SEN Represents Eight Countries in UNESCO Youth Session during WET-WAR 2025

𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐵𝑦: 𝑆𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝐷ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) participated in the International Conference on WET-WAR 2025, the first international conference dedicated to wetlands and water resources for sustainable development. The conference was held from 29-31 December 2025 at the National Institute of Technology, Patna, India.

A key highlight of the conference was the UNESCO youth session, facilitated by Dr. Bhanu Neupane, process coordinator at UNESCO. The session brought together young participants to represent different regions of the world to discuss water, health, and the youth’s voices and thoughts in policymaking.

Participants from The Small Earth Nepal actively contributed to the session, collectively representing eight countries: Fiji, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Nepal, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Syria, and Yemen. Through country perspectives and shared experiences, the youth participants highlighted critical issues related to water quality, access to safe drinking water, climate-induced risks, and community-level challenges in water and health management.

In the session, Nepal discussed groundwater contamination and arsenic exposure risks in the Terai region and emphasized the need for safe aquifer mapping and community awareness programs. Fiji highlighted challenges in providing safe drinking water to rural and outer island communities and highlighted climate-resilient WASH systems and water-quality monitoring. Guatemala reflected on widespread surface-water contamination and governance gaps affecting Indigenous and rural communities’ access to safe water. India focused on rapid expansion of piped water coverage alongside persistent pollution and untreated wastewater, calling for improved monitoring and climate-resilient health-water systems. Kenya emphasized droughts, floods, long walking distances for water, waterborne diseases, and the need to strengthen regulatory systems and monitoring capacity. Papua New Guinea underscored low access to safe drinking water and sanitation, particularly in remote communities, and highlighted community-based, climate-resilient solutions. Syria outlined the severe effects of conflict on water infrastructure, service interruptions, and increased disease risk, highlighting the need for coordinated water–health action. Yemen presented one of the world’s most severe water crises, noting groundwater depletion, cholera outbreaks, and urgent needs for long-term WASH investment and health-system strengthening.

The discussions and key messages from the UNESCO Youth Session will directly contribute to the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) 2027, which will focus on the theme “Water and Health”. Participants emphasized the need for stronger collaboration among UN agencies, governments, and local communities to address region-specific water and health challenges.

Appreciating the contributions of the youth, Dr. Bhanu Neupane noted that the participants presented their ideas very well and meaningfully. In his concluding remarks, Professor Vijay P. Singh from the University of Texas A & M, USA, congratulated every country for their presentations and shared that it was his first time witnessing such an event of this kind. He mentioned that all speakers should be grateful to Dr. Bhanu Neupane for creating the platform for youth engagement and expressed that he was impressed by the way the participants presented and by the important points they highlighted. He emphasized that recognizing the importance of water security, water quality, and health is essential. He further observed that all the presentations (some explicitly and some implicitly) connected water issues with energy, food, climate, and society.

Countries represented by the participants: