SNV at World Water Week 2026: Water for people and progress
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World Water Week is a leading global conference for dialogue, collaboration, and action on water-related challenges and opportunities. This year, the conference will take place from August 23 to 27 in Stockholm, Sweden.
As the focus shifts from raising awareness to accelerating implementation, together with our partners, SNV will share insights and lessons from Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Nepal on how integrated planning, smarter investment, and stronger local systems can accelerate progress towards water security for all.
For SNV, water security is not only an ecological and economic crisis but also a crisis of governance and equity. Therefore, achieving water security for all requires scaling equitable, climate-resilient water solutions that deliver systemic impact.
Sessions: Sunday, 23 August
Improving data use on water for people
Sunday, 23 August | 14:00 - 15:30 | C3, Level 2
Interactive session on how governments and their partners can improve the use of data on the provision of water and sanitation services by monitoring, compiling, and using data along the entire results chain of service provision: from financial inputs via the strength of the systems to actual services delivered.
SNV will share experiences from the WASH Systems for Health programme in Nepal (and Tanzania), underpinning the progress made on the building blocks of systemic change to support WASH service delivery at scale.
Partners: IRC, AfC, FCDO, GOAL Global, Self Help Africa, SNV, UNICEF, WfP, WaterAid, WHO
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Designing water-sensitive cities by integrating sponginess, sanitation, and climate resilience
Sunday, 23 August | 16:00 - 17:30 | Room 24/25, Level 2
Rapid urbanisation and climate change are reducing cities' ability to absorb, store and safely manage water, resulting in increased flooding, sanitation failures and environmental degradation. This session explores how water-sensitive urban design can help cities become more climate resilient by integrating sanitation, drainage, ecosystems and urban planning. Drawing on experiences from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Kenya, participants will examine how cities can move from fragmented projects towards integrated urban water systems.
SNV will showcase its work in Bangladesh using spatial "sponginess" assessments to identify urban water vulnerabilities and guide investment decisions. Through the Sustainable Urban Water Cycle (SUWC) approach, the session highlights practical pathways for translating evidence into city-level action and investment.
Partners: GIZ and VEI
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Managing the Sylhet floods in Bangladesh
In early June of 2024, the Surma River in Sylhet surged past its 10.8m danger mark, displacing thousands. Since then, SNV has been collaborating with government organisations and residents of Sylhet to mitigate the effects of flooding and improve solid waste management practices.
Sessions: Thursday, 27 August
Pay now or pay more: the sanitation investment challenge - exploring costs, systems, and investment choices in climate-resilient sanitation
Thursday, 27 August | 11:00 - 12:30 | Room 27, Level 2
Climate change is reshaping the economics of sanitation, yet investment decisions often fail to account for the true costs of system failure and climate risk. Through an interactive "investment lab" format, this session challenges participants to make real-world funding decisions and explore the trade-offs involved in financing climate-resilient sanitation systems.
SNV will present evidence from its Bangladesh sanitation costing study, which examines the costs of climate resilience, the consequences of inaction, and the financing gap facing secondary cities. The session demonstrates why climate-resilient sanitation requires system-wide investment, stronger public financing mechanisms, and a shift from funding infrastructure alone to financing sustainable service delivery systems
Partners: UTS-ISF, Leeds University, UNICEF
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Innovative approaches and financing mechanisms for small-scale irrigation
Thursday, 27 August | 14:00 - 15:30 | A2, Level 6
Access to irrigation remains a barrier to adaptation for many smallholder farmers—especially women, who face disproportionate constraints related to land, credit, and household decision-making. This session will explore innovative market-based approaches to expand inclusion and equity in small-scale irrigation, including farmer-owned and non-ownership models.
Irrigation adoption has the potential to increase farmer income and reduce vulnerability to climate variability. During the session, SNV will showcase the five key pathways towards achieving climate-resilient, sustainable, and inclusive irrigation. Based on our experience working with farmers, multiple interconnected systems must function at different scales for irrigation to reach its potential
Partners: IFPRI, BMZ, University of Nebraska
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