World Water Day

The African Union (AU) has declared 2026 as the Year of “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063.” This theme elevates water and sanitation to a continental political priority, recognizing them as catalysts for economic transformation, climate resilience, public health, food security, and regional stability. The theme was launched during the 39th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Addis Ababa on 14 February 2026. Despite progress, millions of Africans still lack safe water and sanitation, undermining health, productivity, and human dignity. Climate change is intensifying water stress through droughts, floods, and hydrological disruptions. The 2026 Theme responds to this urgent challenge by placing water and sanitation at the center of Africa’s development and climate agenda. This presents a significant opportunity to drive transformative, climate resilient, and people centered investments in water and sanitation. It ...

  Feeding 10 Billion people by 2050 will require urgent changes in how water is used in agriculture . Join us March 19th to launch of the Nourish & Flourish report on scaling solutions that boost agricultural productivity , create jobs & support sustainable growth .

  Water bankruptcy is experienced locally : by a farmer watching a well go dry, a city preparing for Day Zero, a fishing community facing a vanishing lake, or a small island nation confronting saltwater intrusion. But its causes and consequences are increasingly global . Trade patterns link the fate of overdrawn basins to food and commodity markets thousands of kilometers away. Financial flows shape which infrastructures are built and which production systems are expanded or retired. Climate change, driven largely by greenhouse gas emissions from energy , industry and land-use sectors, alters hydrological baselines everywhere. Migration and displacement driven by water shortage and drought reverberate through labor markets, social protection systems, and political dynamics far from the original source. In this sense, Global Water Bankruptcy is not the simple sum of many local crises . It is a systemic condition of the global human–water system : a pattern of chronic overshoo...

  The warnings about a global water crisis were necessary and timely. However, they were framed as alerts about a future that could still be avoided. This  UNU-INWEH report warns that the world has already moved into a new phase. The question is no longer whether a crisis can be averted everywhere, but how to govern in a world where many human–water systems have already failed to the point that previous conditions cannot be restored. To capture this new condition, the report adopts the newly developed water bankruptcy concept. The notion of “water bankruptcy” builds on a simple but powerful analogy with financial bankruptcy. In finance, bankruptcy is declared when an entity has spent beyond its means for so long, and accumulated such unsustainable debts, that it cannot meet its obligations. Declaring bankruptcy is both an admission of failure and the first step toward a fresh start: claims are written down, expectations are reset, and a new, more realistic balance sheet is ne...

Renewable water availability per person has continued to decline by a further 7 per cent over the past decade, while pressure on already scarce freshwater resources is increasing in several regions, according to the 2025 AQUASTAT Water Data Snapshot released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The update provides a global overview of how water availability and use are evolving, presenting new data on irrigation, efficiency, and water stress reported through the 2024 AQUASTAT cycle. Renewable water refers to freshwater that is naturally replenished through the hydrologic cycle, which includes evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The latest figures show that some regions - particularly Northern Africa and Western Asia - continue to operate under extremely limited freshwater endowments. Countries such as Kuwait and Qatar rank among the lowest renewable water resources per person worldwide. Freshwater withdrawals have also increased in several r...

  Building on previous editions, the High-Level Rome Water Dialogue will celebrate solutions put forward by FAO Members on Integrated Water Resources Management for food security . It will encourage commitments from relevant stakeholders in both water and agriculture sectors to support Integrated Water Resource Management and enhance cross-sectorial collaboration on water for food security .The Rome Water Dialogue 2025 will showcase and celebrate FAO Members' water resources management solutions developed and implemented over the past 80 years, contributing to the FAO's celebration of its 80th Anniversary.   Watch the WD02 - Rome Water Dialogue: High-level segment! Agencies, Funds & Programmes +

The edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report 2025 , entitled''  Mountains and glaciers: Water towers ,'' will be released on March 21st during the celebration of the World Water Day . Register to participate!

President of the General Assembly Remarks during the Organizational Session of the 2026 UN Water Conference .  Download Here Letter from the Permanent Mission Representatives.  Download Here

Organizational session ahead of the 2026 UN Water Conference, to consider updated recommendations to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the theme of the Conference's six interactive dialogues. The co-hosts of the 2026 UN Water Conference to Accelerate the Implementation of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) , the Governments of Senegal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced a one-day organizational session. The session will consider updated recommendations to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the theme of the Conference's six interactive dialogues. Watch the (Part 2) Organizational Session for the 2026 UN Water Conference!

The co-hosts of the 2026 UN Water Conference to Accelerate the Implementation of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) , the Governments of Senegal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced a one-day organizational session. The session will consider updated recommendations to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the theme of the Conference's six interactive dialogues. Related Sites and Documents Event Page Letter from the PGA

Communications should be a two-way exchange. ‘Questions people ask’ is a new feature where we answer some of the questions we get asked about important issues, such as, climate change , water scarcity , toilet equity and wastewater . Through responding to queries from our audiences, we aim to explain key issues in a clear and engaging way that fosters ongoing conversations. Questions people ask