Colorado WASH Symposium 2026 Call for Abstracts

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the 2026 Colorado Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Symposium! This year we are hosting a 2-day in person* event on March 12th & 13th, 2026. We also encourage creativity in your abstracts and presentations so please share any ideas! Our objective is to foster meaningful connections that lead to enhanced understanding and collaboration across professions and disciplines on critical WASH issues. The programming of the symposium is designed to create an open and candid dialogue around some of the most pressing challenges and emerging issues in the WASH field. In keeping with the tradition of accessibility and community engagement, the event is free and open to the public.

Although the symposium will be primarily in English, we welcome French and Spanish abstracts, and we will have translation support available in French and Spanish for both presenters and attendees.

Our symposium committee respects and supports the momentum of several important global social justice movements. Thus, we challenge you to consider how your work confronts (or perpetuates) systemic injustice and inequity in WASH and sustainable development. We not only welcome abstract submissions of successful work but also failed projects from which we can learn as a sector and community. The theme of 2026 Colorado WASH Symposium is:

The Future of WASH

Under this theme, abstracts are suggested to align with one or more of the following subthemes. Alignment is not a criterion for acceptance, so please submit even if your work does not fit explicitly into a specific subtheme. The Planning Committee encourages submission of abstracts rooted in strategic, evidence-based and data-driven research and practice.

  • Sovereignty and Justice: colonial legacies, neocolonialism, gender/sexual orientation, anti-racism
  • Climate Resilient and Adaptive WASH: climate change, disaster risk reduction, systems strengthening
  • WASH in Hard-to-Reach Areas: “last mile” communities, conflict areas and refugee camps, environmental disasters, humanitarian-development nexus
  • Availability and Accessibility: non-household WASH, focus on vulnerable populations, menstrual hygiene management, WASH in HICs
  • WASH in Changing Contexts: economic/political landscapes of international development, approaching end of SDGs, innovative financing and policy, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence

Please follow the link below and use this form to provide us with your contact information, availability, preferred format, lead and co-presenters, and content of your abstract. You will be sent a copy of your submission to the email address you provide. All abstract submissions are due on November 1st, 2025. Our planning committee will review all abstracts and send a notice of acceptance or rejection by early-December 2025. Details of the thematic tracks and sessions may be subject to change.

To view this page and submit an abstract in English, follow this link: Colorado WASH Symposium Abstract Submission

Para ver esta página y enviar un resumen en español, haga click en este link: Simposio WASH de Colorado Solicitud de Resúmenes

Pour soumettre un résumé en français, cliquez le lien suivant: Symposium WASH du Colorado - Soumission des Résumés

 

*COVID-19 led us to recognize limitations and opportunities in hosting this volunteer student-run conference, including the transition to a hybrid format to increase accessibility for both presenters and attendees around the world. At the same time, the pandemic underscored for us the value of face-to-face communications and chance encounters that can occur when like-minded individuals get together. We continue to recognize the value of remote contributions and attendance while also navigating changes in funding and Planning Committee “staffing” for our symposium that require that we narrow the scope of our spending and efforts to ensure the continuation of the conference. Toward that end, this year, we will be focusing on in-person presentations and attendance. We are hopeful that we will be able to provide live, remote viewing opportunities for most sessions and recordings of the sessions afterward. Thank you for your understanding and support as we navigate this changing context.