ONE UN - Water-Smart Cities Building Urban Resilience Through Capacity Development (WUF13)

Well, good afternoon.
Ten to our side event on water smart cities, building urban resilience through capacity development.
It's a great pleasure to welcome you today at the World Urban Forum in Baku, in this beautiful Baku for this important occasion to bring together leaders and practitioners working at the intersection of water resilience, urban sustainability and capacity development.
This is the fourth day of the forum and I've never seen such a synergy and I see also around the room that synergy.
I see many young faces, interested faces in our discussion.
As cities continue to grow and climate pressures intensify, water is increasingly becoming one of the defining issues shaping urban resilience and providing a lot of challenges as well.
From water scarcity and flooding to infrastructure stress and governance challenges, Cities all around the world today must navigate increasingly interconnected tasks.
At the same time, these challenges also create an opportunity.
So let's keep our opportunities.
And I'd like to start with an optimism.
So this opportunity gives us the chance to rethink how cities plan, govern, invest, and build capacities for more resilient and inclusive urban futures.
The title of our event is Water Smart Cities.
And a water smart city is not simply a city with advanced water infrastructure.
It's a city by definition and we'd like to keep this definition in our mind.
It is a city that understands water as a strategic foundation for resilience, public health, economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and above all, social equity and equality.
Of course, water, smart city builds the capacities, partnerships, governance systems.
It provides innovative solutions needed to manage water sustainability not only for today, but also for future generations as it lies in the very core of the idea of sustainability.
This is the reason why we are here today at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research through UNR Global Water Academy and CIFAR Global Network, which is our network of training centers which are our implementing partners across the world, we are working to strengthen capacities globally while connecting local action with international knowledge platforms and partnerships.
Within the broader UN system, UNITAR is proud to co lead actively works of UN Water system wide strategy, particularly through the SDG six Capacity Development Initiative, together with our partners, UNESCO and UNSA, the UN Water Conference Academic Hub, together with our partners, United Nations University and UNSA and the interactive dialogue on investments for Water in preparation for the 2026 UN Water Conference together with our partners, World Bank and EFT.
These platforms increasingly recognize that achieving water resilience is about infrastructure investments.
It's about investing in people, institutions, empowering industries, collaborating with them, and creating or improving the governance systems.
I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Vasri Water and amelioration System Institute, Scientific Institute of Azerbijan for the excellent collaboration in organizing this session together with Unitar This important side event will not only bring us to discuss, but also it will institutionalize a very strong partnership together with Vasri or in Azerbijani Smite.
We see this as a one time engagement that will pave the way for a long partnership and collaboration.
Today's session brings together perspectives from the government, international organizations, academia, industry, reflecting the kind of multi stakeholder collaboration that we need to achieve SDG six.
We're truly honored to have distinguished speakers, keynote speakers with us today.
We look forward to a very rich and inspiring discussion.
With that, it's now my great pleasure to begin our opening session.
And if I may, please, Mr.
Igar Gurmadov, I'd like to welcome warmly Deputy Chairman of the Azerbijan State Water Resources Agency for the opening remarks, please.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Bu guidance, G.
Thank you very much.
Ding, ladies and gentlemen, honored representatives of international organizations.
Dear colleagues and guests.
I am very pleased to welcome to you to this important event at World Urban Forum 13.
This platform is not just for sharing ideas, but also a great opportunity to build a shared vision for the future of our cities.
Today, cities around the world face many major challenges.
At the same time, rapid urbanization, climate change, water scarcity, flood risks, overload, infrastructure, and environmental sustainability.
At the center of all these challenges lies one key issues.
Water is no longer just a public utility.
Water is a matter of national security.
Water is a matter of economic development.
Water is a matter of social well being, public health, and the very future of our cities.
The 21st century, the concept of sustainable city is not built on roads and buildings alone.
This is why Azerbijan has entered a stage of systematic transformation in its water sector over recent years.
Under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, water resources management has become a strategic priority of state policy.
In institutional reforms, the creation of unified management model and a long term planning approach have set the foundation for a new area in this field.
A key part of this transformation is the national water strategy for 2024, 2040.
Today, the national water strategy is not just a sector document for us.
This strategy is a roadmap that defines Azerbijan long term vision for water security.
The main goals of the strategy are protecting water resources, managing them efficiently, reducing water losses, building resilient infrastructure, and strengthening adaptation to climate change.
A point we value deeply here is managing urban water systems as a whole.
In a modern city, drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater should no longer be thought of as separate systems, but as a single urban ecosystem.
From the perspective, the state program for 2026, 2035 on improving water supply, stormwater, and wastewater systems in Baku and the Acheron Peninsula is of special importance.
This program marks the beginning of a new phase in Azerbaijan's largest urban area.
Within the program, our main targets are increasing the reliability of water supply, minimizing drinking water losses, expanding modern stormwater and wastewater infrastructure, and most importantly, make Baku and Apsheron more resilient to climate change.
We believe that in the 21st century, the development of cities is not judged by how minor resource they consume.
Instead, it's defined by how ready they are for climate risks, how well they minimize water losses, and how successful they trade wastewater to bring it back into the economy.
Azerbaijan places great importance on international partnerships and knowledge exchange in this area.
We all know that none of the challenge in the water sector can be solved alone.
These issues require global cooperation, technologies transfer, scientific approaches, and institutional coordination.
Honor it participants.
Our goal is not only to solve today's problems.
Our goal is to build safer, more resilient, and more livable cities for future generations.
I am confident that today's discussions will contribute to the information of new ideas, new partnerships, and concrete initiatives.
Dear friends, thank you for your attention, and I wish the event great success.
Thank you very much.
Excellency, good mato, thank you very much.
You bring an extensive experience across economic management, public administration, development, finance, institutional governance.
Over the course of your career, we know that you have held very strong senior leadership positions.
Your experience, particularly in partnership building through EFD and through other international organizations is impressive.
We really appreciate your presence here.
This gives us a great strength and an impetus to continue.
Thank you very much.
With this, I'd like to invite Mr.
Alex Mejia, the Director of Division for People and Social Development and the Managing Director of the CFA Global Network at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
Mr.
Mejia leads the Unar's work on strengthening capacities for sustainable development through innovation, multi stakeholder partnership and learning.
Under his leadership, Unitar has significantly expanded his engagement with cities, universities, training institutions worldwide.
And let me with this, let me invite Mr.
Alex Mia, who is unfortunately in Geneva and he will address today through Zoom.
I hope the Zoom connection is all set and Alex, you can hear me.
Good morning, Alex.
Can you hear us? I can hear you.
Thank you very much.
Alex, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, indeed.
I have two messages to the dear friends and colleagues, and the first one is rather simple on behalf of the United Nations system, US Water and UTR, the agency that we represent.
A big thank you.
And a big thank you because without the support of partners and without your presence, this event wouldn't be possible.
I take to heart this expression of gratitude because you will understand that to actually address the problems of 2.2 million people, the estimated amount, some people think even more.
The estimated amount of people, the size of the population group that doesn't have proper access to water and to running water, has to be important.
So when we come here together under the auspices of the government of Azerbaijan and its specialized agency and authority on water, we can only express gratitude for allowing us to have this opportunity to exchange knowledge, to issue a rallying cry, perhaps, or what needs to be done and most important to focus on capacity building on the need to build capacity in governments, in civil society, and in everyone, including people living in the small communities that lack access, particularly rural communities, that has to be important, as I say.
So that's my first message.
But the second, I hope is as important, is to put this in perspective of the sustainable of SDG number six, to be specific, the sustainable development goal number six.
Um, let me say two things here.
SEG number six will remain important for us because access to water and sanitation is something that has been unfortunately overdue, postponed in several places, particularly in the developing world.
I come from Latin America, I come from Ecuador.
And I have to tell you, which is something that I'm not proud of, that unfortunately, sometimes urgency kills importance.
And I'm sure you have heard the phrase, when there are budget challenges when there are emergencies, when there are political decisions that go beyond the day to day operation of a government, as I said, particularly in developing nations where resources are scarce, issues pertaining to water, the management of water systems go to the bar border.
This shouldn't be SDG six calls for proper financing of what we do, proper public policy for what needs to be done, and most important than anything.
To build systems that are resilience and that grant access to all the people that lack access to running water or to proper sources of water.
So as part of the 2030 agenda, SDG six calls for, in this particular case, the proper capacity amongst all the stakeholders so they know what to do.
And in this sense, we are joining with the State government of Azerbijan joining forces to do exactly that.
UTR has launched rather recently in coordination with UN Water, the whole UN system institution on Water, the Unitar Global Water Academy.
I'm very pleased to tell you that the person that is hosting us today in front of you very soon again, doctor Evrojnan Sokuu' also the director of the Unitar Global Border Academy.
So to conclude, You can count on our commitment to build capacity around the world and to begin with all of you there, stakeholders, but also some practitioners, some leaders, thought leaders in this field that can join forces with us to do what is necessary.
Training will remain at the core of what governments needs to empower themselves with to avoid the things of the past, the things that I just mentioned.
Water should not be sent to the back border.
Water will remain a priority, and we must act accordingly.
So again, thank you to all of you And as part of the sustainable development goals and SDG six, we call attention to all stakeholders to give this proper priority.
With that, from Geneva, as I have to say, unfortunately, I am in Switzerland for some urgent matters, but I would have loved to be in back with all of you.
With this, thank you again and my best auspices for success in this event.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you very much, dear Alex, Mr.
Alex Mejia.
I'm sure that there will be a next time where we will have you here because this important event today will actually open a long road of partnership.
Thank you so much for your remarks.
Dear guests, I'd like to move to the keynote session.
With your permission, if I may invite miss Zena Pudroi and His Excellency Ambassador Louis Gagos to the podio.
So we will Start with our keynote session.
So please, maybe if we upload.
I Welcome, miss Thea Per OPI.
Thank you very much all the way from Turkey.
I know that you have very important engagements as well as your longstanding engagement and international community in private industries, your leadership in also global civil society, NGO engagements.
Mia Pure OI is internationally recognized for her leadership in sustainable industry, innovation, responsible business transformation, and inclusive development.
Beyond the private sector leadership, she actively contributes to numerous international and civil society platforms and has played an important role in advancing dialogue around sustainability, diversity, and global cooperation.
Through her professional leadership and philanthropic initiatives, she has championed programs supporting education, entrepreneurship, social innovation, local development, and sustainable futures.
We are truly delighted and honored to welcome you today.
Thank you very much.
It's a great privilege.
So the floor is yours, please.
Thank you, A brew, Mr.
Ambassador, and distinguished guest, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great honor to be with you at this one UN side event.
My sincere thanks again to UN Habitat for bringing us together at this important Congress and to doctor Abrujankou and the UTR Global Water Academy for the invitation, and to Wasri Azerbijan's Water and Amelioration Scientific Research Institute for being such a generous host in this remarkable city, Baku.
Let me begin with what I believe is one of the defining paradox of our century.
We are building cities faster than ever, yet we are managing the water that makes those cities livable more poorly than ever.
Let us be clear.
We cannot talk resilient cities without talking about water.
Because sustainable cities are simply not possible without reliable access to water and sanitation systems.
By 2050, nearly 70% of the world's population will live in the cities.
This is not a distant projection, in fact, it is a transformation all unfolding across every geography, every economy, every level of development.
Yet while urban populations expand rapidly, our water systems are not evolving at the same pace.
What we are facing is not simply a water challenge.
Unfortunately, it is a systemic urban challenge.
The numbers are stark.
Urban water demand is projected to rise dramatically in the coming decades.
Nearly 1.9 billion urban residents already face meaningful water scarcity.
And more than 80% of all wastewater generated globally is still discharged into the environment untreated.
This is not primarily a technical failure.
It is a governance failure, a planning failure, and frankly, a priority failure, as mentioned before from Alex, yes, because water is not a supporting element of urban development.
It's a foundational component of urban systems.
It shapes how homes function, how cities absorb climate shocks, how economies operate, and ultimately, how societies remain resilient.
I come to this conversation not only as a policy advocate, but also as someone leading an industrial enterprise in Turkey, Cale Group, operating across construction materials, ceramics, manufacturing of all types and building products and we are producing in Turkey and operating internationally.
So from where I sit, the relationship between water and urban development is not abstract.
It is operational.
In our production facilities, we experienced the pressure of tightening water availability firsthand.
We are actively investing in reducing water intensity in our processes, increasing wastewater recycling and reuse, and redesigning parts of our production and supply systems through a more circular lens.
This is something that we have to do and for a better living, also for a better industry infrastructure, and of course, for a better resilient cities.
It is directly linked to the business resilience.
It affects operational continuity, supply chain stability, and investment decisions, and increasingly long term competitiveness.
The companies and the cities that are not addressing this problem today will face profound disruption within the next decade.
Allow me also to briefly refer to another dimension of my work.
I also work a lot in NGOs.
I try to uh, you know, make policy advocacy.
As Bro mentioned, I'm supporting a social entrepreneurship program in Turkey.
And I am a board the president of the board of well known think tank in Turkey.
So, But also, I'm here in my stability as a global chair of G 100 Smart and Sustainable Cities Wink.
I work alongside women leaders from across policy, industry, academia, and communities to advance cities that are not only technologically advanced, but also socially inclusive, climate resilient, and human centered.
Here also in this room, we have our global chair, G 100, misses Hartini from Malaysia, who is also working very hard on our goal, but also very hard on eradicating poverty across countries.
While coming here on the way, we were discussing how difficult in some countries to reach water even in hospitals like women giving birth and cannot have clean water.
And so it is a very major problem, and if it didn't that global dialogue, one conclusion emerges very clearly as we discussed among G hundred.
Water is not a standalone issue.
It sits at the center of how we design, build, and sustain resilient urban systems.
For decades, urban water management was organized in silos and water supply here, water, wastewater there, stormwater somewhere else entirely, different institutions, different mandates and different budgets.
And too often no common vision at all.
The concept of integrated urban water management, which this event rightly centers, represents a fundamental departure from that fragmented model.
It tells us that water supply, water treatment, and stormwater management are not separate problems.
We see a lot nowadays since many years also climate change problems in all cities.
I know that two days before there was a very strong storm here in Bach as well.
So a There are one interconnected system and they must be planned, governed, and financed accordingly.
For industry, this changes everything.
It means designing buildings and materials that support water reuse from the outset when we design our facilities, when we design our products as well.
It means aligning infrastructure decisions with urban planning, not treating them as a separate conversations.
It means recognizing that the housing development, a manufacturing plant, and a municipal authority may all depend on the same watershed and therefore share a common responsibility.
At the same time, climate change is accelerating the urgency of this transformation.
We are witnessing more frequent floods, more severe droughts, and increasing unpredictability in water availability.
Cities sit at the center of these risks.
Which means water is no longer only a sustainability issue.
It is also a climate resilience issue.
The encouraging part is this.
The tools to respond already exist, nature based solutions, smart monitoring system, water sensitive urban design, circular water frameworks, real time data systems capable of predicting demand patterns and reducing losses is much easier right now with all the AI infrastructure, AI development and technology development.
There are no longer experimental concepts.
They are proven.
Approaches for industry and cities alike.
This is not a challenge.
It is also a major opportunity, an opportunity to innovate, to collaborate, to develop solutions that segment long term urban resilience.
But none of this can happen in isolation, as I mentioned before.
Water challenges require stronger partnership across governments, cities, utilities, industry, research institutions, and communities because resilient water systems require aligned governance, aligned investment, and aligned action.
There is also a compelling economic case.
Investing in water resilience reduce disaster related losses as well, protects infrastructure, improves resource efficiency, supports stable economic growth, and enables even cities to function more sustainably over the long term.
There is no additional layer I want to name explicitly because it too often disappears in technical conversations about infrastructure, but the burden of water in circuity is not distributed equally.
This is a big problem across many parts of the world, women remain among those most affected by inadequate water access and weak sanitation systems, as Mr.
Martin told me today and yet, a they remain underrepresented where critical water governance decisions are made.
Within the G 100 ecosystem, we increasingly see this as a critical nexus where water equity and leadership intersect.
Cities and water systems that include women from governance are building with the fundamental gap in their architecture.
Let me close with three concrete calls to action from today's panel.
First, I believe we should place water at the center of urban policy and planning, not at the margins, every housing policy, every urban master plan, every climate adaptation strategy must begin with the water system perspective, not end with one.
Second, scale, integrated and innovative solutions in urgency.
The technologies exist, as I said before.
The frameworks exist.
What is needed now is implementation at pace connected across governments, utilities, industries, and communities.
Third, We should invest in institutional and human capacity.
Unitar global water economy and Vas represent exactly the kind of partnership needed to build long term capability for governing complex water systems.
This work deserves sustained investment, stronger collaboration, and broader replication.
I want to close my a part with this, the cities of the future will not be defined by the height of their towers.
They will be defined by the resilience of the systems beneath them.
Water is the most fundamental of those systems.
From where I stand as a business person in industry and as a person in global advocacy and in cross sector leadership, we are ready to be part of the transformation this demands.
I really thank you for listening to me.
Thank you briefly invited me.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very, very much, miss Bouderi.
Indeed, these three concrete asks will most probably remain with us and we will leave this room with thinking how to operationalize that also you mentioned at your speech.
So it is important to, of course, to conceptualize why water is important and we need water, but we have to leave with the real intention to take action.
Strong partnerships are extremely critical to achieve our targets, apparently.
With this, I'd like to move to His Excellency Ambassador Luis Gallegos.
It's a great privilege to have you here, Ambassador, chairperson of the Unit Advisory Board and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ecuador.
I would like to congratulate you for your new appointment, a new task, Deputy Secretary-General of the Global South Corporation, and that happened last week actually in Boko.
Ambassador, thank you very much for being with us and the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, everyone.
Excellency, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
It is a great honor to join you today at this one UN side event on water smart cities.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Unitary Global Water Academy and the Water and Amoration Scientific Research Institute of Azerbijan for the joint initiative in organizing this important session within the framework of the World Durban Forum 13.
I also thank the government and the people of Azerbaijan for hosting this edition of the World Durban Forum and for bringing the international community together in Baku to address one of the most fundamental challenges of sustainable urban development.
We gather here at a defining moment.
The World Urban Forum theme, housing the world's safe and resilient cities and communities invites us to reflect on what it truly means to provide adequate shelter for persons everywhere.
The answer, I would argue, begins with water.
Water forms the very foundation of housing and is inseparable from the security and sustainability.
A home that lacks safe water cannot be safe, cannot be called a safe home.
A city unable to manage the water resources cannot claim to be resilient.
By the year 2050, as Madame Course just said, 70% of the population of the world will reside in urban areas, and this will place unprecedented pressure on water systems, infrastructure, and services.
Climate change is compounding these pressures to intensified floods, prolonged droughts, contaminating water sources, and mounting threats to the very fabric of urban life.
I think those of us who were in Baku the weekend assisted to one of the storms that are surrounding the world and making an aggravated issue of natural disasters.
This side event rightly places water at the heart of our urban resilience agenda, and I commend Unitary Global Water Academy and Wi for building a collaboration that translates this understanding into concrete capacity development and knowledge exchange.
Allow me to focus on the dimension that I believe deserves far greater attention in the discussions of smart cities, inclusion.
The word inclusion for many is changing the concept of the world.
For us who have worked for more than 30 years of inclusion, stating that societies would have to include persons with disabilities, aging, women, indigenous population.
It is a cause that we have fought for these many years and specifically the situation of persons with disabilities and older persons in this context.
As the chair of the United Nations ADC Committee that drafted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, I have spent decades working to ensure the international frameworks translate into real improvements in people's daily lives.
I can tell you that the access to water and sanitation is one of the most immediate, most urgent, and most overlooked dimensions of the disability rights and the rights of older persons in urban settings.
One is born with a disability or one acquires a disability by accident, by war, But as you age, anyone beyond the age of 65 will have 85% of the possibility of having a disability.
We are 1.3 billion persons in the world who have a disability, and at this moment, we are 1 billion persons who are aging beyond 65.
By the year 2050, when all these programs talk about urbanization in the year 2015, we will be 2 billion people who are past 65-years-old.
But this is a daunting demographic change that will require adaptation, not only in the cities but of the societies.
As we age and the fertility rate falls, the demographics of the world will change, the capacity of work of the world will change.
So we will have to have strategies to project the possibilities.
In this water infrastructure, capabilities of dealing with these new conglomerates of persons who have needs are fundamental.
Yet yet in too many cities, water infrastructure is designed without them in mind, taps that cannot be reached from a wheelchair, sanitation facilities inaccessible to people with mobility impairments, early warning systems for flood that failed to account for persons who are deaf, blind, cognitively impaired, water governance processes that exclude the voices of older residents and persons with disabilities from the decisions that most affect their daily lives.
This constitutes, above all else, a failure of human rights.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2006, we are celebrating 20 years of the convention.
We have come a long way but the path is still very much longer, and we need to do everything we can for the 191 countries that signed that convention to comply with the needs of persons with disabilities.
It explicits this point.
Article 28 affirms that the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living, including access to clean water services.
Article 9 requires states to ensure access to physical environment, including infrastructure and services.
The obligations apply fully and directly to urban water systems.
What does this mean in practice for water smart cities? It means that universal design must be embedded from the outset into water infrastructure planning, housing, design, and urban governance, rather than retrofitting as an afterthought, which is extremely more expensive.
It means that water service delivery must be equitable and must reach the most marginalized urban residents, those living informal settings, those with physical and sensory impairments, and those belonging to the aging populations with specific health related water needs.
It means that the digital innovation driving smart water management from artificial intelligence powered to detect leaking and sensors that real time monitoring systems must be designed with accessibility in mind so that its benefits are not confined to those who are readily connected, readily literate, and already mobile.
It means that the community engagement and co creation in water management decision may just generally include persons with disabilities, older persons, and other marginalized group.
Inclusive water governance is both more just and more effective because it reflects the full range of human realities and needs.
The climate dimension of water resilience makes this imperative even more urgent.
When flood strikes, persons with disabilities and older persons face a greater difficulty in evacuating.
When droughts disrupt water supply, it's most vulnerable who suffer first and most deeply.
When water infrastructure is damaged, those without networks of support or physical capabilities to seek alternatives are left most exposed.
Water smart cities must therefore be cities that plan for the full spectrum of human diversity.
Nature based solutions, sponge cities, designs, integrated urban water management frameworks must incorporate the explicit focus on the needs of persons with disabilities and aging population.
Climate finance mechanisms must reflect this dimension.
The Baku call for action that emerges from this meeting must speak to this intersection with clarity and commitment.
As chairperson of Unitar Advisory Board, I have the privilege of witnessing the organization's unique contribution to multilateral actions throughout capacity development.
Unitar Global Water Academy exemplifies this contribution.
It builds the knowledge, skills, the institutional capabilities that governments, local authorities, and communities need to address urban water challenges in practice.
The partnership with Wi represents a model of South South and international corporation that we should strengthen and replicate.
And I am particularly encouraged by Wi's engagement with the forum and Azerbijan's broader commitment to sustainable urban development.
What capacity development in water management must increase addresses, however, in both the technical and infrastructural dimension of water systems and the social and human rights dimension.
Municipal engineers, urban planners, water utility management managers, public health officials must all understand that access to water is inseparable from the right to dignity, independence, full participation in community life.
It is also the right to life.
This holds true for persons with disabilities, for older persons, and for all urban residents.
Excellencies, the transition to water smart cities offers us an extraordinary opportunity to build urban water systems that are both more efficient and more inclusive.
Every infrastructure investment, every governance reform, every innovation in smart water technology is an opportunity to extend the reach of resilience to those who have most often been left out.
Let us seize the opportunity.
Let us ensure that cities of tomorrow are smarter, more secure, more water secure, and more just cities where every person, regardless of ability or age, can access water they need to live with dignity, security, and opportunity.
I thank the Unitary Global Water Academy, was City and all the partners for convening this important dialogue.
I look forward to the panel discussions ahead and to the concrete recommendations this session will contribute to the Baku call of action.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Excellency, and definitely, it's a very strong message to include a right based approach to water smart cities and urban resilience.
We really appreciate your work and thank you very much for your messages.
With this, I would like to thank to our keno speakers and move to our next panel of experts.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now we move on to our expert panel and thank you very much for the very strong keynote messages that inspire, of course, our reflections.
Now we will move into the expert panel discussions.
We will hear different perspectives from experts representing government, academia, international organizations, innovation systems, and the private sector.
Please let me invite our distinguished expert panelists, Professor, Director of AsoE University, Professor Rufat Azizo, please.
Mr.
Rasail Ismailov, please, Mr.
Mohamed Ali, Kiev, please, miss Asa Johnson, and miss Pavia Lib Rova.
Apologies for my pronunciation.
I should have been better prepared, but thank you very much.
Welcome.
I would like to start with Professor Azaz.
You represent a very important academic institution as Azarbijan and Capacity building is one of the key strong messages not of our section, R one UN side event or several other important engagements here at Wolf.
We have been hearing more and more about the necessity of capacity building and of course, that addresses higher education institutions, scientific institutions, definitely significant emphasis on the resource mobilization.
We know the water sector needs experts, mobilization of young people, and of course, the communities in the broader context.
So thank you very much for joining us today.
I'd like to As our speakers one broad question and would like to get your insights if possible, in six to seven maximum minutes.
Professor Azzov, let me start with you.
Urban water resilience increasingly depends on infrastructure.
We know, but also on people and human capital.
Knowledge transfer is not only an individual capacity building, but also an institutional capacity investment.
What interdisciplinary skills at your university and in the wider context, the educational approaches are most urgently needed in the sector and to create the next urban Water generations? And how would you contribute in Azerbijan and in the broader region to the water smart cities at your institution and with your academic research facilities, please.
Thank you very much, Abu Kam.
First of all, thank you very much for the invitation to such a meaningful event.
Thank you to Water Emoration Scientific Research Institute and the Unit Tower as well.
It's very nice to see that Azerbijan becoming the center hub of important discussions related to the world challenges and smart water management systems is one of them.
First of all, as mentioned here, the resilience of our cities increasingly depends on the water management system and we see that As a universities, we see that the need for the capabilities, the need for next generation of engineers who have not only engineering technical practices, but also the people, the next generation of engineers who can integrate socio economical, data driven decision making and other capabilities to for the universal solutions, not only technical solutions, next generation of engineers, they should be systems thinkers to understand systems, to define the main actors within the systems and define the relationship between that actors to give the universal solutions for the different global challenges starting from climate change and water management system.
As Azerijan State Oil Industry University, we are actually one of the old universities of Azerbijan having more than 100 years legacy in engineering and technical sciences.
We are feeling responsibility to redesign our programs, redesign Coie club for the different global challenges.
I'd like to classify all the actions we are doing in four pillars.
First of all, is education.
In education, we are trying to redesign our programs, and for that we are looking for the governmental partners and also for the international universities.
For the last two years, We started master degree in water management resources.
This is a dual degree program jointly delivered with the University of Strasburg from France.
Here we also have a local partner government agency.
This is Azerban State Water Resources Management.
Agency.
They are supporting our program, providing scholarship for the students, and also they are providing topics which are important for our country in water management resources.
This is actually a very nice example of how the university, global partners, and the local agency collaborate to redesign content of education for the future next generation of engineers.
The second program, actually, water management is part of the sustainable development agenda for the Azerbijan Stable Industrial University.
So from this perspective, another important program is a dual degree program in a master level with the University of Warwick from the United Kingdom.
So this is also a master degree program on renewable energy resources, dual degree program, students getting two diplomas from two universities.
And this year, actually we celebrated first our graduates.
Again, the program also connecting engineering technology, socio economical knowledge, different modelings for forecasting renewable energy systems.
Here we also have partner from the private sector.
This is the BP company, BP Azerbijan Company.
Again, another example of how we collaborate between the private sector university and the global partner university.
This is a first pillar.
This is education.
And we also started to analyze our whole curriculum, so the whole specializations to define the gaps, what kind of gaps we have and how we can close these gaps during the five years to reach the excellency in sustainable development goals in all our specialization.
The second is research.
Second pillar is research as a university, Azerbaijan State Oil Industrial University, one of the research intense universities in the country.
Last year we have published more than 800 publications in international of journal.
This is a report from the Scopus databases and 42 42% of them were related to the sustainable development goals.
Because we are encouraging our scientists, our teachers, we are providing internal grant funding for doing research in sustainable development goals and the water management system also part of this grant funding research agenda.
Besides that, we have innovation center, we have a prototyping design center in Azerbijan State Oil Industrial University, where we are encouraging students to come with different innovative solutions.
Today we also we have here San for the university and we have our first startups in the sustainable development agenda.
Only for the first four months of the year actually, we have organized more than 30 different programs.
It's a startup competitions, mentorships for the students.
It's different acceleration and the incubation and most of them are related to green energy, water management, waste management programs.
This is also our commitment to the sustainable development.
I think the third pillar is international collaboration.
Post sustainable development.
Here, we also have some good results.
Actually, this year, we started to collaborate with the University of Oxford together two university, University of Oxford Site Business School and the Abia State Oil Industrial University together, we are organizing a We call this project global global climate challenge.
This is the competition for the school students, for the schoolers, and for their teachers.
We have already received 2000 different projects across 17 countries and actually the winners of the program will participate in one week summer school in the University of Oxport and another partnership is at the University of Arab Emit University.
They are funding five projects in sustainable development and the two of them in the water management in Azerbaijan State Oil University.
So this is actually some examples of actions what we are doing and we are trying to act specifically to focus our resources, our energy in a specific directions and classify our actions in different pillars.
I think it's more than 6 minutes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Dear Professor Azizov.
I really appreciate, on behalf of the whole UN system, of course, your incredible investments through international collaboration in higher education and research.
I'm sure that there are some university representatives from different countries in the room.
So there will be a lot of opportunities to discuss and collaborate with you in your capacity.
With this, I want to move to another research institute, Vasri.
Mr.
Rashail Ismalov, it's a great honor to have you here and of course, thank you very much along the journey with a great contribution to this partnership that is in the making.
Let me ask you about Vss contributions to urban resilience from the perspective of SDG six.
Of course, you have an extensive portfolio of youth empowerment, research initiatives and SDG six.
How would you like to elaborate on the practical lessons for your country and for the global community Please, the floor is yours.
Thank you so much, Abra Hahaan for interesting question.
I think that it's very important issues for Azerbijan.
I will try to answer to your question combining global urbanization problems, including some case from our country.
Today's cities around the world, as you know, face a big challenge, global climate change.
At the impact of global climate change, new phenomenon, urban heat island create, which is a negative cancer against this to environment.
That's why it's brings together water related risks for all countries including Azerbaijan.
If we look to the history of urbanization, for example, in thousand years, about three percentage of all population lives in urban areas.
But unfortunately nowadays, currently more than 50 percentage of all population live in urban areas that bring together some risks including water related risks, which were significant for Azerbiagean as well.
For example, I would like to give some example and what kind of action we act to deal with disease rings.
For example, first risk is a water shortage and drought and water scarcity.
Unfortunately, the the main part of Aan located in the dry region, sad region which suffer from water shortage.
Actually, our capital bak also located in the dry region, sad region, including Baku, we have not local water resources in this region.
That's why we bring water resources from other water basin of Azerbaijan.
The main aim of our agency to provide water security for urbanized areas, including Baku.
Second one is, as you know, it's a big problem for urban areas.
Urban areas increased, actually, drainage area decrease and impervious surface increased.
That's why the rainwater couldn't infiltrate to the soil.
That's it's directly changed to surface water.
That's create a big flash floods in urban areas.
That's why I think that's a big problem for the world to dealing with the stormwater management.
That's why it's one of the important issues for our country.
Next one is pollution, also degradation ecosystem.
Actually, urban areas expanding and some slums, as you know, in all regions are available.
That's why at the impact of these slums, negative consequences, some activities bring some pollution to our water bodies in urban areas.
Now, I would like to move some case of experience of Azerbijan what kind of experience Azerbijan.
I think that one of the best experience of Azerbijan institutional reform in Azerbijan water sectors, actually till 2023 in Azerbijan was some water players.
As you know, if different players in the water sectors, it bring a big problem in management.
That's why according to of Azerbijan Excellency, President of Azerbijan, new water agency created in Azerbijan.
The main office is agency to bring all water sector under one umbrella.
I think that's one of the best case for many countries.
It's a new agency.
All our colleagues are working together quickly to improve our water sector.
Actually, we're dealing with drinking water supply, wastewater treatment, wastewater removal, also irrigation as well.
Second experience, I think that we have actually in Baku, they are Many big lakes.
But now we have two big project for the improvement rehabilitation lakes.
First is the rehabilitation Bay Shore Lake.
Another is the Livable Bao project.
We have dealing the rehabilitation three big lakes.
Another based experience of Azorbgion on water treatment is actually, we have a big water treatment plant in Jairam Batan.
I think that firstly in our region, we implement ultra water purification facilities in the drinking water supply.
I think that it's one of the best case of ingset for our region, including for Central Asia as well.
As you know, traditional water engineering sometimes facing some gaps.
The main of our agency nowadays to implement it's a hybrid water management with a natural based solution, including engineering purposes.
That's the end of my speech also to ask your question.
As you know, the urban areas for providing sustainable urban areas.
Each we couldn't we couldn't implement sustainable water management system in urban area.
We couldn't promote as well as sustainable urban areas.
That's why the main aim of our country now day, synergy between urban planning and water management system.
That's why now we are working for sustainable water resource management, synergy between urban planning.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Ismaov.
Indeed, I had a chance to visit the Polygon, your training facilities underground, and it's really, very impressive too, I invite everyone to be more informed about that.
It's a real training facility where you can really experience, hands on exercises and learning experience.
So I'm sure that it's going to be you know, utilized with international and also national and regional partners for several training activities and capacity building initiatives.
Thank you very much.
With this, I'd like to move our next speaker, Mr.
Mahdi, Kurd Verve, the Director of Director General for International Affairs Azerbijan State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovation, long name, but Assan Services.
Thank you very much for being with us today.
I also had a great privilege of visiting your infrastructure and facilities and very impressive indeed.
Azerbijan has become internationally recognized for its innovation in public services and public service delivery.
And my question would be, how can digital governance and smart public service systems contribute to more efficient, transparent, and resilient urban water management? So please the floor is yours.
De Bu Hannan, thank you so much, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests.
It's very honored to be here to be the distinguished and esteemed speakers now and just before us.
Thank you for the invitation and for organization of the service, such a very good panel discussion, UR, Devs and co partners.
There's one famous saying in my country.
I would like to start my remark with this one where there is a water, there is a life.
So in a nutshell, the water is everything.
So from this point of view, of course, we need to take care of the water sanitation, water protection and many many issues.
And now in my remarks, I will try to highlight the importance of these points from the public service delivery perspective.
Today, cities across the globe are facing increasingly complex challenges caused by rapid urbanization, climate change, population growth, and growing pressure on public infrastructure and natural resources.
In this context, water management is no longer only an environmental or technical issue.
It's also a governance issue, a public service issue, along with it being a matter of resilience and quality of life.
In Azerbijan, we strongly believe that the resilient cities require citizen oriented, accessible, transparent, and integrated public services.
The philosophy stands at the core of the Asan model.
By the way, Assam means who does not know who are the foreigners, they easy in Azerbaijan, but of course, it's an abbreviation stands for the Azerbijani Service and Assessment Network.
This is the initiative of the president of Azerbaijan, I asinsilhaala, which was established back in 2012.
As a part of the comprehensive and integral part of the reform in the field of public administration.
This was a true revolution in the field of public service and public administration from many, many aspects, including innovation, transparency, accessibility, and also accountability from the service delivery perspective.
Today at Assan Service, we provide 400 services through the involvement of the 15 public agencies, ministries, and also the group of the private organizations under one roof, significantly reducing the bureaucracy, increasing public satisfaction, and strengthening the trust between the public and the government.
Importantly, the ASA model also contributed to strengthening the institutional coordination and service integration in the areas linked to the urban sustainability and municipal resilience.
One relevant example in this regard, I would like to highlight the AssN Utility Center's activities, which is also under the age of our agency, which were established to simplify and centralize utility related for the services for citizens.
Through the AN Utility Centers, citizens can access the services related to water supply, a gas, and other urban utility services in a single integrated space together with the esteemed partners, esteemed government organizations.
Of course, the former speaker, Mr.
Rashamlo highlighted the very important activity of the newly created the state water agency, and also we are, of course, the closely partnering with them in the Assan utility centers.
This model this one software and integrated service delivery model, also improve the efficiency, accessibility, and coordination among service providers, while also reducing the administrative burdens for the citizens.
And also the second side I would like to highlight the importance of innovations from this perspective.
Under the Agency for Public Serce and Social Innovations, we have the Inoand Incubation and Accession Center, which mainly dealing with the incubation and accession programs and involve startups, including in the field of water urban resilience.
Currently, we have more than 60 residential startups, and we're closely working with the government agencies, private companies, specifically the universities, which is one also now today represented here and in many different programs.
This really helps also to really increase the capacity development and involvement of the innovation to, of course, water and urban resilience as well.
And third, I would like to highlight the importance of the capacity development activities.
So we through the trainings and capacity development of the public service providers.
Also, the information raising among the population is also makes a critical importance and plays an utmost role from all the talk points in this perspective.
And international cooperation coming to this point We're also active in the international cooperation.
As you visited a couple of days before, we are cooperating more than 30 governments, including many international organizations like UTR, we have the MOU, and we also are actively cooperating with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Just importantly, I would like to highlight one very specific and critical project two years before, as everybody knows, our country hosted COP 29 and within the ambit of the Cop 29, we signed a contribution the contribution agreement with the TSA and created a trust fund, and through the trust fund, we assist government of Azerbijan assist the STS LDCs and LLDs from the capacity of the public service delivery perspective.
Of course, this also shows the commitment of the government of Azerbijan to the international cooperation, per se, the public services, public administration and other capacity development issues.
In a nutshell and coming to end of speech, of course, the technology the management and administration on its own is not just the place the comprehensive role, but of course, support of the citizens, the caring of the population, and the information sharing, and last but not least, cooperation as stipulated with many speakers.
With this in mind, thank you so much and for the invitation and for this opportunity.
Thank you.
Thank you, indeed, Mr.
Mohammed Ali.
This definitely will ignite a lot of more partnership with Asan and learning from the Assan experience.
I think there is a great room for everybody to learn and to look forward to ways to implement the Assan experience in public services.
With this, I want to move very quickly to miss Asa Johnson from UN Habitat.
She's the head of DUO.
Thank you very much, dear Asa.
We are collaborating with you within the UN water system.
It's a great privilege to be working with you.
Let me just ask you about UN habitats, who organizes this incredible event that brings us thousands of people from different countries and different sectors.
What forms of international collaboration you think and of course, utility partnerships are proving most effective in strengthening operational resilience.
What we should do next, how to collaborate more with governments and different sectors to achieve your targets at GOA.
Thank you.
The floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Ebro and thank you also to UTA for inviting you and Habitat to be here.
We are, as you mentioned, UN sister agencies in UN water.
For those of you who are not so familiar with the UN system, we have a responsibility as UN agencies to be more and more coordinated under what is called the UN system wide strategy on water and sanitation.
I think With this event, congratulations.
I think we're working together to find more and more synergies when it comes to capacity building.
Representing and habitat here on the panel, of course, I also want to continuously welcome you here in the World Urban Forum and from where I sit, I work in the Global Water Operator Partnership Alliance, which is a global alliance of more than 300 institutional members and today more than 2,500 individual utility members where we are joining forces globally to raise the voice of utilities and to make sure that their work as frontline runners, as we call it at the local level of achieving the SDGs are fully capacitated.
We're very excited to be working from this time here in the World Urban Forum with our local host, the Azerbijan State Water Authority, who have joined forces with us and were the host of our global assembly on Sunday.
So to go to your question just very briefly, I know we don't have much time.
I want to respond on four levels, briefly in terms of how we can further strengthen, let's say, local action in achieving the SDG six and, of course, also SDG 11 in cities.
The first one and what we're talking about here today and the focus of our alliance is on capacity development.
So how can we both, um, make sure that local and regional governments are fully capacitated.
That's a big discussion here across the World Urban Forum.
Also, how can we empower and make sure that there's sufficient fiscal autonomy, legal authorities, regulations for water and sanitation utilities to thrive.
From pa, we have a practical example where we work with peer to peer twinning between utilities.
They're called water operator partnerships.
We also focus on sanitation focused water operator partnerships, and we both implement them from our Secretariat, but also document many agencies that are doing such partnerships.
This includes development banks like the Asian Development Bank, OEC Fund, also UNICEF, and we have documented close to 500 such partnerships that we would like to scale up.
It's important this word scale up, we've made a pledge at the 2023 Water Conference to increase such partnerships, such twinning to at least 100 more by 2030.
We would very much like to join forces with utility networks here in Azerbijan our host and globally.
That's on capacity building.
The second one is institutional recognition.
So we find it very significant to recognize that we've calculated in our global Outlook report on service providers in water and sanitation, at least 285,000 public utilities globally.
This is a report that came out last year by Jaba and Habitat.
Now, we need to give them institutional recognition in global fora, such as we have done here in the World Urban Forum.
We're working hand in hand with other UN agencies such as the UN CCD, For the Cop 17 in Ulambatar in August, what does it look like in the water day there? Another big conference just like here, what does it look like for utilities? What does it look like at the UN Water conference in terms of really finding spaces there so that others are not speaking on behalf of utilities.
Very importantly, we recognize the efforts made by U and Desa.
There was a stakeholder consultation in Dhakar the first day before the preparatory meeting there, which was very important.
Then just briefly, the next point, very brief is on localizing the global agendas.
Knowing that utilities and local governments are on the front line of achieving the SDGs, we need to really bring the multilateral governance up front.
The UN system wide strategy on water and sanitation calls for vertically integrated governance models that align the national commitments with local implementation.
Here, I just want to raise, for example, the local voluntary reviews, where cities make their own assessment of how they're faring and it's important that the water and sanitation stream is really raised and also looked at from a city level perspective.
Another one is the review of the new urban agenda.
There's a midterm review coming up at the high level political forum in New York.
To what extent is water and sanitation being discussed in the new urban agenda.
Then of course, there's the SDG reviews as well.
Last, we should look closely at how we integrate water and sanitation in territorial approaches.
How does it look like via the master planning, zoning, regulations, et cetera Also very importantly that we hear here at the World Urban Forum, how do we make the realities in informal settlements more visible in terms of statistics and how we service water and sanitation and the capacities that are needed for that.
My last point is a takeaway from this panel.
I was really taken by this call for more recognition of disability action.
I want to just take this as a concrete example how we can channel capacities around this.
It's not an area we've worked on very much at DOPA.
How can we strengthen our utilities networks in being more responsive in the labor force and for those who service in terms of disability, just as one example of capacity strengthening.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, dear Awa.
Let me just echo your invitation and of course, a great target for UN Water Global Conference in December.
This is a very impressive target, but I'm sure that you will leave Baku with strong contributions to achieve your targets.
Of course, we'll be collaborating more within the UN water system.
Thanks for coming and of course, it's a great privilege to have UN Habitat around the table.
And with this, I would like to move to our last speaker.
Thank you very much with your patience.
Dear miss Paulina Lib Mireva.
You are coming from desalination sector, and thank you very much for being here because we know that desalination is also a great target and there has been going on a lot in the world in different parts of the world for this particular sector.
Let me ask you quickly.
In water stress regions, desalination is increasingly becoming part of broader urban resilience strategies.
From the private sector perspective, how can desalination and public private partnerships contribute to climate resilience and sustainable urban water supply? Change systems.
Thank you.
The floor is yours.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for having us.
It's a privilege to speak on behalf of Aqua, to share and contribute to this panel, specifically to building urban resilience through capacity development.
I think resilience and capacity are the keywords that we operate under as well.
Though we are coming from a private sector, these two words is something that really drives how we operate, how we develop, and how we bring solutions across the globe.
Before I share some of my thoughts, I'd like to introduce Aqua.
Aqua is a global leader and developer, investor, and operator of projects in the renewable space, in green hydrogen, and of course, desalination.
So we are bringing these green technologies to the wider geographical regions outside of the Middle East.
So today, Aqua is spanning 113 assets across 15 countries, and we are growing quite rapidly.
So we have assets under the management with a value of almost $120 billion and the capacity of 96 gigawatts.
But probably the most interesting information point for this panel is we have 9.8 cubic meters of desalinated water which is being processed daily.
So we're the global leader of desalination projects and bringing solutions to that problem globally.
So Aqua was founded with a very clear mission to deliver a reliable, affordable, and sustainable solutions across the globe, including desalination that's becoming a pillar in developing a full power project.
So over the last two decades, Aqua has become one of the largest private developers, investors, and operators of desalinated projects.
Our purpose remains consistent.
It's creating long term value for communities and partners wherever we go.
So it's business to human.
That's what we operate under, and that's what we bring when we scale our portfolios.
So here, AC is a strategic partner to Azerbijan.
So we've been here for a while now.
We've just launched the biggest wind farm in the region in January this year, but now we're developing probably one of the most exciting projects and that's Caspian desalination plant.
So that's a plot of capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day.
That's, again, the largest outside of the region where we normally operate, which is the Gulf.
And that's one of, you know, one unique opportunity that we're bringing to Azerbaijan to build on the partnerships that we already have across the energy sector, but now coming to the broader cooperation scale.
So from the private sector perspective, desalination today is no longer viewed as simply a utility projects.
It's increasingly a strategic infrastructure for climate adaptation and urban resilience.
That's how we treat it.
Though we are a developer and an investor, we treat it with a very strategic, um, attention because in all of the regions and countries where we build those projects, they are strategic assets to the country.
So normally we're used to energy assets being strategic to countries.
Now water is becoming that and we recognize that a lot.
And that's why once we come in, we don't come in simply to build and handover.
We are staying here throughout the whole period of operations and build those partnerships with the local authorities to make sure that once the time comes to hand over, everyone is prepared.
So it's not just being dropped onto the partners or the agencies or the ministries, but it's a very long process of building the trust and the partnership to get there together.
Um, so now what we see across Manan and Central Asia, it's this growing pressure from, obviously, climate change, but population growth as well, urbanization, industrial expansion.
So all of this we take into account, and that's how we built this strategy of our portfolio, but also dealing with the increasing pressure from the climate side in the countries that we come from.
So at Aqua, we see desalination as part of integrated Uban resilience strategy.
So we support municipal water security, enabling economic growth, protecting industrial development, and strengthening local term social stability.
So the Azerbijan desalination plant is a very good example of this approach.
So currently, what we're looking at, it's not only a project that is producing water, but it's helping to build this long term resilience against the future climate and water stress.
That's key for us while we were preparing for delivering this project now that we are in the development stage, and once we're in the operation stage, that's going to be the key.
So for us now let me touch a little bit on the public private partnership because that's how we're developing this project.
It's not us only coming on a standalone, we're developing it together with the government.
And I think that's key, and that's what makes this project successful really.
Um, so this PPP frameworks is for some, it's a novel addition.
So for Azerbaijan, it's relatively new.
That's why we're coming to it with a very specific care and and, um, aspects that we bring into this because we know that we might be an experienced and the biggest desalination developer in the world, but that doesn't matter once you're starting from scratch and that's what we are doing in Azerbaijan.
We treat it as similar to one of the biggest that we have is 900,000 cubic meters.
This one is three times less.
It doesn't matter.
It's as important as the biggest one that you have in the world.
Because the outcomes of this project are as strategic, as security concerning, is the biggest one.
I think that's the key to establish that.
But what we bring as well and why these frameworks work is because once you deal with the developer like Aqua, you have a few things that government can work with and build on.
So that's accelerated delivery timelines.
That's number one because time is always short.
Access to advanced technologies, we bring the best we can find and the most suitable to the geography.
We benefit from operational expertise.
That's what governments will benefit from.
We're improving efficiency across the asset life cycle.
As I said, we're there.
You know, we come in on day one, we're there on day X, which is the last day we're here with the project, and we share risks appropriately.
So it's sitting between the government, between the investor, and between the people who will be dealing with these issues later on.
So I think, sum all of this up, many of the great things were said already, The main message is, look, we are here with the capacity, and we're here to deliver the resilience.
That's the key message, and we are very happy to be building on that and delivering across the lifespan.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Indeed, without having the private sector view, that will be an incomplete discussion.
Of course, not only the water sector is under pressure, we are also under pressure of time.
I thank everybody around the table and of course, your patience.
We will leave the last words to miss Chile and the floor is yours and in the meantime, I thank very much to our speakers and we will continue working together.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much because we don't have enough time.
I want to be quick.
Distinguished guests, Islam speakers, colleagues and friends.
On behalf of the Water and Aeration Scientific Research Institute of Azerbijan, it is my honor and privilege to bring this session to a close.
90 minutes ago, we opened this room with a shared conviction that resilience, resilient cities cannot be built without resilient water system.
What we have heard today has not only confirmed the conviction, it has deepened it, sharpened it, and given it a new pressing sense of urgency.
Now, today, I would like to thank to doctor Ebrujana Sokulu and entire Unitar Global Water Academy team.
Thank you for your vision and your extraordinary professionalism in bringing this event to life.
Every speaker who gave their time and expertise and each of you in this room who brought your questions, your experience, your engagement.
Thank you.
Now, before we conclude, I have a very special announcement to make.
Today, right here in this room, we have the privilege of witnessing the formal signing of Memorandum of Understanding between you Eitar and Vasri.
This agreement is a result of a shared vision between two institution that believe deeply in their power of knowledge, capacity, partnership to change the way the world manage the water.
Under this memorandum, Vas three and UNitRs Global Water Academy commit to jointly designing and delivering training programs, capacity building initiatives to collaborating on applied research that generates the evidence needed to inform smarter policy to engaging together in international platforms and knowledge networks.
The partnership spans water, sanitation, and hygiene, water governance and policy development, and the integration of artificial intelligence and digital innovation resilience.
This is not a ceremonial document.
This is a working instrument and a promise that the dialogue of today will become the action of tomorrow.
So it's my great honor to invite doctor Abrujan Sokuu from Unitar and also Mr.
Rashay Ismaov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Water and Ameration Scientific Research Institute, to come forward for the signing of this Memorandum of understanding.
This signing marks not an ending but a beginning and the beginning of joint action, shared knowledge and enduring commitment to water, smart and resilient communities around the world.
We warmly invite all presents to witness this historic moment.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, and this is the end of our session.
Thank you very much for coming.