IWA Global Sanitation Summit 2027

The Future of Sanitation: Decentralised, Water-Efficient, Scalable

Across the world, billions of people still lack access to safe, reliable sanitation — with the greatest needs concentrated in low- and middle-income countries. Improving access remains one of the most urgent public health and development challenges of our time.

At the same time, the sector is undergoing rapid change. New approaches — including decentralised, water-efficient and resource-smart solutions — are demonstrating that safe sanitation can be delivered differently, and at scale.

The IWA Global Sanitation Summit has been created to bring these two realities together: the urgent need to expand access, and the opportunity to deploy proven solutions more effectively.

A Summit focused on implementation and impact

Built around the theme ‘The Future of Sanitation: Decentralised, Water-Efficient, Scalable’, the IWA Global Sanitation Summit is a dedicated, implementation-focused platform designed to accelerate progress — particularly where improved access and service delivery are most needed.

The Summit will bring together:

• governments and regulators

• utilities and municipal operators

• development practitioners

• financiers and development banks

• industry and solution providers

This is all with a shared objective: to move from pilot projects to large-scale deployment, and from discussion to action.

Supporting the global sanitation community

The Summit is designed as a welcoming forum for the global sanitation community — those working to improve access, strengthen services, and deliver solutions on the ground.

At the same time, it will provide space to engage with emerging approaches, technologies and delivery models from different regions and contexts, where these can support progress in addressing real-world sanitation challenges.

What the Summit will deliver

Through a structured and curated programme, the Summit will:

• showcase proven, scalable solutions already being implemented

• align policy, regulation, finance and delivery models to enable scale

• create practical pathways for implementation through structured dialogue

• generate credible commitments and market signals to accelerate progress

The programme follows a clear arc: from what works → to what needs to change → to what will be done next

Join a platform for real progress

The IWA Global Sanitation Summit is designed to strengthen collaboration, mobilise action, and support meaningful progress in sanitation.

If you are working to improve sanitation access, strengthen systems, or enable solutions at scale — this Summit is designed for you. 

Sponsorship opportunities

The IWA Global Sanitation Summit 2027 represents an outstanding opportunity to access an audience of highly influential participants who are shaping practical action on sanitation and the scaling up of solutions around the world.

Sponsorship will help secure visibility with the participating governments and regulators, utilities and municipal operators, development practitioners, financiers and development banks, and more.

The Global Sanitation Summit will feature an Exhibition area that will operate as a curated marketplace – the Sanitation Solutions Exchange. Sponsor packages will include a prominent presence within the Sanitation Solutions Exchange.

The Sanitation Solutions Exchange will provide a platform to showcase solutions spanning decentralised systems, reuse integration, and sludge and resource recovery, including the finance and business models that make them scalable.

Regular and extended breaks will provide opportunity for a high degree of interaction between exhibitors and wider participants in the Summit, including at a dedicated presentation space in the Sanitation Solutions Exchange area.

Download the sponsorship and exhibitor brochure here.

Sign up for updates using the subscribe options at the bottom of the webpage.

IWA Global Sanitation Summit – schedule update

The IWA Global Sanitation Summit 2027, originally scheduled for January 2027, is being rescheduled for later in the year. The Summit will remain in Cape Town, South Africa, with the revised timing allowing this important new event to be developed on a broader and more ambitious scale.

Since plans for the Summit were announced, IWA has received significant interest from organisations with influential roles across the global sanitation sector wishing to engage with and contribute to the event. This builds on the already strong support within South Africa, including from the Water Research Commission as Host Partner and through broad sector participation in the Local Organising Committee.

The revised timing will provide greater opportunity to bring these organisations and perspectives together and strengthen the Summit as a global platform for advancing action on sanitation.

Further details, including the new dates, will be announced shortly.