Water-related issues have cross-cutting character within sustainable development. In order to facilitate a better understanding of some of the challenges, to see some of the promising ways to deal with them and take lessons learned of the past, the Steering Committee of the Group of Friends of Water was established with the participation of Finland, Tajikistan, Thailand and Hungary.

As the first in the series of events planned by the Steering Committee, Dr. Zoltán Illés,  Minister of State for Environmental Affairs of Hungary held a presentation on 2 February 2012 entitled “Water Related Risk Management - the Impact of Human Intervention on Water-Based Ecosystems (lessons learned)”. The presentation can be found here .