The first UN Water Conference was held in Mar del Plata in 1977. Forty-six years passed before the second convened at UN Headquarters in New York in March 2023. The event brought together roughly ten thousand delegates and featured more than four hundred sessions, resulting in over 700 voluntary — and therefore non-binding — commitments. Many attendees and observers considered its primary achievement to be elevating water issues on the global agenda and providing a platform for diverse stakeholders to share their perspectives. At the same time, there was widespread disappointment at the lack of concrete, decisive action.

The third UN Water Conference is scheduled for December 2026 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal. Its stated goal is to “accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Discussions will centre on six themes identified by the UN General Assembly following an open consultation process (UNGA adopts six themes for UN 2026 Water Conference. United Nations; 21 July 2025).

There is no question that all six themes are essential to improving how people around the world engage with water. However, we respectfully believe that centring the conference on SDG6 is no longer fit for purpose. Achieving the SDG6 targets by 2030 is now unattainable. Moreover, while access to safe drinking water and sanitation must remain central, the societal challenges extend far beyond these issues. The priority should be to recognize the current condition of global water systems and the complex ways in which society depends on and influences them. This understanding should form the basis for developing innovative and sustainable approaches to stewardship of this critical resource.

“While access to safe drinking water and sanitation must remain central, the societal challenges extend far beyond these issues. The priority should be to recognize the current condition of global water systems and the complex ways in which society depends on and influences them.”

This point is articulated strongly by Kaveh Madani and Karin Sjöstrand in their Comment included in this issue of Nature Water. They highlight how water remains marginalized in global political debates despite being universally recognized as fundamental to human society. The authors argue that the scientific community must take a more active leadership role — providing clearer diagnoses, engaging directly with political institutions, and helping to steer decision making. In their view, scientists should be shaping the agenda at events such as the upcoming UN Water Conference and, more broadly, in every effort to address water-related challenges.

Two further articles in this issue explore the complexity noted above. In their Perspective, Maria Rusca and colleagues examine the persistently marginal role that the social sciences play in work that is nominally interdisciplinary but intended to address water challenges. This imbalance is not new; it has been raised before, including in a World View by Julia Martin-Ortega in the inaugural issue of Nature Water. The authors argue that social scientists, Indigenous experts, and people with lived experience of water problems should be directly involved in decision making, rather than merely advising technocrats. The political dimensions of water issues are as important — if not more important — than the technical ones, and this must be openly acknowledged. Addressing water injustice in a meaningful way requires recognizing the value of Indigenous and non-Western knowledge systems and avoiding practices that erase or subordinate them.

Finally, the Review by Edoardo Borgomeo examines why well-intentioned approaches often fail when they overlook the complexity and context of water challenges. The author outlines four central “water paradoxes”: valuing water highly yet pricing it too low; expanding infrastructure in ways that inadvertently increase risk; improving efficiency only to drive higher overall consumption; and promoting advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence while basic water-data systems continue to deteriorate. Moving forward, Borgomeo argues that these contradictions should be understood as inherent features of water governance rather than errors to be corrected. Acknowledging this reality is essential for designing smarter, more adaptive, and context-aware policies.

To be clear, charting a new approach to how we address water challenges is not something that should be confined to preparations for the UN Water Conference. At the time of writing, the Middle East is experiencing an ongoing conflict that one hopes will end as soon as possible for the sake of all those affected. Its continuation also raises legitimate questions about whether the meeting in the UAE can proceed as planned. Regardless of the outcome, it is crucial to think beyond the 2030 SDG deadline and begin imagining the conditions needed for societies to live in greater harmony with water.