Online Kick-Off for Municipal Water Resilience

24 March 2026 was the big day! The in-depth learning process “Water Resilience: Strengthening Municipalities against Drought and Heavy Rainfall Events” kicked off shortly after the World Water Day. Droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and flooding are on the rise, putting a strain on infrastructure, public health and municipal budgets. At the same time, urbanisation is intensifying competition for water.

Many major cities are already experiencing severe water stress, and the global demand for water could significantly exceed the available supply by 2030.
Water scarcity has long been an obstacle to development for countries in the Global South, but in the future, all regions worldwide will have to adapt to fluctuating water availability and growing conflicts over its use. Water is set to become the defining strategic resource of the 21st century.

Key solutions are emerging at a local level. Although the broader circumstances vary greatly, local authorities face similar structural challenges, making exchange and collaborative learning particularly valuable.

As part of our ‘Deep Dive’ on the topic of ‘Water-Resilient Municipalities’, we are bringing together experts from eight municipalities in Benin, Germany, Kenya, India, Serbia and Sri Lanka. Over a two-year period, they will discuss innovative approaches, such as sponge city concepts, blue corridors and integrated blue-green-red infrastructure, and develop and implement locally tailored solutions to their respective challenges.

During the initial virtual meeting, the municipalities presented their local challenges, identified initial similarities, and prepared for the first in-person working meeting in Wuppertal in early May. Further updates from our ‘Deep Dive’ project will follow from May 2026.

The participating cities are: Natitingou (Benin), Dresden, Wunstorf and Wuppertal (Germany), Homa Bay (Kenya), Hyderabad (India), Niš (Serbia) and Akkaraipattu (Sri Lanka).