Glasgow World Water Congress: action for water – from statesmen to the street

(by Karma Loveday)

Last week’s World Water Congress, hosted in Glasgow by the International Water Association (IWA) and UK water sector, pursued its mission of driving ‘action for water’ as a route to resilience and prosperity. While it is impossible to quantify the tangible outputs from the event at this stage, the building blocks of action were very much in place – the right people, working constructively together beyond traditional silos, to increasingly think system-wide about water for climate resilience, water for nature, water for growth and water for health.

Simultaneously, the UK was able to showcase its strengths in water, presenting a very different picture to the global water world than that common in domestic narratives.

Some of the highlights of the five-day long congress included: 

• Building support and refinement for the ‘Glasgow Framework’ among ministers, investors and regulators – this seeks to help plug the financing gap for SDG6 by providing practical, structured guidance for governments on how to produce effective National Water Strategies and attract sustainable finance to deliver water and sanitation services over time. 

• A dedicated day for utility leaders to network and share ideas on major challenges such as the impact of AI and building system-level resilience. The IWA plans to follow up this forum with a dedicated utility leaders event in Hong Kong in April 2027. 

• Awards and recognitions for IWA members and global water leaders, including three major awards presented during the opening ceremony; recognition of outstanding contributions at the presidents’ dinner; and a gala to celebrate project innovation success. 

• Four UK Forums, exploring beyond-the-boundary topics: landscape scale climate and nature resilience; managing rain where it lands; the future of bioresources; and water and health. These were all in addition to an extensive technical programme curated by the IWA, and twice-daily plenaries. 

• A vibrant exhibition, centred on a UK Pavilion with its own events schedule, which was surrounded by engaging supply chain stands from companies including RSE, Atkins Realis, Jacobs, Mott MacDonald, Grundfos and many more. RSE and Grundfos took the opportunity to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to expand their existing partnership, with RSE designated as a Grundfos-authorised service provider for dosing and disinfection. This will enable the companies to collaborate on standardised water treatment solutions.

• A Women in Water community hub with events programme, designed to make the Congress welcoming and supportive for female visitors.

• A new-style operational competition hosted by Skewb: a control room simulation challenge, designed to be accessible and inclusive. 

• Many privately-hosted adjacent events – from evening celebrations to breakfast roundtables, such as that hosted by AliumBlue and Aecom on supervisory regulation.

• Community and fringe activities – these included inviting local school children to visit the exhibition, and a street demonstration in Glasgow’s city centre by Luke and Tom Stoltman, the world’s strongest brothers, on how heavy the average Scottish daily consumption of 180 litres of water is to move around. 

More detailed coverage will be provided in the November edition of The UK Water Report.