​World Water Day 2026: Book your free place on our Gender Equality and Water webinar

Applied Microbiology International will hold a free webinar on ‘Gender Equality and Water’ to mark World Water Day 2026 - March 18 2026.

The webinar will be the first event in an exciting new AMI Advisory Group webinar series, and is hosted by the chair of our Clean Water Advisory Group, Gary Hogben. The discussion will begin with Dr Kwanrawee Joy Sirikanchana highlighting aims and progress on UN SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation, since its implementation in 2015.

We’ll be joined by Professor Jiménez Cisneros, an expert in water management, sanitation and sustainable development and current Ambassador of Mexico to France and Monaco, alongside Professor Lyla Mehta, an expert on water, sanitation, gender and development.

The webinar will discuss the disproportionate burden placed on women in the fight for access to water and the need for women to be at the centre of discussions surrounding the future of water.

World Water Day is a United Nations observance coordinated by UN-Water. This year, the theme is ‘Water and Gender’, focusing on safe water and sanitation as human rights and critical enablers of gender equality.

The campaign explains that the global water crisis affects everyone, but not equally. Where people lack the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, inequalities flourish, with women and girls bearing the brunt.

Centring women and girls

World Water Day 2026 is about centring women and girls in water solutions – calling for a transformative, rights-based approach to solving the water crisis, where women’s and girls’ voices, leadership and agency are fully recognized.  Applied microbiology plays a vital role in advancing low-cost, scalable water treatment solutions, ensuring communities can sustainably manage their water resources while protecting health and supporting climate resilience.

Microorganisms are responsible for a host of waterborne diseases which cause unnecessary disease and death. Meanwhile, using microbes to our advantage can offer solutions in purifying water and improving sanitation. Ultimately, this will increase access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, whilst making hygiene practices more accessible for many people across the globe.

Our speakers

Speaker Dr Blanca E. Jiménez Cisneros currently serves as the Ambassador of Mexico to France. With more than 40 years of experience as a civil servant and researcher, she has specialized in environmental engineering, water management, climate change and science diplomacy. She became the Director of the Water Sciences Division at UNESCO and then she was the Director General of the Mexican National Commission of Water, and she is currently a member of IWA’s Board of Directors.

Throughout her career, she has been recognized with several awards, including the Global Water Award of the International Water Association in 2010. In 2007, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the team that wrote the IPCC’s fourth report on climate change.

Sustainability, scarcity and uncertainty

We will also be hearing from Professor Lyla Mehta, a sociologist with a PhD in Development Studies and a Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, UK and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Her work focuses on water and sanitation, climate change, transformation, rights, resource grabbing and the politics of sustainability, scarcity and uncertainty. She has extensive field research in India and has also done research in southern and eastern Africa. 

Lyla has engaged in advisory work with various UN agencies and has also been active in advocacy and activist work on gender, environment and development issues with NGOs and social movements in Europe and India. She is and has been Principal Investigator of several multi-country projects, including Tapestry and Towards Brown Gold. 

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Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of our expert speakers during the live event or submit questions in advance by emailing policy@appliedmicrobiology.org. 

The webinar is open to all participants free of charge and will be held from 10am to 11.30am GMT on March 18. It will also be recorded and made available retrospectively.

To book your free place, click HERE.