UN General Assembly President visits ICHARM
to discuss water issues

H.E. Mr. Csaba Kőrösi, the president of the United Nations General Assembly, visited ICHARM on February 16, 2023, while staying in Japan to promote the UN 2023 Water Conference in conjunction with the 9th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM9). During his visit, he had a meeting with Prof. KOIKE Toshio, the executive director of ICHARM, and participated in a discussion session with ICHARM doctoral and master’s course students.

Arriving at ICHARM, Mr. Kőrösi took a brief look around the research room and proceeded to a meeting with Prof. KOIKE. The meeting started with the executive director’s presentation explaining the current situation of water-related disasters around the world, the historical background and trends of international discussions, and the role of science and technology in water-related disaster reduction. He also included ICHARM's research activities, especially in terms of the Water-Food-Energy Nexus and the quality-of-life improvement, the importance of the End-to-End approach, Japan's latest flood management policy of “River Basin Disaster Resilience and Sustainability by All,” and the outcome documents of the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit.

President Kőrösi expressed his high expectations for Japan's contribution to the UN 2023 Water Conference, which takes place in New York on March 22-24. He also stressed that ICHARM's research activities were completely in line with the direction of the discussions that would take place at the conference and that the outputs of ICHARM’s research activities could be an element of “Game Changer” for solving water problems that would be addressed there.

During the discussion session with ICHARM doctoral and master’s students, Mr. Kőrösi kindly provided detailed and insightful answers and explanations to the questions they asked about the UN's efforts to promote flood forecasting and warning systems, effective resource input to cope with disasters due to climate change, and water resources management in international transboundary rivers. It was a very valuable and meaningful opportunity for the students to have a face-to-face discussion directly with the president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Executive Director KOIKE (second from left) delivers a presentation.
Executive Director KOIKE (second from left) delivers a presentation.
 
UN General Assembly President Kőrösi at the meeting (center)
UN General Assembly President Kőrösi at the meeting (center)
 
Discussion session with ICHARM students
Discussion session with ICHARM students
 
UN General Assembly President Kőrösi answers questions from ICHARM students.
UN General Assembly President Kőrösi answers questions from ICHARM students.