Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The sixth Pakistan Water Week (PWW 2026) has concluded here, with a clear message to stakeholders, development partners and the international community: the time for generating knowledge about Pakistan’s water challenges must give way to measurable, accountable and coordinated action.
Held under the theme “Commitments to Action: Advancing Water Security and Climate-Resilient Food Systems in Pakistan”, the conference brought together around 350 in-person and over 800 online participants, including federal and provincial officials, researchers, development finance institutions, civil society organisations and international experts, across 26 sessions.
It was organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the CGIAR Policy Innovations Science Program, in collaboration with Pakistani government institutions and development partners including UNICEF, ACIAR, ICIMOD, EU and FAO, said a press release issued here on Friday.
Chief Guest at the closing ceremony, Federal Minister for Water Resources Mian Muhammad Mueen Wattoo, said the Government of Pakistan is committed to pursuing water security through lawful, peaceful and evidence-based means. He appreciated IWMI and its partners for convening a platform that moves beyond diagnosis, and called on the organising institutions to turn the conference recommendations into practical programmes with clear indicators.
He outlined four implementation priorities: explicit responsibility for putting water policy into practice, judging water infrastructure by its performance, linking water investment to agricultural productivity, and protecting water quality while managing surface water and groundwater together.
He also committed to measuring progress over the coming year against water service reliability, farmer benefits and community protection.
Presenting the synthesis of Thematic Area 1, “Policy to Practice”, Johan Gély of IWMI said Pakistan already has the policy architecture it needs, but lacks the institutional mechanisms, accountability structures and evidence-integration systems to deliver on it. He called for a shift from fragmented initiatives to coordinated governance, from evidence generation to evidence-informed decisions, and from reactive spending to preventive investment.
Priorities included a legal framework for groundwater governance, updated hydrological assessments and design standards, greater use of nature-based solutions, and structured roles for young people in water governance, including a proposed youth innovator prize.
Dr. Claudia Ringler of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)—presenting the synthesis for Thematic Area 2, “Innovation to Impact” stressed that innovation without inclusion falls short of true impact, emphasizing that solutions must be designed with and for women, smallholder farmers, and marginalized communities.
She called for national data governance frameworks to enable cross-agency data sharing, investment in the capacity and data infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence and digital tools, and reform of subsidy, credit and extension systems to help climate-smart irrigation reach scale.
Dr. Mohsin Hafeez, Strategic Programme Director, Water, Food and Ecosystems, IWMI, delivered the vote of thanks and framed Pakistan Water Week as a commitment to action rather than an end in itself. He underlined the importance of government leadership in translating policies into measurable results and reaffirmed the long-term partnership of IWMI and CGIAR in Pakistan’s water security journey. IWMI will document progress against the conference recommendations over the coming year and report it at Pakistan Water Week 2027.
Participants agreed on follow-up priorities including stronger coordination across federal and provincial water, agriculture, energy and disaster management institutions, measurable indicators for water service reliability, agricultural productivity, groundwater levels and community resilience, and regional cooperation on cryosphere risk in the upper Indus Basin.
