International collaborations on water

INRAE collaborates with international partners to generate scientific knowledge and develop solutions to protect water resources for all forms of life.

A global scientific challenge

Water is a finite resource that is renewed through a global cycle. Climate change is now disrupting this cycle, causing localised water shortages and intensifying extreme events such as droughts and floods. At the same time, population growth and changing human needs are increasing pressure on water resources, with consequences for food and health security and for economic and social inequalities worldwide. Water is therefore a common good that must be collectively preserved and managed sustainably.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda address the environmental, social and economic challenges we collectively face. Science plays a key role in achieving these goals by generating the knowledge needed to better understand global challenges and contribute to addressing them.

About our strategy Our roadmap: INRAE 2030  

INRAE’s strategy is designed with the help of interdisciplinary scientists, working at the global level and consists of five scientific priorities and three policy priorities. The strategy aims to provide scientific solutions in the fields of agriculture, food and the environment.

This is why water-related challenges are embedded in the INRAE 2030 strategy. Across its research fields of agriculture, food and the environment, INRAE generates knowledge and develops international collaborations to contribute to the global scientific effort towards sustainable water management.

Contributing to global water goals

SDGs aligned with our INRAE 2030 strategy

These goals align with several INRAE 2030 priorities:

  • Global changes and associated risks
  • The agroecological transition and food system transformations
  • An efficient circular bioeconomy
  • One Health
  • Strengthening academic partnerships at regional to global scales

Monitoring water resources to anticipate risks

Understanding how much water is available in rivers and groundwater, and how these resources may change, is essential to adapting their management.
In France, INRAE coordinated the scientific component of the Explore2 project, which produced new hydroclimatic projections up to 2100 for river flows, groundwater recharge and groundwater levels, providing evidence to inform adaptation strategies. Internationally, INRAE takes part in programmes that combine observations and models across national borders and improve knowledge of water resources in regions where data may be insufficient.

One Water Vision: new satellite data on water resources

One Water Vision combines satellite data from a new generation of missions, including SWOT and, in the future, TRISHNA, with modelling to improve the monitoring of water resources and strengthen early warning systems for droughts and floods. Launched at the international One Water Summit, the initiative brings together an International Research Consortium working with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO). INRAE hosts the consortium secretariat and contributes to its coordination and to the development of its scientific programme. It now brings together more than 20 international scientific institutions, including space agencies, research organisations and universities.

CREWS – West Africa: improving flood early warning systems

The international Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative drew on INRAE’s expertise to assess flood early warning systems in West Africa, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The work examined existing systems and the methods used to forecast floods, with a specific focus on flash floods, which are particularly difficult to anticipate. INRAE contributed to defining a method for assessing operational forecasting systems that takes into account both the quality of hydrological forecasts and how they are used to issue warnings, for the benefit of stakeholders responsible for risk management.

MedEWSa: improving forecasts of risks and their impacts

Funded by Horizon Europe, MedEWSa brings together 30 partners across Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, including INRAE and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The project addresses several natural hazards: floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, landslides and coastal flooding. Scientists are working not only to improve warning systems but also to anticipate the potential impacts of climate-related events, since the same flood or heatwave can have very different consequences depending on the local context. MedEWSa therefore incorporates this information into meteorological and hydrological forecasts and tests its methods at eight pilot sites in Europe and Africa.

Feeding the planet under water constraints

For INRAE, adapting agriculture to water scarcity requires transforming agricultural systems as a whole.

Agroecology offers several levers for doing so: preserving soils and their capacity to retain water, improving crop–livestock complementarity, diversifying livestock breeds and crop varieties, selecting species and varieties that are more tolerant to drought, and maintaining landscape features such as hedges and grassy strips to limit runoff. Agroforestry and conservation agriculture are also promising avenues for making agricultural systems more resilient to water scarcity.

Thus, in the French context, INRAE research favours adapting agriculture to reduced rainfall rather than the systematic development of irrigation. Modernising irrigation equipment can nevertheless generate water savings of 10 to 40%. Research in the social sciences also examines decision-making mechanisms and public policies that can support this agroecological transition, taking into account the different stakeholders and uses of water.

In Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal, the MAHDIA project supports territories facing water stress in their transition towards more sustainable agricultural and food systems, by bringing together agroecology, water management, food security and nutrition. The research focuses in particular on “products of local interest”, such as olive oil, faba beans, millet and cowpeas, and on their role in local agricultural and food systems. MAHDIA emerged from the TSARA initiative (Transforming Food and Agricultural Systems through Research in Partnership with Africa), in which INRAE is strongly involved.

COSTEA: the Scientific and Technical Committee for Agricultural Water

The Scientific and Technical Committee for Agricultural Water (COSTEA) is a cooperation framework dedicated to agricultural water management and irrigation. Created in 2013 with support from the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by AFEID, it brings together researchers, public authorities, professionals, consultancy firms and civil society organisations from different countries. COSTEA operates through successive phases. During its second phase, COSTEA 2, seven major areas of work were carried out in West Africa, the Maghreb, Southeast Asia and South America, addressing agroecology, irrigated systems, the reuse of treated wastewater and the consequences of climate change.

Sami Bouarfa, expert in agricultural water and irrigation

Sami Bouarfa is deputy head of INRAE’s AQUA research division. An agronomist and water sciences researcher, he specialises in interactions between water and agriculture, particularly irrigation. His international expertise focuses especially on irrigation policies and agricultural water management in countries of the Global South. He leads COSTEA and contributes to several international collaborations, particularly in the Mediterranean and Africa. In this video, he presents his work and international expertise.

Wastewater treatment and sanitation fitting local contexts

In 2024, according to United Nations figures, 42% of the world’s population still lacked access to safely managed sanitation services. The solutions developed must be able to respond to conditions that vary considerably from one region to another. This is why we work, in particular, on adapting wastewater treatment processes, including nature-based solutions.

Constructed wetlands are one example. Developed in France on the basis of research conducted since the 1990s, this process was subsequently adapted to the tropical climate of the French overseas territories at the request of the French Ministry of the Environment. High temperatures, heavy rainfall and the plant species available locally required the process to be modified.

Adaptation is not limited to climate. When these processes are used in other countries, the organisation of sanitation services and the stakeholders responsible for their implementation must also be taken into account. This is one of the challenges addressed through INRAE’s international collaborations in this field.

Adapting constructed wetlands to tropical climates

The adaptation of the French constructed wetland treatment system to tropical climates is the result of 10 years of research at the REVERSAAL research unit. The process had to be adapted to the high temperatures and heavy rainfall associated with tropical climates. Since the common reed generally used in mainland France is invasive at these latitudes, researchers also identified other plant species that could replace it. This work has led to around ten full-scale pilot stations in Reunion Island, Mayotte, French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique. International collaborations are now emerging with Brazil and the Comoros, while other projects are ongoing with AFD in Lebanon and Tunisia. In the Caribbean, actions could also be implemented through decentralised cooperation involving the Martinique Water Board.

Collaborative sanitation planning in Senegal: Planissim

The collaborative sanitation planning approach developed by INRAE researchers and their partners is based on WasteWaterGame, a participatory modelling tool involving the different stakeholders concerned. It enables participants to collectively discuss technical sanitation choices as well as the organisation required to implement them. The method was tested in Senegal as part of the Planissim project, which focused on access to sanitation in urban and rural areas. An initial experiment led to the development of models that could be used in the form of a role-playing game. The results showed that participants with no prior knowledge of sanitation were able to use the tool to design coherent sanitation systems. Local NGOs subsequently adopted the method for use in the field.

REUSE4 Africa: connecting African initiatives

Many initiatives are exploring the reuse of non-conventional water resources for agriculture in Africa, but they often remain isolated from one another. Led by INRAE and linked to the water task force of the TSARA network, REUSE4 Africa brings together teams from Benin, Morocco, Tunisia and France to share their experience and develop common methods. The network also aims to facilitate the wider dissemination of this knowledge among public policy stakeholders across the African continent.

Participatory monitoring of aquatic ecosystems for clean water supply

Freshwater resources are a global issue from an ecological, economic and political perspective. Increasingly significant differences are being observed in the ecological trajectories of continental aquatic ecosystems between developed and developing countries.

Many developed countries are engaged in ecosystem restoration, based in particular on controlling nutrient inputs, for example by banning phosphates from detergents, and organic pollution, including through improved wastewater treatment. In many developing countries, by contrast, aquatic ecosystems continue to deteriorate, affecting both their functioning and the uses that depend on them.

Research conducted as part of the international WaSAf – Water Safe in Africa project has developed new approaches for monitoring aquatic ecosystems used for drinking water supply. Conducted in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Uganda, this research notably combined scientific water-quality monitoring with participatory monitoring approaches involving local communities. It now provides a valuable reference for research on the monitoring of these environments.

Jean Francois-Humbert: looking back on the WaSAf Project

The results obtained by WaSAf could easily be transposed to many developing countries, in Africa or Asia, according to this expert. These countries are often affected by eutrophication, which has multiple negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems, water use and the health of populations consuming this water. However, while science contributes to identifying many solutions, their implementation often comes up against countries’ economic and political realities.

WaSAf project result: a mobile app to monitor aquatic ecosystems of the Aghien Laguna in Ivory Coast

The WaSAf project aimed to establish a process for assessing and monitoring the water quality of three African lakes supplying three major cities: Abidjan, Dakar and Kampala. It also proposed measures for the sustainable management, preservation and restoration of these ecosystems. As part of the implementation of a long-term monitoring system for the Aghien Lagoon, which provides drinking water to the city of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, the project developed a citizen science mobile application for communities living around the lagoon.

Participatory cyanobacteria monitoring in Ivory Coast

Researchers from INRAE and CNRS worked with local research teams from the Institut Pasteur de Côte d’Ivoire and Félix Houphouët-Boigny University to conduct a pilot study on participatory approaches to cyanobacteria monitoring in Africa. Their findings, published in the international journal PLOS ONE, showed that people living near a body of water could effectively monitor its water quality, and cyanobacteria levels in particular, using a mobile application.

International expertise and support to public policies on water

Our expertise contributes to the development and implementation of international agreements and provides information to society and public decision-makers to help develop and support coherent and effective policies. We bring together scientific knowledge, research topics and methods that can be used to design effective public policies at both regional and international levels.

INRAE collaborates with major institutions such as the FAO, World Bank, IPCC, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), OECD and European Union institutions, as well as French and European ministries, parliaments and other institutions.

At the request of the French authorities, INRAE has also carried out three collective scientific assessments related to water, addressing drought, eutrophication and water-storage reservoirs at national level. INRAE also contributed to a foresight study on sea-level rise by 2100, its environmental consequences, particularly for freshwater resources, its social and economic impacts and possible ways of anticipating them. The study concluded that, in the absence of proactive public policies at global level by 2040, serious or extreme situations could develop.

Expertise and policy support (EAPP) activities at INRAE give public policymakers (ministries, agencies, local authorities, European andinternational institutions, etc.) the scientific and technical knowledge,tools and methods they need to clarify, design, implement and evaluate public policies.

More information

Our international project expertise

This collection of INRAE international expertise projects brings together around 40 projects conducted in more than 30 countries. It illustrates both the diversity of subjects on which INRAE scientists provide expertise and the breadth of their collaborations around the world.To discover our international project expertise on water, two experts present their work in videos.

To discover our international expertise on water, watch some of our experts present their work at INRAE

More information Expertise and support for public policies  

Working with the European scientific community

At European level, INRAE contributes to different forms of cooperation on water, including joint research programming, scientific networks, collaborative projects and communities bringing together research, education and innovation. INRAE participates, for example, in EurAqua, the European network for freshwater research, which brings together research organisations from across Europe.

Working with the European scientific community

EIT Water: a new European community dedicated to water

EIT Water is the new European Knowledge and Innovation Community dedicated to water, marine environments and maritime activities. Launched in 2026 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), it brings together research organisations, universities and businesses. Its work addresses water availability and risks associated with droughts and floods, as well as aquatic ecosystems. EIT Water also focuses on maritime activities and their transition towards a more circular and sustainable economy. The community supports projects and training programmes. INRAE is a core partner.

Water JPI – Joint Programming Initiative on Water and European Partnership Water4All

INRAE has strongly contributed to programming the initiative on “Water challenges for a changing world”. The overarching goal of the initiative is to achieve sustainable water systems in Europe and abroad. The JPI established a roadmap of future research priorities through its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Public funding can be optimised by aligning water research agendas and programmes at European and international levels. INRAE now supports the Water4All partnership, “Water Security for the Planet”, launched under Horizon Europe to build on the ambitions of the JPI.

Horizon 2020 project example: DRYvER

Climate change and increasing human water use are causing more rivers and streams to dry up. Coordinated by INRAE from 2020 to 2025, the European DRYvER project brought together 25 partner institutes from 16 countries. It investigated the effects of drying river networks on biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. The project also developed an open-source mobile application to monitor drying events in Europe and South America.