Emceeing the UN HLPF's Special Event on SDG6 and the Water Action Agenda.

The United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is the central United Nations platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level.

It was an honour to MC the Special Event on SDG6 and the Water Action Agenda at July's UN HLPF.

Here’s my speech.

“Before we start, a big thank-you to the teams at UN DESA and UN Water team, and to the ten co-hosts of the Water Conference Interactive Dialogues whose work has helped frame many of the conversations we will have here today.

A particular thanks to the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands, not only in co-hosting the UN 2023 Water Conference, but continuing to champion and advance water on the global agenda.

We are at a critical point in our SDG6 journey. Halfway between the official start in 2015, and where we need to be in 2030.

There is no doubt that this is a big occasion. An opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved. To acknowledge and understand our past failings. To put aside the interests that keep us apart, and instead to forge a path forward for what unites us.

And that of course is water.

We are in the midst of a massive global water crisis. A crisis that goes far beyond the cold numbers on the pages of UN Water’s synthesis report, and deep into communities, economies, ecosystems, and lives of people across the globe.

As a bedouin told me while we were standing on the top of a mountain deep in the deserts of Jordan “you read it, but we live it”.

He’s right.

Over the last six years I’ve run thousands of kilometers across some of the harshest places on the planet. Deserts, rivers and glaciers melting faster than you can imagine.

Along the way, I’ve met thousands of people who have shared their water stories.

Women and girls in India risking their lives each day to fetch water for their families.

Indigenous communities in the Amazon living amidst the charred remains of old growth forest, and suffering from the impact that deforestation has had on the water cycle.

Tourism operators right here in the United States watching as their lakes and rivers dry up in front of their eyes.

And young farmers in South Africa who told me “what hope do I have -to pray for rain, or leave my farm”.

Their message is clear.

We need to act. And we need to do it now.

As one of the local guides said to me as we were climbing up to the glaciers “Mina - please tell these people directly. Look around you. The time for soft language is over. We need real action and we need it now”.

He’s not alone. Over the last few years we have grown a grassroots movement for change. Thousands and thousands of people in over 200 countries and territories stepping up for water, sharing their stories and helping to put water into the media and onto the global agenda.

Today we have an opportunity to respond.

To be honest, being at the halfway mark isn’t easy. Exactly half-way through running 200 marathons in the year leading up to the UN 2023 Water Summit, my coach said to me “now it’s going to get hard”.

He was right.

But big goals need us to be prepared to do hard things. Whether it’s running ridiculous numbers of marathons at the frontlines of the water crisis, or committing here today to take those giant leaps necessary to solve the water crisis.

So here is my challenge to all of you.

Today, have the courage not to look at these numbers and stories and see failure. But to look at them and see opportunity. An opportunity to build on the resources and momentum growing around the world. And an opportunity to work together to commit to a bold and robust plan to meet our water challenges.

This will not be easy. But We Can Do Hard Things.

As Nelson Mandela famously said “It always seems impossible until it’s done”.

Now, today, let’s get it done.”