India will welcome global water community to the India International Water Week, organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti on the theme Climate Resilient Water Management.
Water connects us in ways few other resources do. Rivers do not recognise administrative boundaries, aquifers may sustain several communities, and rain that falls today becomes tomorrow’s drinking water, irrigation source, groundwater or river flow. This leads to a simple but important principle: water is a shared resource, and securing it for our future generations is a shared responsibility.
It is in this spirit that India will welcome the global water community to the 9th India International Water Week, organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti from 22nd to 26th September 2026 in New Delhi. The theme, “Climate Resilient Water Management”, is particularly relevant at a time when climate change is making the water cycle increasingly unpredictable.
India International Water Week is more than a conference. It is a platform where governments, experts, industry, communities and international partners can exchange experience, technology and ideas and build partnerships for the future. It also seeks to further the spirit and lessons from the recent Departmental Summit on Water, an idea mooted by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, where Indian States and UTs came together to deliberate on the sector’s challenges, share experiences, and identify the way forward.
India brings to this dialogue extensive experience of implementing water and sanitation programmes at scale. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, the Jal Jeevan Mission has brought tap water to more than 15.9 crore rural households, from 3.23 crore households in 2019.
Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 is centered on transforming water-supply infrastructure into dependable public service delivery systems. Gram Panchayats and its Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) are being empowered as local micro utilities for operating, maintaining and monitoring rural water services. Jal Seva Aankalan, a Gram Panchayat-led digital drinking water service functionality assessment, initiative marks a decisive shift from infrastructure creation to sustained service delivery, placing Gram Panchayats and village institutions through ‘Jan Bhagidari’, at the centre of assessing the regularity, adequacy, quality and sustainability of drinking water supply in Har Ghar Jal (HGJ) villages.
Through the Namami Gange Programme, India has adopted an integrated approach to rejuvenating the river Ganga and its tributaries, combining sewage infrastructure and pollution abatement with ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation and people’s participation. More than 527 projects have been sanctioned and 367 completed under the programme, creating a sewage treatment capacity of 4,263 MLD.
Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen offers an equally important lesson. More than 12 crore toilets have been constructed in rural areas. Besides infrastructure creation, this has brought dignity for our mothers and sisters and ensuring behaviour change. The second phase of this mission has also focused upon solid and liquid waste management- with multiple interventions being done for greywater management at both household and community levels. Across these programmes runs a common thread — ‘Jan Bhagidari’, with the conviction that public policy is strongest when people move from being beneficiaries to becoming partners.
The same approach guides our water-conservation efforts. Through initiatives such as Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari and the Catch the Rain campaign, our objective is to make water conservation not merely a government programme, but a habit and a people’s movement. Climate-resilient water management must ultimately be locally understood, owned and sustained. Recently, we have released the ‘Catch The Rain’ Anthem too.
India’s experience also teaches us that there is no single solution to water challenges. The needs of a Himalayan State differ from those of an arid region, just as the challenges of a growing city differ from those of a rural community. This diversity makes our States and Union Territories a rich reservoir of experience in groundwater recharge, irrigation efficiency, community management of drinking-water systems and wastewater reuse. When such experiences are shared, successful local solutions can travel far beyond the places where they began.
This principle applies internationally as well. No country has all the answers to water security, and every country has something to contribute and learn. India International Water Week, therefore, embodies partnership rather than prescription, bringing global experience in sustainable water management, technology, financing and climate-risk management into conversation with India’s own experience.
Water cannot be managed in silos. Water security is inseparable from food security, public health, livelihoods, ecological security and sustainable development. Discussions at India International Water Week, therefore, span river-basin and aquifer management, wastewater reuse, water-use efficiency, forecasting, early-warning systems and environmental flows.
Technology will be an important part of this transition. Better data, modelling and digital systems can help us understand how water availability is changing, anticipate risks and improve efficiency. But technology delivers its greatest value when it enables better decisions by governments, local institutions and communities. This is why the participation of practitioners, start-ups and young people is especially important. Under JJM’s institutional reform, the Sujalam Bharat digital public infrastructure ecosystem is leveraging data and technology to improve planning, source sustainability, performance monitoring and citizen-centric governance. This transition from infrastructure creation to service assurance reflects India's commitment to building resilient, accountable and future-ready water systems.
Financing must also evolve with the scale of the challenge. Public investment will remain fundamental, but climate-resilient water infrastructure will increasingly require innovative financing, responsible private participation and partnerships that mobilise resources while keeping public purpose at its core.
At the same time, healthy rivers, wetlands, aquifers and ecosystems are themselves part of our water infrastructure. As climate change brings more uncertain rainfall, intense precipitation, prolonged dry periods, floods and groundwater stress, resilience will require source sustainability, better science and forecasting, adaptive infrastructure, sound institutions and informed communities.
This is the larger purpose of India International Water Week: to bring leadership, science, implementation, technology, finance, and public participation to a common table. From 22nd to 26th September, Bharat Mandapam will become a hub for India’s water experience and the world’s water knowledge. We are ready to share what we have learnt from implementing programmes at scale, and equally ready to listen and learn from others.
Climate change may make the water cycle more uncertain. Our response cannot be uncertain. It must be collective, scientific, inclusive and sustained.
Whether it is a village pond, an aquifer, a river basin, or our changing global climate, the lesson is the same: water connects us all. Its future cannot be secured by governments alone, or by any one institution or country. Water is our shared resource. Water security is our shared responsibility.
Together we must secure every drop for generations to come and ensure that we contribute to achieving the Prime Minister’s call for Vikshit Bharat@2047.
(The author is Union Minister of Jal Shakti)