The future of water resilience: Mobilizing multistakeholder action

Water is life. It sustains ecosystems, fuels businesses and economies, and nourishes communities, yet our planet’s water cycle is out of balance. Climate change, population growth, and industrial demand are driving water systems to the brink. From devastating droughts to catastrophic floods, water challenges affect billions of people and threaten the well-being of future generations and the sustainability of businesses.

Amid this urgent crisis, there is hope—a chance to reimagine the way water is financed and governed, catalyze innovative solutions, and inspire collective action to ensure water of high quality is accessible and available to all.

This report calls for a transformative approach to water resilience.¹Resilience refers to the capacity of communities, systems, and environments to manage and adapt to water-related challenges, including those driven by climate change, population growth, and economic pressures. It encompasses ensuring sustainable access to clean water, protecting water ecosystems, and supporting equitable water distribution while adapting to shocks such as droughts, floods, and pollution. It emphasizes the vital role of public–private collaboration and cross-sector partnerships in meeting emerging challenges. Water is not just an operational input; it is also a cornerstone of global stability, sustainable development, and the resilience of businesses. Ensuring its future demands bold action today.

This report outlines five actionable pathways for adopting a systems approach to water and bringing stability back to the water cycle:

• Holistic water valuation through better understanding and reflection of the value, price, and cost of water is key for fostering initiatives and incentives for circularity as well as the better use and treatment of freshwater ecosystems.
• Fit-for-purpose financing mechanisms deployed from diverse sources across project stages to mobilize capital are essential for empowering circular net-zero water, reinventing water use, and protecting ecosystems.
• Sustained precompetitive basin-level partnerships and collaborative approaches enable a holistic systemwide approach to reinventing water use.
• Adaptive water governanceapproaches ensure resilience in times of uncertainty through agile and coordinated policies while providing the incentive mechanisms required for systemic action across water scales.
• A collaborative policy-innovation nexus fosters policy that is in sync with innovation needs and progress, which is a catalyst for developing and deploying water solutions at scale.

By embracing the water ecosystem as a shared responsibility across business, government, and society, stakeholders can work together to transform challenges into opportunities and create a legacy of water resilience, equity, and abundance for a future in which every drop counts.