World Water Day

The lack of sex disaggregated water data continues to mask how gender shapes access, decision making, and opportunities in the water field —an issue at the heart of this year’s World Water Day. Gender shapes how people interact with water every day. It determines who collects it, who manages it, who makes decisions about it, and who benefits from it. Yet, in many countries, these differences remain invisible—simply because the right data does not exist. The UN World Water Development Report 2026 “ Water for all people: Equal rights and opportunities ”- published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water - highlights that the global water crisis is aggravated by gender inequalities and the persistent lack of sex-disaggregated water data. Without data, it is more difficult for policymakers to fully understand how water issues affect different groups, slowing progress toward gender equality in the water sector. Fostering sex-disaggregated data collection and capacity development through internatio...

   Guest: Mr. Bhanu Neupane, Process Coordinator for the UNESCO World Water Development Report, on the launch of the World Water Development Report. Watch Press conference for the Launch of the World Water Development Report 2026!

  Global water crisis aggravated by gender inequalities according to new UN Report. Despite decades of progress, inequalities continue to compromise global water security , disproportionally impacting women and girls, who despite of being the main collectors of water , continue to be excluded from water resources management and leadership roles . This is the conclusion of the United Nations World Water Development Report , published by UNESCO on behalf of  UN_Water . The report reveals that women are responsible for collecting water in over 70% of un-served rural households.  Read the full press release !

This hands-on training provides participants with practical experience in the design, construction, and deployment of Open Hardware sensor systems for water management. UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme , in collaboration with international and regional partners, organize a training workshop on open hardware and Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for water resources management from 23 to 25 March 2026 in Quito, Ecuador. Open hardware and IoT technologies are transforming water resources management by offering low-cost, locally adaptable solutions for water monitoring and decision-making. Rooted in the principles of open science, these approaches promote data sharing, collaboration, transparency and reproducibility, enabling institutions and communities to build, understand, and maintain their own monitoring systems. The three-day training programme combines live demonstrations, hands-on exercises, and field-based learning. On the first day, participants be introduced to ...

  The current era is increasingly described as the Anthropocene : a term used to capture the extent to which human activities now dominate and reshape key components of the Earth system. It is marked by the scale and speed of human-driven change in climate , land use , biogeochemical cycles , and biodiversity, far beyond the range of natural variability in recent history. Water is at the center of this transformation . Over the past century, societies have drastically reconfigured the global water cycle. Dams, diversions, drainage works, and canals have transformed river systems. Irrigation, land-use change, and groundwater pumping have altered evapotranspiration and recharge patterns. Greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the atmosphere and oceans, changing precipitation regimes , snowpack, glacier mass balance and the intensity of extremes. Population growth, urbanization, and economic expansion have increased water demand for agriculture, industry, energy and cities . These pr...

Although tangible progress in the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services has been made, significant disparities persist. The poorest and most vulnerable of the world’s population remain the most affected, where women and girls still bear most of the responsibility for securing water to households. This leads to physical and mental stress, limiting their time and opportunities for education, productive work and social activities.

Through the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) , UNESCO collects water data disaggregated by sex, age, and other dimensions as a critical step in better understanding how water is used, managed, and distributed. It conducts gender analyses to identify and understand gender issues, and how to adequately address them in planning, projects, and policies. Collecting water data disaggregated by sex, age, and other dimensions is a critical step in better understanding how water is used, managed, and distributed. By conducting gender analyses, UNESCO identifies gender issues, and how governments can adequately address them in planning, projects, and policies. Within the framework of UNESCO's Priority Gender Equality Action Plan , UNESCO WWAP is working on " Water and Gender Equality " along four axes, including indicators, methodology and tools on water and gender; capacity building; field projects and communication a...

  To celebrate World Water Day 2025 , the UNESCO will host an event on Science Diplomacy in Water Issues , focusing on the discussion of sustainable water policies . Water is a fundamental building block of life, essential for fostering economic, social and human development. Inland water systems play a critical role in providing clean water for drinking, agriculture, and industry, while the ocean and seas are essential for global climate stability and biodiversity. The fair distribution of water resources , particularly in the Global South , remains a pressing challenge, highlighting the need for international cooperation and scientific engagement in sustainable water management. To celebrate World Water Day and the launch of the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR 2025), the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, in collaboration with the University for Continuing Education Krems (UWK), the Central European Initiative (CEI), and the In...

A literature review of economic studies assessing the returns on investment from hydrological monitoring programmes found that a dollar of investment in public water data systems generates at the median four dollars in social benefit, which highlights the socio-economic and management value of hydrological data. Read the  World Water Development Report 2021 .  

  Globally, built reservoir capacity per person is decreasing, as reservoir expansion has not been able to keep pace with population growth, but also because storage capacity of existing reservoirs is decreasing, chiefly due to sedimentation . The  Average annual storage volume losses equal about 1% of total built reservoir capacity, and the estimated costs for restoring these losses are approximately US$13 billion per year. An assessment of the value of storage capacity for Enhancing water security in the world’s 400 largest river basins identified water shortage risks in many parts of Africa, as well as in Australia, northern China, India, Spain and the western USA. There are widespread declines in total water storage and associated freshwater availability that are primarily attributed to the intensive overextraction of groundwater and an increasing Temperature-induced surface water loss .