goals are being discussed as inclusively as our electronic means of communication permits. We do see more cooperation emerging between governments, the private sector, academia and civil society. There are even cases where common ground for collaboration for a more water wise world is found between competitors. It is of course most fitting that all these efforts are emerging during the International Year of Water Cooperation, and we at SIWI look forward to contributing even further towards improved cooperation and more concrete outcomes through the World Water Week on the same theme in September in Stockholm.

Torgny Holmgren,
Executive Director, Stockholm International Water Institute

The 2012 World Water Week, zooming in on Water and Food Security, generated extraordinary media interest and spread SIWI’s findings on issues such as food waste reduction, early warning systems against natural disasters, transboundary water implications of international land acquisitions, and much more.

The 2012 World Water Week, zooming in on Water and Food Security, generated extraordinary media interest and spread SIWI’s findings on issues such as food waste reduction, early warning systems against natural disasters, transboundary water implications of international land acquisitions, and much more.

Download the 2012 Annual Report to read the full story about last year’s accomplishments!

The seminar will focus on water cooperation and specifically cross-sectoral collaboration between the private sector, the public sector and the scientific community. The seminar includes speeches from experts within the water community as well as private sector representatives.

• When? March 22, 08.30-13.00
• Where? Grand Hôtel, Stockholm
• How? The seminar is free of charge, but pre-registration is needed.

*The seminar will be held in Swedish.

Register here!