Water theme broadly covers the following areas: Agricultural Water: Rural water supply and sanitation; Irrigation and drainage, Coastal Water: Protecting vital coastal ecosystems, Urban Water: Urban water supply, sanitation and wastewater management, Water Resources: Water resources development and management; Hydropower; Watershed and wetlands protection, Extreme Events and Risk Management: Floods and droughts; Climate variability and change.

Globally, an estimated 2,000 children under the age of five die every day from diarrheal diseases and of these some 1,800 deaths are linked to water, sanitation and hygiene. Today, 2.5 billion people remain without basic sanitation and at least 748 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Feeding a planet of 9 billion by 2050 will require approximately 50% more water in 2050. More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. And the number is growing fast; putting pressures on urban water systems. Currently, 2 billion people live in countries with absolute water scarcity and the number is expected to rise to 4.6 billion by 2080. The thematic area of “water” at AIT broadly covers the following areas: Agricultural Water: Rural water supply and sanitation; Irrigation and drainage, Coastal Water: Protecting vital coastal ecosystems, Urban Water: Urban water supply, sanitation and wastewater management, Water Resources: Water resources development and management; Hydropower; Watershed and wetlands protection, Extreme Events and Risk Management: Floods and droughts; Climate variability and change.