Sector Dialogues is a cooperation instrument aimed at reinforcing the strategic partnership between the EU and Brazil, based on the principles of reciprocity, complementarity and mutual interest. Sector Dialogues aims to enhance exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices at technical and political level, in key areas of interest for both sides.

Policy Briefs in Frontiers for Water by Dr. Hugo Hidalgo, Costa Rica's water program focal point

At present more than 4 billion people live in cities therefore Planet Earth is a Urban Planet (Science, 2016). Since cities are a critical pathway of changes in life style, economy, and environment, it is important to standardize a common gathering program and creating a shared platform for collecting/accessing/analyzing all information in urban regions based on high quality data. This will enable the administration to be more effective in the implementation of new and advanced public policies. Furthermore, considering the crucial role that dynamic of the all processes in cities play on the environment, it is fundamental to monitor air, water and soil quality and pollution impacts in order to evaluate the potential effects on human health both in short-term and long-term. Equally important is to monitor the effects of bacteriological and virologic infectious diseases or pandemics such as COVID-19.

As the Americas become increasingly urbanized, the challenges of providing water supplies for domestic and industrial uses continue to multiply in number and difficulty. Similarly, the problems of collecting, treating, and managing wastewater grow in magnitude and present their own special challenges to urban areas throughout the hemisphere. This article provides an overview and summary of these challenges in the entire American continent and part of the Caribbean and identifies directions for action to address many of them.

The severe global problem caused by the appearance and wide dispersion of the corona virus COVID-19 is manifested not only as a problem of public health, but also as an ecological imbalance due to a viral contagion between species of different organisms where the human species has been severely affected.

Eutrophication is one of the most prevalent and widespread environmental problems of inland waters in the world. Eutrophication is a natural process that slowly occurs over extended (i.e., geological) time scales; however, anthropogenic activities in the past century have drastically increased its rate, scope, and impact.

Within the framework of actions aimed at disseminating and popularizing scientific knowledge in society, the Concytec, through the Special Program for the Popularization of Science, Technology and Innovation (PPOP), will hold the seventh edition of the Science and Society Colloquium called Quality of water: health of ecosystems and human health, this edition being the first to be organized internationally.

Dr. Nicole Bernex and Dennis Ferguson Nicole Bernex, President of the Geographical Society of Lima, and Dennis Ferguson, Consultant in cultural development in "Water sustenance of life", present us with an interesting and pleasant video: "El Apu Pariacaca, Señor de los Hielos". - "... the God Pariacaca considered as the God of torrential rains and water, in the time of our ancestors, the Incas ..."

The Academies of Sciences of the Americas organized different activities to present the recent publication "Water Quality in the Americas: Risks and Opportunities" during the World Water Day.