India's water security depends on connecting institutions, data and communities. IWMI brings evidence and partnership to India International Water Week 2026. Water connects farms, cities, industries and ecosystems, but the institutions responsible for managing it often work separately. Agricultural policies influence groundwater use, energy subsidies shape irrigation choices, and decisions made upstream affect communities and ecosystems downstream. When these connections are overlooked, efforts to improve water security in one sector can create new challenges in another. India has many of the ingredients needed to address this complexity: established research institutions, technical expertise, community-based water management initiatives and growing digital capabilities. The challenge is to bring these strengths together so that decisions account for the connections between water, energy, food production and ecosystems. This was a central message emerging from the nineth India International Water Week (IIWW) 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Through research presentations, policy discussions and new institutional agreements, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its partners highlighted how more coordinated approaches can help India move towards sustainable and equitable water management. Managing water as an interconnected system. Water management decisions often involve competing priorities. Groundwater irrigation supports agricultural production and rural livelihoods, for example, but excessive extraction can deplete aquifers while increasing energy consumption. Expanding irrigation infrastructure without considering these wider effects can therefore create problems beyond the farm. Addressing such trade-offs requires a water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus approach, which examines how decisions in one sector affect the others. At the Global Water Leaders' Plenary on the WEFE nexus, IWMI Director General Mark Smith highlighted the need to move beyond sector-based policies towards a more integrated approach. Ecosystems, he argued, must be treated as a foundation of resilience rather than as an additional consideration in development planning. IWMI's work illustrates how this approach can inform practice. From solar-powered irrigation in India to efforts in Uzbekistan to reduce water, energy and carbon footprints simultaneously to Sri Lanka's Mahaweli Development Program on integrated basin development. Digital tools can help decision makers understand these connections. Technologies such as river-basin digital twins and emerging AI-enabled decision-support systems can bring together information from different sectors, allowing planners to examine scenarios and assess the potential consequences of competing demands. But better information alone is not enough. Institutions must also be equipped to use it, coordinate across mandates and translate evidence into decisions. With the 2026 UN Water Conference approaching, the need to integrate water considerations into policies across sectors is becoming increasingly important. "India International Water Week is an important platform to connect evidence, policy and practice. IWMI is proud to contribute research and partnerships that advance a more water-secure India," said Gopal Kumar, IWMI's country representative for India and Bangladesh. The IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, which marked 25 years in 2025 demonstrates the importance of treating research publications as a starting point for engagement, allowing findings to inform policy and practice while recognizing that not every pilot intervention will succeed. From groundwater infrastructure to measurable outcomes. The need to connect technical interventions with local realities was also evident in IWMI's research contributions at IIWW. Oorna Raut, Research Officer at IWMI, spoke on equity in water allocation and access across sectors. Her work examines how access to water and energy shapes rural livelihoods, including how women-led models such as Solar Didi in Bihar can help make solar irrigation more equitable. This connection matters because expanding access to irrigation technology does not automatically guarantee equitable benefits. The outcomes also depend on who controls the technology, who can access water and energy, and whether women and other underserved groups can participate in decisions. Mohammad Faiz Alam presented an evaluation of managed aquifer recharge interventions across India's agro-ecological regions. His work highlighted the importance of assessing the performance of recharge interventions rather than relying primarily on the number of structures built. Measuring how well these interventions function can help decisionmakers identify what works, improve investments and direct resources towards more effective groundwater management. Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee shared evidence and lessons from Atal Jal, one of India's largest community-led groundwater management programmes. The experience highlights the importance of community leadership in participatory groundwater governance, where lasting change depends on people having both the information and the capacity to manage their shared resources. These examples illustrate that water security cannot be measured only by the infrastructure created or the technology deployed. It also depends on whether interventions deliver results over time and whether the people who depend on water have a meaningful role in managing it. Turning collaboration into institutional commitments. At IIWW 2026, IWMI and its partners also formalised three agreements aimed at strengthening research, implementation and knowledge exchange. A Work Plan for 2026-2030 with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) renews a partnership dating back to 1996. The plan provides a framework for connecting research with agricultural and water-management priorities, including the relationship between farm-level decisions and wider basin outcomes. IWMI also signed a memorandum of understanding with HCLFoundation, which implements HCLTech's corporate social responsibility agenda, to co-design and scale locally adaptive climate solutions in some of India's most climate-vulnerable rural districts. The collaboration will focus on marginalized groups and women, linking climate resilience with more inclusive development. A five-year memorandum of understanding with the North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management (NERIWALM) will strengthen joint research, project development, capacity building and knowledge exchange on sustainable water and natural resource management in India's Northeast. The agreement builds on ongoing collaboration under CGIAR Capacity Sharing. India's water challenges are interconnected, and addressing them requires more than isolated interventions. Digital tools can improve understanding of water systems, research can help evaluate the effectiveness of investments, and community participation can make management more responsive to local needs. But these elements deliver greater value when institutions work together and sustain their efforts over time. As India seeks to strengthen water security amid growing demands and climate pressures, the priority is to make these connections work in practice The opportunity is not simply to develop more water-management solutions, but to connect the knowledge, institutions and people needed to make them effective.

Pakistan Water Week 2026 to begin in Islamabad on nov 2. ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 (APP):The 6th Pakistan Water Week will be held in Islamabad from November 2 to 6 to bring national and international stakeholders together to advance water security and climate-resilient food systems. The international conference, themed "Commitments to Action: Advancing Water Security and Achieving Climate-Resilient Food Systems in Pakistan," will be organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in collaboration with the Pakistan Council of Research in Water... ISLAMABAD, Oct 25 (APP):The 6th Pakistan Water Week will be held in Islamabad from November 2 to 6 to bring national and international stakeholders together to advance water security and climate-resilient food systems. The international conference, themed "Commitments to Action: Advancing Water Security and Achieving Climate-Resilient Food Systems in Pakistan," will be organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in collaboration with the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) and the Ministry of Water Resources. Chairman Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani will be the chief guest at the inaugural session on November 2. The event will bring together policymakers, parliamentarians, researchers, development partners, youth leaders, civil society representatives and media professionals, with participation available both in person and online. The conference will feature two parallel thematic tracks, each comprising 13 sessions, focusing on strengthening water, agriculture and food systems through effective policy implementation and scaling up inclusive innovations for climate resilience. Key topics will include groundwater management, irrigation reforms, drought and health, climate financing, Pakistan's preparations for COP31, the water-energy-food-environment nexus, artificial intelligence, digital twins, cryosphere risks in the Upper Indus Basin, and women's and youth leadership in water security. Three plenary sessions will focus on development partners' priorities in water and climate, water governance in the Indus Basin, and Australian water innovations for the basin. IWMI Director General Dr. Mark Smith will join the second-day plenary panel online alongside national and international experts. International participants will also visit a water body during a study tour scheduled for the final day. "Pakistan already has many of the policies, laws and plans it needs. The real challenge is implementation," said Dr. Mohsin Hafeez, Strategic Program Director for Water, Food and Ecosystems at IWMI. He said the conference aimed to bridge the gap between evidence and decision-making by linking policy commitments with practical action on the ground. IWMI Country Representative for Pakistan Dr. Muhammad Ashraf said water security had become central to Pakistan's food security, economy and climate resilience. He said the conference would bring science, policy and practice together to identify priorities, determine responsibilities and establish mechanisms to track progress. The event is supported by PCRWR through the Ministry of Water Resources, UNICEF, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the CGIAR Policy Innovations Science Program and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Building Climate Resilience from the ground up in northern Lao PDR. * October 9, 2026 In the mountains of northern Lao PDR, one storm can wash out a village road. A dry spell can empty an irrigation canal. A landslide can cut a school off from the families it serves. As the climate changes, these events are becoming more frequent and more severe. The Community Livelihood Enhancement and Resilience (CLEAR) project has been helping vulnerable communities respond. Led by the Government of Lao PDR under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and financed by the World Bank, CLEAR supports 450 villages across seven provinces to improve livelihoods, food security, and nutrition through community-led development. With a contribution from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), CLEAR is building on the climate-resilient infrastructure it has already delivered, adding a landscape-scale approach that works with nature, not against it. From July 2026 to June 2028, ICEM is providing External Technical Assistance on Climate-Resilient and Ecosystem-Based Infrastructure for this effort in targeted village clusters in Oudomxay, Phongsaly and Xiengkhouang provinces. Thinking beyond a single location Taking a catchment approach, ICEM look at the whole landscape that villages share: forests, streams, slopes, and farmland. Healthy ecosystems protect infrastructure and communities. Planted riverbanks resist erosion, and well-managed slopes are less likely to collapse. Combining engineering with nature makes infrastructure last longer and brings extra benefits for people and biodiversity. What ICEM is doing * Mapping risks with communities: Villagers, local officials, CLEAR staff, and its specialists map hazards and natural resources together, so solutions start with local knowledge. * Building three model sites: In each of three village clusters in Nhot Ou district in Phongsaly, Nga district in Oudomxay and Nong Hed district in Xiengkhouang, ICEM help select, design and build a demonstration of nature-based protection, from the first idea through to handover. * Strengthening skills: CLEAR staff, Climate Resilience Young Graduates, village implementation teams and local contractors learn by doing, so the know-how stays in Lao PDR after the project ends. * Measuring and sharing what works. Simple tools will track how many people benefit and how many hectares of ecosystem are protected or restored. Guidelines, briefs and case studies will help other villages and programmes follow. From the field Between September and October 2026, ICEM's team spent three weeks in Nong Hed, Nga and Nhot Ou districts, working with CLEAR staff, district officers and Village Implementation Teams (VITs). Communities in all three districts described similar pressures: landslides and the flooding and erosion of roads; land degradation where forest has given way to upland maize and sugarcane; and seasonal drought that leaves households short of domestic water. The participatory mapping sessions drew well beyond the VIT members, with at least ten other community members joining in most villages and more than 50 in some. Ban Houaithao in Nong Hed, Ban Thin in Nga and Ban Nakong in Nhot Ou were selected as priority sites for ICEM's future model demonstration works. Working together None of this happens alone. ICEM work side by side with CLEAR at national and district levels, with partners including the Department of Land Administration and Management (DLAM), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Department of Agricultural Extension and Cooperatives (DAEC) and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), and above all with the village communities themselves. ICEM is grateful to SDC for its support, to the Government of Lao PDR and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and to the CLEAR team in Lao PDR for their trust, knowledge and daily partnership. Without them, this work would not be possible. Blog, ICEM team, News climate adaptation, climate resilience, Lao PDR