Introduction Henk Ovink

I’m Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

I represent the Netherlands all over the world on the issues of water. Too much, too little and polluted. And that is my passion and ambition.

“Water is life”, Ban-Ki Moon used to say and that is so right. Water is connected to social issues, inequality, women and kids walking the wells for hours every day, to our economies with too much water battering our cities, our industries, our agriculture. Polluted water affecting our health, but also our biodiversity and not enough water leading to insecurity, migration and sometimes even conflicts. So water is connected to all aspects of life, it’s connected to all sustainable development goals and if we understand this complexity better and if we learn how to value water across all these SDG’s and manage it inclusively, leaving no one behind,  than water is an enabler, than water is a leverage for sustainable development.

I believe in this capacity of water and I work on it every day, all over the world,  to help deliver on the sustainable development goals and the Paris agreement to get to a more water secure world.