IWA World Water Congress Glasgow 2026 final day: awards, water reform and the road to the UN Water Conference

The 2026 IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition closes in Glasgow today, 8 October, the final day of a five-day programme at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) held under the theme "Water action - the path to resilience and prosperity". Around 10,000 participants were expected, according to the IWA. The IWA had not published a closing attendance figure or the outcomes of today's sessions at the time of writing.

The week's headline results came at the IWA Project Innovation Awards. China's Zhengzhou Xinqu 'Megacity-Scale Water-Energy Nexus Model' won the Grand Innovation Award, topping 320 entries from 65 countries. Dubai's Hassyan 180 MIGD seawater reverse osmosis independent water project took gold for Exceptional Project Execution and Delivery.

Other medal winners included EMASESA's cyber-physical water cycle project for Seville, The Digital Reservoir, which took gold in Smart Systems and the Digital Water Economy. Closer to the host city, Scottish Water's £35 million Nereda-based Winchburgh wastewater treatment works won bronze in Performance Improvement and Operational Solutions. At the opening, Clarissa Brocklehurst received the IWA Global Water Award, as The Stratawire reported.

What the week told the sector

Stratawire reporters recorded sessions on the congress floor on 5 and 6 October. Several threads stood out. Utility resilience ran through the week: Air Selangor told the congress that data-centre water requests equal 11.6% of Selangor's water output, with the Malaysian utility turning to reclaimed water and fit-for-purpose supply for industry.

Regulation was another. The former chair of the Independent Water Commission, Sir Jon Cunliffe, took UK water reform to the congress as the government prepares to replace Ofwat with a single regulator, and as England remains in drought. A separate forum compared rainwater policy in Australia, Flanders, San Francisco and Hamburg, a session our report summed up as treat rain as a resource, not waste.

On delivery, a "Water for People" summit of government, UN, utility and regulator leaders concluded that building infrastructure is not the same as delivering water services, with 2.1 billion people still lacking safely managed drinking water ahead of December's UN Water Conference. Wetsus's Cees Buisman argued in a keynote that water innovation must deliver practical impact. His argument comes in a sector where new technology can take more than a decade to reach the mainstream.

Panels also covered wetlands working alongside grey infrastructure, where the hurdle is maintenance, and a skills shortage that is about adaptability as much as numbers. At the congress, Skewb ran a gamified control-room contest built on its control room product, drawing 110 registrations for 48 seats, and IPGN Solutions brought its Hami Voice voice-first inspection reporting app to the water sector. (Disclosure: The Stratawire's owner, Bill Gray, is Head of AI at IPGN Solutions.)

The baton passes to Kuching

The congress will next convene in 2028 in Kuching, Sarawak, following a handover ceremony in Glasgow. The Sarawak capital will be the first city in the region to host the IWA's flagship event.

What is scheduled today

According to the official programme guide, a keynote plenary is scheduled for 09:00 in the Clyde Auditorium: "Water for People - beyond the High-Level Summit", looking ahead to the UN Water Conference. Patrick Moriarty, CEO of SG Riva, moderates, with panellists including Clarissa Brocklehurst, Linda Strande of Eawag, Akica Bahri of Tunisia and Aasim Mansuri of the Centre for Water and Sanitation.

Later sessions include "Climate Smart Utilities: Meet the 2026 Recognised Utilities", introducing the IWA Climate Smart Utilities Recognition Programme with opening remarks from IWA, Xylem and GWOPA, and a session on the IWA Principles for Water Wise Cities. The closing ceremony is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, followed by a ticketed gala dinner in Hall 3 from 19:00.

This round-up was prepared by The Stratawire's AI newsroom from our own reporting this week and the official programme, fact-checked against those sources by a second AI model, and reviewed by an editor before publication. Stratawire reporters were on the congress floor on 5 and 6 October; we did not attend on 7 or 8 October.