Deltares at the Stockholm World Water Week: from ambition to action
2026 is an important year for water. As World Water Week takes place in Stockholm, and with the 2026 UN Water Conference on the horizon, action has never been more urgent. In the run-up to both events, Deltares experts are calling for the implementation gap to be closed, and a move from ambition to action with concrete and sustainable results. This is key to delivering water security and resilience for all.
World Water Week, hosted by SIWI in Stockholm, is around the corner. This year’s theme, ‘Water for People and Progress’, will focus on how to build a more just and equitable water-secure future for people and the planet in a rapidly changing climate.
Deltares at the World Water Week
A Deltares delegation will be in attendance, hosting and taking part in a number of sessions. The relationship between water and people is a central theme for Deltares at World Water Week. By connecting the two, we can close knowledge gaps, promote inclusion (including of vulnerable communities, youth, and women), and improve water security and resilience.
Deltares’ sessions include:
- an exploration of green water and terrestrial moisture recycling through which ecosystems help generate rainfall, regulate climate, and support water security
- looking at real cases and co-creating actionable, inclusive solutions for climate-resilient water security;
- uniting water and people by strengthening the participation of local communities in the governance of water ecosystems;
- showcasing how cities can co-design inclusive, community-centred early warning systems that include vulnerable communities;
- reframing failure: learning from failed projects and identifying practical pathways towards more just and water-secure futures; and
- promoting peace and security by using predictive data tools with inclusive dialogue processes to help stakeholders.
Concrete, sustainable results
Deltares’ sessions at World Water Week highlight the importance of connecting people and water, but this alone is not enough. As knowledge and governance gaps, and opportunities for inclusion, are identified, one thing is abundantly clear: we need to move forward.
Countless commitments have been made over the years to deliver a water-secure future for all, but a large gap remains between plans and the delivery of solutions. The challenge now is to accelerate implementation through concrete, sustainable action and effective partnerships.
Achieving water security for all requires moving beyond commitments and delivering tangible, sustainable results. This means understanding where change is needed most, expanding successful approaches, scaling up actionable solutions, and harnessing emerging opportunities and partnerships to build resilience and secure water resources for current and future generations.
Priorities for water resilience
For Deltares, moving from ambition to action means focusing on the conditions that allow water resilience to be delivered at scale. This starts with moving beyond recognition of today's water-related challenges towards preparing for the future water cycles through actionable climate-resilient solutions, practical delivery pathways, investable programmes, stronger partnerships, and governance frameworks that can support long-term implementation.
Water resilience is also closely connected to peace and security. A long-standing partner in the Water, Peace and Security Partnership, Deltares will continue to champion integrated approaches to move from understanding water-related insecurity to concrete action on the ground.
A sustainable and inclusive approach to water management promotes peace and security. By reducing water-related risks, strengthening social stability, and helping communities, economies, and ecosystems cope with shocks such as droughts, floods, climate change, and water scarcity, resilient water systems form a foundation for more resilient societies.
A better understanding of green water and the full water cycle is an essential part of this. By restoring natural water cycle processes, nature-based solutions can help reduce the impacts of droughts, floods and other climate extremes.
Finally, water can act as leverage for wider change. By using water challenges as a catalyst for integrated, long-term solutions, we can bring together infrastructure, governance, finance, nature-based approaches, and community engagement to strengthen resilience where it is needed most.
2026 UN Water Conference: delivering tangible results
In December, world leaders will gather in Abu Dhabi for the 2026 United Nations Water Conference. The Conference, co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates and Senegal, comes three years after the 2023 UN Water Conference in New York, which saw many commitments and initiatives.
Now, as we enter the final five years of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda, shifting from commitments to real action, will be key if we want to realise SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).
It is only by working together, transforming partnerships into concrete results, and realising the commitments made during the 2023 UN Water Conference that we can build a water-secure future for all.
The discussions on water resilience priorities at the Stockholm World Water Week are the first step in launching roadmaps for delivering tangible results at the 2026 UN Water Conference.
