Global Leaders Call for Integrated Water Governance at UN Side Event
A high-level policy dialogue on water transversality convened virtually on July 7, 2026, as an official side event of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2026. The event, titled “Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships to Accelerate SDG 6 via Water Transversality,” was organized by the India Water Foundation with support from ICIMOD, the International Water Resources Association, the International Network of Basin Organizations, and the World Water Council.
Ms. Shweta Tyagi, Chief Functionary of the India Water Foundation, opened and moderated the proceedings. She attributed uneven progress on SDG 6 to fragmented ministries, financing, and policy processes. Dr. Arvind Kumar, President of the India Water Foundation, described water as the invisible thread and “operating system” of sustainable development, urging stakeholders to reframe it as economic infrastructure, a geopolitical bridge, and a matter of social justice.
Public Health and Transboundary Cooperation Highlighted
Sh. Amit Kumar Ghosh, Additional Chief Secretary of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, linked the state’s public health strategy to India’s national One Health Mission, characterizing water as medicine, prevention, and dignity. Ms. Sonja Koeppel, Secretary to the UNECE Water Convention, disclosed that only 43 of 153 countries sharing transboundary waters have operational cooperation arrangements in place, underscoring the need for institutionalized and inclusive governance.
Ms. Mio Oka, Country Director of the India Resident Mission at the Asian Development Bank, reported that water considerations are now embedded across agriculture, cities, and ecosystems. She called for innovative and private finance to make transversality bankable. Dr. Eric Tardieu, Director General of the International Office for Water and Secretary General of the International Network of Basin Organizations, positioned river-basin authorities as natural accelerators of SDG 6. He advocated for integrated water resources management, inclusive governance, shared information systems, and cross-border cooperation to be mainstreamed into water planning.
Community-Led Models and Education as Foundations
Mr. Sampath Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary of the Government of Meghalaya and CEO of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, credited a landscape-based, community-anchored model supported by a new Payment for Ecosystem Services policy with reversing water scarcity in Meghalaya. Dr. Eddy Moors, Former Rector of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, called education the “bedrock of informed citizenship” and warned that climate and water themes remain largely absent from school curricula worldwide. He asserted that long-term water security cannot be achieved without investing equally in people alongside infrastructure.
Ms. Ulrike Kelm, Deputy Executive Director of the International Water Resources Association, hailed water as “the connector” underpinning all 17 SDGs but cautioned that water remains “under fire” from pollution, over-abstraction, and conflict. Dr. Neera Shrestha Pradhan, Water and DRR Lead at ICIMOD, urged that transversality extend vertically from glaciers to oceans, insisting that disaster risk reduction and disaggregated, mountain-inclusive data be treated as core pillars rather than afterthoughts. Mr. Archisman Mitra, Senior Water Economist at the World Bank, identified community ownership, private capital mobilization, and systematic water accounting as three actionable levers for moving transversality from principle to practice.
Key Outcomes and the Road to 2026 UN Water Conference
Converging outcomes from the dialogue included agreement that water can no longer be planned in isolation and must be mainstreamed as economic infrastructure, a geopolitical bridge, and a social-justice imperative across ministries and investment frameworks. Cross-sectoral partnerships spanning governments, basin authorities, multilateral banks, philanthropy, academia, and communities were identified as indispensable to closing the sector’s financing gap, estimated at over 100 billion dollars annually. Disaster risk reduction, disaggregated data, education, and community ownership were called upon to be embedded as core pillars of implementation, not peripheral add-ons. Participants were urged to carry this integrated agenda to the 2026 UN Water Conference, where it was proposed that ministries of education, finance, and water be brought to a shared table for the first time.
The dialogue closed with calls for stable regulatory and institutional environments, decentralized wastewater treatment, climate-smart agriculture, and deeper scientific and data collaboration to be prioritized as the global water community moves from commitment to implementation in the final stretch to 2030, setting a precedent for the 2026 UN Water Conference.
