The webinar “World Water Day 2026 – Water and Gender: Where Water Flows, Equality Grows,” held on 16 March 2026 at the University of Birmingham, brought together researchers to explore how water and gender equality are deeply interconnected within the context of global water challenges and climate change. Dr Vesna Tripković participated online.
The event emphasized that access to safe water is essential for health, education, and community development, yet remains unevenly distributed, with women and girls disproportionately affected by water scarcity and often responsible for water collection and household water management. Speakers highlighted that women and girls collectively spend hundreds of millions of hours daily collecting water, limiting their opportunities for education, work, and participation in decision-making, while still being underrepresented in water governance and leadership structures worldwide.
A key presentation by Tanvi Deshpande focused on gender and water governance in the Global South, using the case of a female municipal engineer in Rajkot, India, who rose through a male-dominated bureaucratic system and significantly contributed to improving urban water supply, sustainability practices, and community engagement. Her work demonstrated how women in decision-making roles can actively transform water service delivery and urban resilience when given institutional space and authority. The discussion also highlighted broader structural barriers, including institutional masculinization of water management, socio-cultural norms, and limited access for women to leadership positions. Tanvi emphasized that while representation is improving slowly, meaningful equality requires not only numerical inclusion but also real decision-making power.
The webinar further reflected on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, with additional perspectives showing how cultural narratives, language, and societal norms shape perceptions of gender roles in water and environmental governance. Overall, the event concluded that addressing water challenges requires integrating gender equality into policy and practice, strengthening women’s leadership, and ensuring inclusive participation at all levels of decision-making, in order to achieve both Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) and Sustainable Development Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation).
