In July 2026, FutureWater travelled to Pakistan to move IDIP (Innovative Drought Impact Prediction) forward. Pepijn van Ravesteyn and Tania Imran spent the week meeting the partners and institutions behind IDIP, a service that monitors and forecasts flash droughts and turns them into practical calls to action for cotton farmers in southern Punjab.

Throughout the visit the team was warmly hosted by WaterSprint, our strong local partner in the consortium. Their generous hospitality made the week, and their central role in local implementation and in the project’s parametric crop insurance shows why WaterSprint is so important to IDIP on the ground.

In Islamabad, the team met the National Drought Monitoring Centre (NDMC), the FAO, and the Netherlands Embassy. In Lahore, the conversations continued with Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the Punjab Irrigation Department, and the Punjab Agriculture Department. The team also travelled to Bahawalpur to see cotton operations in person and better understand the daily realities farmers face.

A highlight of the visit was the signing of a Letter of Cooperation between FutureWater, WaterSprint and Better Cotton Initiative. It marks a shared commitment to bring reliable flash drought early warning to Pakistan’s cotton farming communities.

The meetings with NDMC, Better Cotton and the provincial departments confirmed strong interest in IDIP and set the stage for its further  upscaling and uptake, extending the service to more districts and putting its warnings and calls to action directly in the hands of farmers. By capturing flash droughts, a fast hazard that can develop within weeks and is often missed by conventional monitoring, IDIP offers a new way to protect cotton yields and farmer incomes.