The Global Water Marathon is organized and located in the extreme regions of the planet in more than 200 countries of the world (200 marathons) for 12 months with the participation of more than 200 million people. The marathon will start on World Water Day, 22 of March 2022, and will end 1 year after the opening of the UN-2023 Water Conference. The event also includes commitments from 200 companies to take individual actions on water within the framework of the UN-2023 Water Conference.
The main objective of the UN- 2023 Water Conference is to boost accelerated progress towards the achievement of internationally agreed water goals and targets, including those reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, during the Water Decade as a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals. Given the historical significance – the first UN water conference in the past 50 years – the attention to the Conference, as well as the expectations of the international community are quite high.
The UN-2023 Water Conference is hosted by Tajikistan and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and they are determined to make it a turning point for the whole world. Along with the commitments made, they plan to organize an annual Global Water Marathon together with Mina Guli, a leading water advocate, founder and CEO of the “Thirst” Fund, and an Australian runner, plan to organize an annual Global Water Marathon in order to draw more attention to the water issue and to involve as many stakeholders as possible in the preparatory process and the Conference itself.
In this regard, on the eve of the 2nd Dushanbe Water Conference in May-June 2022, a water marathon will be organized for 4-5 weeks, which will take place on the Central Asian section of the Global Water Marathon, from the Aral Sea to the Pamir Mountains.
The main goal of the marathon is to promote the achievement of the goals and objectives of the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028”, to attract the attention of the world community to the growing water issue, to motivate and call for action, to mobilize efforts to achieve real changes on the ground. The marathon is also aimed at climate change and demonstrating the strong link between climate and the water cycle and the need to bring these two global agendas together. The additional goal of the marathon is to draw attention to the existing gaps in the achievements of many SDGs.
The marathon will start on the Aral Sea along the sunny Fedchenko Glacier in southern Tajikistan and end in Dushanbe. The route of the marathon will pass through deserts, swamps, valleys, settlements located along the river and mountain gorges.
It is expected that the results of the marathon will be presented at the Second International High-Level Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018-2028.
The format of the presentation, including the organization of a separate stand within the framework of the Conference exhibition, the production of video content for the summit, the possibility of holding media events, organizing a short run, will be discussed and agreed upon additionally.
