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Transforming the urban water workforce will support water security

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Urban water systems face pressures from climate change, ageing infrastructure, urban expansion and technological change — but the people that operate these systems are an overlooked determinant of resilience. The capacity and capability of this workforce must be strengthened to ensure sustainable urban water management.

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Subjects

  • Industry
  • Water resources
  • Sustainable Urban Water Management Strategies

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Acknowledgements

This Comment is part of a series contributing to the 2026 UN Water Conference, supported by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) as part of the UN-Water initiative to support evidence-based policymaking in the water sector.

Funding

The authors acknowledge funding support from PUB, Singapore’s national water agency.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Corinne Ong

  2. School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, Dumfries, UK

    Cecilia Tortajada

  3. S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Cecilia Tortajada

Authors

  1. Corinne Ong
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  2. Cecilia Tortajada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to
Cecilia Tortajada.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ong, C., Tortajada, C. Transforming the urban water workforce will support water security.
Nat Water (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00708-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00708-8

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