Connor Redmile shares how a Māori-led programme trained 27 Māngai Wai Māori across 16 communities to monitor their own supplies — finding and fixing six water-quality concerns that might otherwise have gone unseen. Safe drinking water, he argues, begins long before the tap: with communities trusted to care for the water that sustains them.

Every morning across Zambia, thousands of young people begin their day with water — walking miles before school, queuing at taps, arriving late because the household comes first. For years these stories were treated as ordinary. But ordinary does not mean acceptable. Kachusha Nkosha on how Zambian youth are moving from beneficiaries to designers of their own water future.

From the rivers of Liberia to the global stage, Lucia N. Yeenee shares how water has shaped her life, her purpose, and her storytelling. In this reflection, she explores how lived experiences can become powerful tools for change and why stories must lead the conversation on water and climate resilience.