Water Stewardship: Accelerating Transboundary Climate Adaptation

Water scarcity as well as extreme events such as floods and cyclones are threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people globally. Effective adaptation, however, is often prevented by complexities such as transboundary administration of affected areas, especially water resources that traverse multiple regions and/or national borders. Organised by the IWA SG Sustainability in the Water Sector, in collaboration with the Alliance for Water Stewardship and CEO Water Mandate, this webinar seeks to position water stewardship as an effective approach for climate adaptation. This approach moves from “ownership” or direct control to “stewardship” or shared custody and upkeep of water resources.

While there are many adaptation solutions that are being implemented by different levels of governments, river basin organisations (RBOs) as well as communities and private entities, water issues can be very complex in their geographical aspect. A more holistic approach to tackle water issues and build climate resilience is to work at the watershed or catchment level. This may require the participation of stakeholders that lie in different political/administrative jurisdictions. Water stewardship can provide an effective framework to tackle transboundary issues, as it advocates a bottom-up approach, involving water users and regulators at the same table, creating “water stewards” instead of “water managers”. Water stewardship focuses on water resources and sinks in a catchment, rather than on artificial borders/administrative boundaries.

In this webinar, experts in the water stewardship and adaptation domains will speak about water stewardship in the context of adaptation and improved catchment resilience through case studies and learnings from the private sector.

Practitioners, water utilities, manufacturers, academics, engineers.

Following this session, participants will be able to understand:

• Why a more holistic approach to tackle water issues and build climate resilience is to work at the watershed or catchment level.
• How to use site-level corporate monitoring and academic research to circumvent geopolitical barriers and build unified climate adaptation models.
• How water stewardship can provide an effective framework to tackle transboundary issues, as it advocates a bottom-up approach
• How water stewardship shifts water management from ownership to shared responsibility, enabling collective action and long‑term protection of water resources.

• While formal international treaties provide the legal framework, voluntary corporate stewardship acts as the rapid-response engine that turns top-down diplomacy into immediate, on-the-ground climate action.
• Water stewardship can strengthen collaboration across shared basins, supporting transboundary climate adaptation without the need for formal political agreements.
• Climate change does not respect borders. True resilience requires shifting from a zero-sum battle over "water rights" to collective action focused on nature-based solutions and transparent data-sharing across the entire basin.

• Miriam Feilberg, Chair, Sustainability in the Water Sector SG; Head of Climate change, DANVA (https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-feilberg-b951428/)
• Oliver Maennicke, Founding Advisor, Global Advisory Alliance (https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivermaennicke/)
• Maheen Malik, Water and Policy Coordinator, Alliance for Water Stewardship (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheen-malik-1b253068/)
• Klaudia Schachtschneider, Senior Research Specialist, Pacific Institute (https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaudia-schacht/)
• Ramanuj Mitra, IWA & Grundfos Youth Action for SDG 6 Fellow (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramanuj-mitra-07657570/)