RésEAU Updates June 2026

News to read

• The Rural 21 magazine dedicates its latest dossier to water. Highlights include an article on gender-responsive action in water with GIS planning in the context of India's Water Vision 2047, a piece on bringing a nexus systems approach to its practical application in South Asia, and a contribution on strengthening water resilience in Tajikistan's Syr Darya Basin through coordinated water and land management.
• The Global Water Monitor - 2025 Summary Report, published by the Global Water Monitor Consortium, documents intensifying hydrological extremes in 2025, including rapid shifts between wet and dry conditions and growing water risks in regions not historically exposed to major water hazards.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the updated Guidelines for drinking-water quality, providing the latest global guidance on protecting public health through safe drinking-water management, from catchment to consumer. This third addendum includes notably strengthened guidance on water safety plans for small water supplies.
• The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) examines how youth engagement in WASH innovation ecosystems often fails to translate into influence, identifying weak institutional pathways rather than a lack of platforms as the central challenge (report).
• The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) published the report Water Quality: A Mirror and Magnifier of Structural Inequalities and Social Injustice, finding that over 60% of developing countries face overlapping challenges of unsafe drinking water, poverty and gender inequality, affecting around 2 billion people.
• The RésEAU website now features an updated SDC water projects page with an interactive project map, documentation of select ongoing projects and lessons learnt from accomplished projects.

E-workshops and webinars to attend

• Self-paced – The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Early 2026 Webinar Series recently concluded with sessions on quality water well drilling, market-based sanitation in Rwanda, groundwater for people and planet, non-revenue water reduction, and WASH data for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 progress. All recordings are available on the RWSN webinar page.

Conferences and events to join

• 17-21 August 2026 – Africa Water and Sanitation Systems Leadership Symposium 2026, co-convened by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) and the Government of Rwanda, facilitated by IRC, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda
• 17-28 August 2026 – 17^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope”, with a focus on the land-water nexus, drought resilience and sustainable land management
• 23-27 August 2026 – World Water Week 2026 “Water for People and Progress”, organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), to be held in Stockholm, Sweden and online. Online access passes are free upon registration.
• 7-8 September 2026 – European Water Leakage Summit 2026, to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Opportunities to apply for

• The call for topic proposals for the 40^th AGUASAN Workshop (2027) is open. Submit your proposals to roger.schmid@skat.ch. Submission deadline (extended): 3 July 2026.
• The 2026 United Nations Water Conference, co-hosted by Senegal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will now take place on revised dates 8-10 December 2026 in Abu Dhabi, UAE (previously scheduled for 2-4 December). Applications to organise side events are open to accredited organisations. Application deadline: 31 July 2026.

Please consider sharing your news with all other RésEAU members by sending an email to ResEAU@dgroups.org.

Best regards,

Dr. Daniel Maselli, RésEAU Focal Point, SDC

Lucien Blaser, RésEAU Backstopper, Skat Consulting Ltd.