Samuela Guida highlights the transformative projects that the first cohort of IWA LeaP leaders have developed to tackle some of the key challenges for the water sector.
The global water sector stands at a critical juncture, facing unprecedented challenges from climate change, growing population, urbanisation and pollution. Addressing these complex issues demands more than just technical solutions; it requires a new generation of leaders equipped with strategic vision, collaborative skills and the courage to challenge established norms. The IWA LeaP Leadership Programme for Young Water Professionals (YWP) was created to meet this need, cultivating the talent that will steer the future of the water sector by nurturing the potential of IWA’s YWP community.
The programme provided a 12-month transformative journey for the first cohort of 12 exceptional YWPs selected from diverse backgrounds and regions across the globe. Fuelled by curiosity and a drive to make a beneficial impact on society, participants embarked on a programme designed to forge robust professional networks, foster cross-country collaborations and enhance the leadership skills needed to create the leaders they aspire to be.
This article showcases the outcomes of this first IWA LeaP programme by highlighting three distinct and high-impact projects. These initiatives are not mere academic exercises; they are tangible, real-world interventions that demonstrate a shared, powerful leadership competency – the ability to reframe the narrative. Each team succeeded by changing the conversation, proving that IWA LeaP develops leaders who don’t just solve problems, but fundamentally change how problems are understood. We begin with a project that reframed pollution control from a top-down technical problem into a youth-led, community-owned solution.
Flow Ripple – turning local action into waves of change
This project is a perfect example of the programme’s philosophy being put into action – empowering young leaders to create scalable, community-driven solutions. Flow Ripple – which stands for Future Leaders of Water Reaching Impact through People, Projects, Leadership and Education – was built on the belief that, to create lasting change, we must empower those most affected by water challenges to become part of the solution. Recognising that local knowledge and community ownership are paramount, one IWA LeaP team focused on equipping young people with the tools to address contamination in their own backyards.
The project team – Chotiwat Jantarakasem (Thailand), Linda Li (Canada), Yumeng Zhao (China) and Federick Pinongcos (USA) – set out to reframe pollution as a challenge that could be tackled from the ground up. Their mission was to develop a sustainable and educational model that empowers young people to become leaders in water stewardship.
To achieve this, they produced a suite of powerful resources designed for maximum impact and dissemination. Their core deliverable is the ‘Solving Water Pollution Through Youth-Led Community-Based Water Solution Framework’, a comprehensive guide providing a step-by-step process for local action. But their work didn’t stop there. They also built a dedicated website, a YouTube channel for training resources, and a blog to share their journey. Additionally, the team presented at IWA’s 2025 Water and Development Congress & Exhibition, sharing insights at the 6th Emerging Water Leaders Forum and showcasing the framework in a technical workshop.
The team validated their framework by conducting two international youth training programmes. The first, in Thailand in June 2025, brought together 20 students to participate in an interactive session focused on stakeholder engagement – a critical first step in any community-based project. The second training event was held in China, in August 2025, with 16 students attending a workshop centred on water treatment technologies, exploring practical, decentralised solutions. The impact was immediate and measurable. Post-workshop evaluations revealed significant gains in participants’ knowledge and confidence, with 39% noting an increase in their understanding of how to solve water pollution through Community-Based Water Solutions (CBWS) and 30% stating that their understanding of the role young people can play in solving these challenges had increased.
In addition, the project team also developed their leadership skills – mastering the art of driving shared ownership; speaking with a single, cohesive voice; and taking collective responsibility for the project’s journey. Furthermore, they demonstrated a commitment to respect diversity through inclusive training delivery, intentionally localising case studies to ensure every student felt valued.
This project has delivered a powerful model for community action and youth empowerment. Flow Ripple continues to grow, with future workshops and collaborations on the horizon – showing that when young people lead with purpose, their ripples spread further with every step of their journey.
The circle of water – educating for a circular water economy
Effective and sustainable water management requires a fundamental shift in societal values, and education is the cornerstone of this transformation.
To this end, another IWA LeaP team dedicated their efforts to reframing water education, moving it beyond simple scientific literacy to build a deeper public understanding of the crucial role of water in society, fostering water conservation and justice, and integrating the circular economy into the water sector for long-term resilience.
The ‘BLIN’ team – Bénigne Ishimwe Mugwaneza (Rwanda), Laurence Strubbe (Switzerland), Igor Luketina (Austria) and Natalie Páez-Curtidor (Colombia) – were united by a profound sense of purpose. As Laurence articulated, their inspiration comes from “children, who still believe they can change the world” – a belief that drove the team to create a curriculum for children and young adults that focuses on water as a “powerful connector between life, health and justice”. Following this goal, the team created a water literacy curriculum that: integrates learnings from nature as the cornerstone of resilience and circularity; promotes intergenerational exchange as a strategy for making water visible across the different actors in our watersheds; and enables students to connect globally, to understand the connections between water systems and environmental solutions.
Their innovative educational model is built upon four key knowledge sets, which were developed around the paper ‘What We Know about Water: A Water Literacy Review’ (Meghan McCarroll and Hillary Hamann, 2020), published in the journal Water.
- Science and systems knowledge: Understanding the water cycle, its unique properties and its significance for all living systems. This module aims to deconstruct misconceptions about the water cycle, water properties and watersheds (e.g., thinking of a watershed as something existing in rural areas and not as spaces that we all inhabit), and to make the cyclical nature of water and the ‘unseen’ elements of it visible (e.g., groundwater, water infrastructure, non-visible pollution).
- Hydrosocial knowledge: Exploring the complex interactions between society and water resources, including the impact of human actions and political decisions on water quality and availability that profoundly impact human health and societal welfare. This module also emphasises the deep interconnection between the social processes and the hydrological cycle, showing how water fuels our socioeconomic systems and how these, in turn, can impact the movement and quality of water in ecosystems. The connection of water with other critical systems for the functioning of society (e.g., energy and food production) is also highlighted.
- Local knowledge: Investigating and understanding local water sources, infrastructure and usage patterns, including concepts such as water footprint and virtual water. This module aims to provide students with local, context-relevant knowledge and awareness about drinking water and sanitation systems, wastewater management strategies, stormwater drainage facilities, and all aspects related to water usage and transport, wherever they live.
- Functional knowledge: Empowering students with actionable steps they can take to contribute to sustainable and equitable water use. This module aims to bridge the knowledge from the three previous modules to influence real-world interventions and incentivise students to ideate more sustainable practices of water use and conservation. It invites them to think with a long-term, circular and sustainable perspective, with the aim of protecting and restoring watersheds.
Based on these four pillars, the curriculum consists of several activities tailored to each local context, through which YWPs, together with teachers and coaches, can impart this knowledge. Applying this curriculum aims to make the value of water visible and ensure that students are aware of the everyday, real-world bond that we have with water. This is intended to shift attitudes, values and behaviours around water in a way that empowers students to understand their agency in shaping the present and the future of our water systems through individual and collective action.
The team successfully piloted their curriculum in two distinct global settings, highlighting its adaptability. First, in Rwanda, in collaboration with the IWA YWP Country Chapter, with the programme integrated into ‘Green Clubs’ for students aged 8 to 15; and, second, in Austria, where the framework was applied through the ‘Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge’, encouraging students to find nature-inspired solutions to water problems.
The project’s ability to inspire was captured by a young participant, 10-year-old Divine from Rwanda, who said: “I like to know that I have a strong role in the world by protecting my watershed. I know how to start now.”
Momentum is building, with a recent call for volunteer coaches to scale the programme receiving more than 90 applications from water professionals eager to be involved. Following this call, coaches have been selected to apply the curriculum during 2026 in Bolivia, Finland, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone.
The BLIN team want to continue refining the curriculum, further scaling the project and increasing its worldwide outreach. By creating this replicable educational model, the team is planting the seeds for a more water-wise society – a crucial step before tackling the complex world of finance.
Who pays for the tap? – reimagining WASH finance
Universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are severely hampered by a massive funding gap. The challenge, however, runs deeper than a simple lack of investment. One IWA LeaP team took on the ambitious task of reframing this crisis, arguing that the underlying economic and political frameworks present the most significant barriers.
The team – Yaw Abrampah (Ghana), Shivon Mehta (India), Matthew MacRorie (UK) and Oscar Timothy Balongo (Tanzania) – sought to investigate the hidden barriers to WASH finance and change the narrative around water’s economic value. Their project initiated a leadership lab aimed at testing their capacity to lead high-level conversations and reframe entrenched orthodoxies. They conducted structured interviews with global experts from institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and surveyed YWPs to gauge knowledge gaps.
These conversations revealed the powerful political realities at play. As ADB Director of Water and Urban Development Neeta Pokhrel noted, WASH investments are often invisible. “We are always underground,” she said. “You can’t cut a ribbon and say, look… A flyover is visible progress, and politicians want to cut ribbons!”
The team arrived at a single, powerful conclusion: ‘Finance is the symptom – valuation is the disease.’ They identified the core problem as water’s structural undervaluation. Trapped in volume-based pricing that ignores its true value, investments falter as benefits ‘evade quantification’, feeding a ‘care paradox’. This is compounded by a history of low tariffs, which the World Bank says would require a three-fold increase for cost recovery in key regions.
The team proposes a paradigm shift centred on the following:
- View water as a productive asset that drives economic activity, rather than a basic service.
- Transition from community-managed systems to professional WASH operations.
- Equip young professionals with expertise in water economics.
- Recognise that changing narratives is a core leadership function.
This team’s work is a courageous call to action, challenging the sector to confront the deep-seated narratives that hold back progress and proving that the most impactful leadership often involves changing minds before changing infrastructure.
A new generation of collaborative and resilient leaders
These three initiatives are each proof of the concept of a new paradigm for water leadership. They are testament to the collective impact of IWA LeaP, and a powerful demonstration of what IWA believes the next generation of leaders can achieve when empowered to collaborate, innovate and lead.
Across all three projects we see shared themes of success. Each team demonstrated a remarkable ability to translate complex global challenges into actionable, localised frameworks.
They also displayed the shared courage to challenge entrenched orthodoxies, whether in community engagement, education or finance. And while they all faced the logistical hurdles of global collaboration and the need for funding to scale their proven ideas, these challenges only forged more resilient and adaptable leaders.
Perhaps the most profound outcome of the IWA LeaP journey is the deep personal and professional growth experienced by participants. As team member, Yaw Abrampah, eloquently stated: “This journey has given me clarity, confidence and the tools to contribute globally to the water sector. I’ve found my path and a ‘water family’ to walk it with.”
His words capture the essence of the programme’s legacy. Through initiatives such as IWA LeaP, we are not only developing skilled professionals, but also building a global community of trust and shared purpose. The future of the global water sector is in exceptionally capable and passionate hands. l
More information:
McCarroll, M. et al.; What We Know about Water: A Water Literacy Review. Water, 2020, 12(10), 2803; doi.org/10.3390/w12102803
IWA LeaP is supported by the EWL Endowment Fund. This fund was established by the founding donors, Glen and Patty Daigger, who view their generous contribution as a way of creating a lasting legacy for Young Water Professionals. If you are interested in knowing more about how you can support IWA LeaP as a donor, please get in touch with Keith Robertson (keith.robertson@iwahq.org) at the IWA Secretariat. If you are interested in knowing more about LeaP, contact Samuela Guida (samuela.guida@iwahq.org).
The author:
Samuela Guida is Strategic Programmes and Engagement Manager at IWA
