Inspiring and retaining emerging water leaders

The water sector's hidden crisis: A shrinking leadership pipeline

“Water is not a sector that people stumble into by accident. It is a calling. Yet today, that calling is competing with industries that offer clearer pathways, faster progression, and more visible innovation.

Three trends are shaping this challenge:

• A global shortage of skilled water professionals: Utilities across Europe report difficulty filling engineering, operations, digital, and regulatory roles. The demographic challenge is acute: a considerable proportion of the workforce is nearing retirement, and the pipeline behind them is thin. EurEau’s latest Europe’s Water in Figures report warns of an ageing workforce across the EU water sector, while UK workforce data shows that 23 per cent of water engineers expect to retire within five years, pointing to a retirement wave likely exceeding 40 per cent over the next decade. Without a strong influx of young professionals, the sector faces a cliff edge.
• Mid-career attrition: Many professionals leave after 8-12 years, often due to slow organisational change, limited leadership development, or lack of recognition. These are precisely the professionals who hold the tacit knowledge that cannot be replaced by technology.

• Persistent gender barriers: Recent diversity data from the UK water sector shows both progress and persistent gaps. According to the Energy & Utility Skills Inclusion Measurement Framework 2026, women now represent 36 per cent of the UK water workforce, the highest proportion across all utility sectors, and an increase from 35 per cent in 2025. Yet women hold only 33 per cent of senior leadership roles, compared with 48 per cent across the wider UK economy, and just 26 per cent of professional technical roles. 

  Skilled trades remain overwhelmingly male, with women representing only 7 per cent of roles. The 2026 report also highlights a worrying trend: women and ethnic minority employees continue to leave the sector at higher rates than men, particularly at mid‑career level, reinforcing the retention challenge. Global evidence reinforces this picture. The World Bank’s Women in Water Institutions: Global Baseline Assessment (2023) shows that across 300+ water institutions worldwide, women make up only 23 per cent of the total workforce. 

  Their representation declines sharply in technical and leadership roles: just 18 per cent of engineers, 15 per cent of managers, and only 12 per cent of board members are women. The report also finds that women are less likely to be promoted, even when they enter the sector at similar rates to men, and that only 38 per cent of water institutions offer leadership training, limiting women’s progression. These figures underscore a global pattern: women enter the water sector, but structural barriers prevent them from staying, advancing, and shaping decision‑making. Addressing this gap is essential for Europe’s water resilience, innovation capacity, and long‑term competitiveness.

The result is a widening gap between the complexity of water challenges and the capacity of the workforce available to solve them. Glen and Patty Daigger capture this urgency in their foreword to Leading the Blue Future: “The world’s water problems can all be solved. What is missing? Leadership.” Cheryl Davis reinforces the point: “We need to fully utilise everyone’s contribution in order to have any hope of meeting these challenges.”

Europe’s water resilience depends on who shows up next, and who stays.”

Why young professionals matter more than ever

“Young professionals bring three assets the sector cannot afford to lose:

• Fresh perspective: They question legacy assumptions and introduce new ways of thinking about resilience, digitalisation, and community engagement.
• Digital fluency: From data analytics to AI-enabled optimisation, young professionals are often the ones who can translate technology into operational value. This is critical because Europe faces a digital transformation gap: many utilities still rely on manual processes, fragmented data, and outdated systems. Without digitally fluent professionals, the sector cannot modernise.
• Cross-sector mindset: They are comfortable working across boundaries: energy, climate, finance, urban planning, where modern water solutions increasingly live.

But inspiration alone is not enough. Young professionals need to see a future in water that is ambitious, meaningful, and within reach.”

What women's experience reveal about the sector culture

“Chapter 9 of Leading the Blue Future examines the evidence on women in water. The findings are clear and consistent across countries: ‘Career opportunities and advancement; disrespectful behaviour; self-confidence; impact of age; work-life balance; and mentoring and staff development’ are the six major challenges women report. 

These barriers are not abstract. They shape daily experiences:

• Women’s ideas are sometimes dismissed until repeated by male colleagues.
• Leadership potential is overlooked due to stereotypes about technical roles.
• Mid-career women face disproportionate pressure balancing caregiving and field-based responsibilities.
• Mentorship is inconsistent, and sponsorship (active advocacy for advancement) is rare.

The sector loses when women are excluded. It gains when they lead.

Research consistently shows that diverse leadership teams make better decisions, build stronger collaborations, and accelerate innovation. McKinsey, Deloitte, and Harvard Business Review all demonstrate that gender‑diverse teams outperform on decision quality, creativity, and problem‑solving, while the World Bank’s Women in Water Institutions assessment finds that water organisations with more women in leadership deliver stronger transparency, community engagement, and governance outcomes; exactly the capabilities water resilience requires.

Inês Breda writes in her foreword: “Women have been doing extraordinary work for this sector. It is more than fair that we share our experience.”

Three interventions that make inclusion real

“My book outlines three leadership interventions that organisations can adopt immediately:

• Mentorship that goes both ways: Traditional mentorship flows downwards. But the most effective model is reciprocal: senior leaders offer guidance, and younger professionals share insights on digital tools, community expectations, and emerging trends. 
  This builds trust, accelerates learning, and strengthens retention.
• Policy changes that shift power, not just representation: Representation alone does not change culture. Policies must redistribute influence:
  o    Transparent promotion criteria,
  o    Flexible work arrangements,
  o    Leadership pathways that do not require sacrificing caregiving responsibilities,
  o    Zero-tolerance policies for disrespectful behaviour.
  These interventions create environments where women and young water professionals can thrive.
• Network-building that crosses traditional boundaries: Women often lack access to informal networks where decisions are shaped. Organisations must intentionally create cross-functional, cross-sector networks that support collaboration and visibility.
  This is not about ‘women’s groups’; it is about integrating women into the networks that drive strategy.”

The leadership mindset young professionals need and want

“Leadership is not defined by hierarchy but by behaviour. Young professionals thrive when organisations cultivate five mindset dimensions:

•  Emotional intelligence: Reading the room, especially when the room is on fire.
• Ethics and integrity: Making the decisions no one sees (until they do).
• Visionary thinking: Holding the 50-year picture while fixing today’s leak.
• Resilience and adaptability: Failing forward, not falling apart.
• Humility before nature: Leading in a world we cannot control.

These mindsets are teachable. They are also contagious. When leaders model them, young professionals stay.”

Skills-based leadership: Funding, collaboration, digital transformation

“My book offers practical leadership skills that directly relate to workforce capability.

•  Funding Leadership: Funding is a “make-or-break leadership skill”. Young professionals must learn how to: (i) Choose problems that demand action; (ii) Build consortia that cannot be ignored; (iii) Write proposals that read like “a love letter to the future”; (iv) Turn “almost” into “yes”.
• Collaboration leadership: Collaboration transforms outcomes. Young leaders must learn to: (i) Start with shared stakes; (ii) Design governance that rewards contribution; (iii) Co‑create small wins; (iv) Institutionalise collaboration. These skills are essential for Europe’s new cross‑sector water resilience agenda.  Digital
• Leadership: Digital transformation is not a technical project; it is a leadership one. Young professionals must learn to: (i) Start with the pain, not the technology; (ii) Build trust before systems; (iii) Pilot fast, learn faster; (iv) Make digital part of the culture. Without digital leadership, Europe cannot modernise its water systems.

These leadership capabilities become even more critical when viewed against the structural pressures now shaping Europe’s water sector.”

The four additional challenges Europe must confront

“Europe’s water sector is also confronting a demographic reality that is more urgent than most organisations acknowledge. 

• The demographic challenge: Europe’s water workforce is ageing rapidly. Without a strong influx of young professionals (and retention of mid‑career leaders), the sector risks losing institutional memory, operational expertise, and leadership continuity.
• The digital transformation gap: Many utilities still rely on manual processes, fragmented data, and outdated systems. Digital transformation requires not only technology but leaders who can build trust, manage change, and scale innovation.
• The climate adaptation challenge: Floods, droughts, salinity intrusion, and water quality crises are increasing in frequency and severity. Adaptation requires leaders who can act under uncertainty, communicate transparently, and mobilise communities.
• The global competitiveness angle: Regions such as Singapore, Israel, and parts of the US are investing heavily in water innovation and workforce development. Europe risks falling behind unless it strengthens its leadership pipeline and accelerates capability development. 

A significant proportion of today’s water workforce entered the sector in the 1980s and 1990s, during a period of heavy infrastructure expansion. Many of these professionals are now approaching retirement, taking with them decades of tacit knowledge about networks, treatment processes, regulatory evolution, and crisis response. 

This knowledge cannot be replaced by technology alone. It must be transferred through intentional leadership development, structured mentoring, and opportunities for young professionals to shadow, co‑lead, and gradually assume responsibility. Without this, Europe risks a silent erosion of capability that will only become visible when systems fail under stress.

At the same time, the digital transformation gap is widening. While Europe has world‑class research institutions and a thriving innovation ecosystem, many utilities still operate with fragmented data systems, limited automation, and manual processes that constrain decision‑making. Digital transformation is not simply about deploying sensors or AI; it requires leaders who can build trust around data, navigate organisational resistance, and translate digital insights into operational improvements. 

Young professionals are often the ones most fluent in digital tools, but they need environments where experimentation is encouraged and where failure is treated as learning rather than liability. If Europe wants to accelerate digital maturity, it must empower the very people who can drive it.

It is a leadership challenge that demands emotional intelligence, ethical clarity, and the ability to mobilise diverse stakeholders around shared risks

Climate adaptation adds another layer of complexity. Floods, droughts, salinity intrusion, and water quality crises are no longer episodic; they are structural features of Europe’s climate reality. Adaptation requires leaders who can act under uncertainty, communicate transparently with communities, and make decisions that balance short‑term pressures with long‑term resilience. This is not a technical challenge alone. It is a leadership challenge that demands emotional intelligence, ethical clarity, and the ability to mobilise diverse stakeholders around shared risks. Young and mid‑career professionals must be equipped to lead in this environment, because they will be the ones managing the consequences of today’s decisions.

Finally, Europe must recognise the global competitiveness angle. Regions such as Singapore, Israel, and parts of the United States are investing aggressively in water innovation, workforce development, and leadership training. They are building ecosystems where young professionals see water as a dynamic, future‑shaping sector. Europe cannot rely on its historical strengths alone. 

To remain competitive, it must cultivate a workforce that is skilled, diverse, digitally fluent, and capable of leading across sectors. The European Water Academy, the Water Resilience Strategy, and the Stakeholder Platform are promising steps, but their impact will depend on whether they succeed in inspiring and retaining the next generation of leaders who will carry Europe’s water resilience forward.”

Linking Europe's new water initiatives to leasership and workforce development

“Europe is entering a new era of water resilience. Several major initiatives launched in 2025–2026 directly reinforce the themes of Leading the Blue Future.

•  European Water Academy (EUWA): The European Water Academy is a flagship action under the Water Resilience Strategy. It aims to: (i) Build skills and leadership capacity; (ii) Bridge research and real world application; (iii) Support innovation through living labs; (iv) Create a “network of networks” across utilities, academia, industry, and public authorities.
  EUWA is precisely the kind of initiative that can inspire and retain young professionals, if it is designed with leadership development at its core.
• European Water Resilience Strategy: The Strategy aims to transform how Europe manages water, addressing: (i) Climate change; (ii) Scarcity; (iii) Droughts; (iv) Floods; (v) Pollution.
  It emphasises skills development, innovation, and competitiveness. It recognises that resilience is not only technical; it is human.
• Water Resilience Stakeholder Platform: The platform convenes high level experts to guide implementation of the strategy. It signals a shift toward: (i) Collaborative governance; (ii) Cross sector leadership; (iii) Shared responsibility. This aligns directly with the collaboration leadership model proposed in Leading the Blue Future.

These initiatives arrive at a critical moment, because Europe’s water sector is confronting structural pressures that will intensify over the next decade.”

What organisations must do now

• Invest in leadership development early: Leadership is not a reward for seniority; it is a skill that must be cultivated from day one.
• Create visible pathways for advancement: Young professionals need clarity on how to grow, and confidence that growth is possible.
• Celebrate impact, not just expertise: Water leadership is not only technical. It is relational, strategic, and community-driven.
• Make inclusion a strategic priority: Not a side initiative. Not a diversity report. A core resilience strategy.
• Tell better stories about water: Young people want purpose. We must communicate it boldly.”

Leading the Blue Future together

“Europe’s water resilience will not be secured by infrastructure alone. It will be secured by people, especially the young professionals who will inherit systems we build today.

We owe them more than technical manuals. We owe them leadership cultures where they can grow, contribute, and lead.

We owe women more than representation. We owe them workplaces where their expertise is valued, their leadership is supported, and their voices shape the future.

The next generation of water leaders is already here. Our responsibility is to ensure they stay and thrive.”

Leading the Blue Future: Empowering the Next Generation of Water leaders by Blanca Antizar-Ladislao is published by IWA Publishing and was launched at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, Glasgow, UK, which took place from 4-8 October 2026 

The book is available as an open-access eBook through IWA Publishing, with a print edition available for purchase.