The Water Quality Network Conference 2026, held on February 24 and 25 at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, brought together 75 practitioners across India for an immersive experience in social connectedness.
Session 1: Scanning the Landscape, explored three water contexts, villages, cities and rivers. The session showed that these are not separate problems. They are linked parts of one system.
In villages, participants discussed how rural aquifers are running out of shallow water, while deeper aquifers are chemically contaminated. In many places, the only recourse is to supply river water. But rivers too are under pressure. City drainage and industrial waste flow through them, and they are no longer the simple go-to sources they once were. Cities, meanwhile, may draw from far-away sources but still suffer from decaying underground systems, leakages and epidemics.
When these three perspectives were put together, the landscape became one single mosaic. The discussion made clear that polluted water bodies, suffering ecosystems and health epidemics are part of one system problem.
Three action points emerged from the session.
How do we make information and data something that citizens can generate, share and act on?
How can learning experiences be enhanced through collective experiences, structured learning and informal learning?
And are there opportunities for mutually beneficial regional, place-based collectives that build on complementary viewpoints and support each other’s work?
The session ended with a call for ideas on each of these points and an invitation to participants to continue the conversation.
