Dushanbe- The Dushanbe International Water Conference concluded its second and final day of its official work at the Kokhi Sumon complex in the Tajik capital, after two days of high-level discussions that attempted to move the water file from the warning sphere to the implementation sphere.
Although the conference program nominally extends from May 25 to 28, 2026, the official high-level sessions were held on May 26 and 27, with the 28 being allocated to field visits and introductory tours of Tajikistan’s experience in water resources management.
The official closing day came with a clear message: The world no longer needs further recognition of the water crisis, as much as it needs to accelerate implementation, mobilize financing, and link water to climate, food, energy, health and development issues.
The conference, which falls within the “Dushanbe Water Process”, is an important preparatory stage before the United Nations Water Conference in 2026, hosted by the UAE and Senegal, and it also paves the way for the United Nations Water Conference in 2028 in Dushanbe.
The second day began with the completion of the plenary session, which is the space provided for heads of delegations, ministers, and representatives of international organizations to present their political positions and their countries’ commitments to the water file.
During the last day’s sessions, delegations provided updates on the voluntary pledges included in the “Water Action Agenda,” and announced new commitments linked to Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to provide water and sanitation for all.
What do you achieve?
A special session entitled “The Final Outcome of the Decade of Action for Water” discussed what has been achieved since the launch of the International Decade of Action for Water 2018-2028, and the remaining gaps before reaching the final review in 2028.
This session seemed more like an explicit review session: What countries have implemented their pledges? What remained ink on paper? How can scattered initiatives be transformed into a global, measurable process?
As for the second special session, it was entitled “Interactive Dialogues 2028… Is it time to reconsider the issues?” and focused on the features of the upcoming United Nations Water Conference in 2028, which Tajikistan is hosting as the final comprehensive review station for the Decade of Action for Water.
The participants discussed preliminary ideas for the topics that should top the 2028 dialogues, ensuring that the water file does not remain confined to a narrow technical corner, but rather is present in issues of climate, food security, public health, financing, and cross-border cooperation.
Future path for water
In a third session, the discussion moved to a further question: What is the place of water in the post-2030 agenda? The session was titled “Beyond 2030… What’s next? Charting a future path for water,” and opened the door to early thinking about the shape of global development after the end of the current sustainable development agenda.
The basic message is that water cannot remain only an independent goal, but must be an entry point for understanding human, economic, and environmental security in the coming decades.
As for the closing session, it was devoted to presenting the main messages that emerged from the thematic sessions, forums, and special committees, most notably the Dushanbe Declaration, the summary of the co-chairs, and Dushanbe’s official contribution to the United Nations Water Conference in 2026.
The most prominent recommendations of the conference revolved around several tracks:
- Establishing water as a global political priority as important as climate, energy and food.
- Pushing countries to transform voluntary pledges into executable, financeable and measurable projects.
- Strengthening cooperation in shared basins and rivers, especially in areas where water intersects with security, stability and development.
- Expanding the role of innovation, technology, and artificial intelligence in improving water use efficiency, risk management, and early warning of floods and droughts.
The discussions also stressed the importance of financing, as it is the weakest link in many national plans. Countries do not always lack ideas or strategies, but they often struggle with the cost of infrastructure, weak institutional capacity, and difficulty in accessing concessional financing.
Therefore, “Investing for Water” was strongly featured among the six themes of the conference, along with water for people, prosperity, planet, cooperation, and the role of water in multilateral processes.
Participation of women and youth
The conference was not limited to the governmental track, but rather opened a wide space for women, youth, the private sector, scholars, and local communities. The accompanying forums, which preceded the official sessions, were devoted to issues such as the Youth Forum, the Women’s Forum, the private sector, and glaciers and the cryosphere, reflecting an attempt to make the water issue a societal issue rather than a purely governmental file.
The official second and final day of the Dushanbe conference felt like a bridge between three stops: New York’s pledges at the 2023 UN Water Conference, preparations for the 2026 conference in Abu Dhabi, and then the final review of the Dushanbe Water Decade in 2028.
Between these stations, Tajikistan tried to present itself not only as a mountainous country rich in water resources and glaciers, but also as an international diplomatic platform that brings together politics, development, and climate around one issue: that the future of the world will be measured, to a large extent, by its ability to manage its waters fairly, efficiently, and cooperatively.
