Water is a major priority for UNESCO, which has taken a multidisciplinary approach to help provide the scientific knowledge, technological training, sociological studies, policy advice and ethical guidelines required to manage the resource efficiently, fairly and environmentally.

Key water programmes include:

 The International Hydrological Programme (IHP), which has diverse projects concerning the hydrological sciences and water management, including: transboundary aquifers, international river basin monitoring and management, groundwater studies particularly in arid zones, urban water management, water governance especially concerning the role of women, studies concerning water history and civilization, the ethics of non-renewable water mining, in addition to the prevention and resolution of water conflicts between and within countries. IHP has also developed training and research institutes around the world, including the UNESCO-IHP Institute for Water Education in Delft (The Netherlands), Centre for Water in the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (Panama), the Regional Centre for Urban Water Management, based in Tehran (Iran), and the International Research and Training Centre on Erosion and Sedimentation in China
 
 The International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre, which operates under the auspices of UNESCO jointly with WMO
 
  The World Water Assessment Programme, which brings together the work of 23 UN agencies to better assess the world's water resources. These findings will be released periodically in the World Water Development Report, the first edition of which will be launched at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto in March 2003.