Water

Our water work focuses on sanitation in urban areas, and tools and tactics for ensuring that water is equitably allocated and governed

Also related to

Large-scale dams

Global Water Initiative (GWI)

Beyond the city’s borders: water and sanitation access for refugees in Mafraq

Reem Alhaddadin
28 September 2023

View of informal housing and vegetation in the background.

Blog

Simplified sewerage systems: lessons from Dar es Salaam

Christopher Yap
05 September 2023

A group of people look at a TV screen, in front of which a computer shows how they appear on the screen.

News

Indigenous Peoples call for recognition of vital role in protecting mountain water towers

16 June 2023

A small town sits beside a river with mountains in the background

Event

Protecting and restoring critical water related ecosystems in mountains: the role of Indigenous Peoples and biocultural territories in mountain ecosystems

Event on 24 March 2023

Man and woman fill up jerry cans with water from a fountain

Blog

Water access in the drylands – what’s not working?

Claire Bedelian
11 November 2022

Woman crouching grabbing wet clothes from a basket.

Blog

An unexpected cooperative project to lighten women's pandemic clothes-washing burden

Guntoro Muhammad and Dian Irawaty
01 August 2022

A field of bare earth covered with rows of dried stalks.

Case study

Climate, health and urban informal economies – stories of need and change

07 June 2022

Cranes tower over the construction of a dam, with a body of water in the foreground

News

Chinese hydropower starting to adopt social and environmental safeguarding norms, but with limitations

17 March 2022

Related collections

Learn more about focused areas of IIED's water work

Global Water Initiative – West Africa

The Global Water Initiative sought to improve global food security by enabling farmers to better access, manage and use water resources for sustainable agricultural production

Collection

Inclusive blue economy

A programme of work supporting resilient marine and coastal ecosystems and the millions of people who depend on them to thrive by aligning incentives with investments

Collection

Urban crises and forced displacement

A programme of work bringing together diverse perspectives on humanitarian emergencies and forced displacement, to inform new directions in urban crisis response

Collection

Publications

View more Water publications

Water sector reform, climate change and climate-resilient planning in central Tanzania

Sharing the benefits of hydropower to improve displaced people’s livelihoods

Economic valuation study: action learning project on incentives for improved watershed services in the Buff Bay/Pencar watershed, Jamaica

Where every drop counts: tackling rural Africa’s water crisis

Managing land and water resources by consensus: the Anambé irrigation scheme charter

Gender considerations in the restoration of livelihoods: resettlement from hydropower

Water markets in Mexico: opportunities and constraints

The interaction between freshwater ecosystem services, climate change and poverty in the Sahel

Watered Down? A review of social and environmental safeguards for large dam projects

Dar es Salaam’s water supplies need stronger, more flexible management to meet SDG6

Family farmers growing rice on their plot of land in the irrigated perimeter of Sélingué dam in Mali (Photo: Mike Goldwater/GWI West Africa)

IIED at World Water Week 2015

Event on 23 August 2015

Consultation of local communities affected by the Kandadji dam about long-term leases to secure land tenure (Photo: GWI West Africa)

From traditional land rights to long-term leases: fair compensation?

Blog, 02 June 2015

Ongoing monitoring of communal toilets has helped to improve design: here, smaller toilets for children are included in adult toilet blocks. Previously children's facilities were in separate buildings and were frequently left uncleaned (Photo: SPARC)

How India's slum and pavement dwellers made sanitation affordable

Blog, 05 April 2015

A GWI consultation with local communities in Kankan, eastern Guinea, in July 2014 looked at how to secure agricultural land tenure for those affected by the proposed Fomi dam (Photo: GWI West Africa)

Fomi dam: catalysing land tenure reform in Guinea

News, 03 March 2015

Manantali dam in Mali (Photo: OMVS/SOGEM via Google license)

Dams in Africa: Combining national and local development

Blog, 09 December 2014

A community sanitation facility in Jinja, Uganda (Photo: David Dodman/IIED)

World Toilet Day: People need equality and dignity when they 'have to go'

Blog, 18 November 2014

Smallholders threshing rice in irrigated agricultural perimeter of Sélingué dam in Mali (Photo: Moustapha Diallo/GWI West Africa)

GWI West Africa: project background

Archived Project

An ecosan toilet in Mtandire settlement (Photo: Slum/Shack Dwellers International)

Achieving universal sanitation: Sharing the experience of the SDI affiliate in Blantyre, Malawi

Blog, 27 October 2014

A tanker delivers water to residents in Retiro, a shanty town in Buenos Aires (Photo: Mark Edwards)

Urban water and sanitation

Active Project

Women smallholders replanting rice in the irrigated area around the Bagré dam in Burkina Faso (Photo: Barbara Adolph/IIED)

Large scale irrigated rice farming: the state must take farmers' perspectives into account

News, 03 June 2014