Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha has said that the theme of this year’s International World Water Day, “Be the change”, is a call to promote societal awareness about water conservation and storage, and to seek alternative water sources and regulations for a water-secure future.

He underlined that the water crisis, like any other global crisis, requires a cohesive international community that enables its stakeholders to work collectively around common goals by facilitating knowledge sharing and capacity building, and taking advantage of their synergies.

The OIC secretary-general emphasized that water security has assumed a strategic importance for the OIC member states. He added that the challenges of ensuring reliable access to water and managing unpredictable water-related risks are becoming more pronounced. The "enormity of the challenge requires indeed a collective response within a framework of cooperation at global, regional and sub-regional levels", he said.

He reiterated that the OIC General Secretariat and relevant OIC institutions "remain committed to working with member states and all the stakeholders to ensure the realisation of the common objectives as envisaged in the OIC Water Vision Implementation Plan, approved in 2018 in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which provides a framework for promoting cooperation for a water-secure future through increased collaboration, exchange of best practices, technology transfer, capacity building and development of expertise in various water-related disciplines".