Every two years our community gathers together at the IAHR World Congress, and in August 2017 around 1200 participants from 61 countries met at the Putra World Trade Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Some 911 full papers were accepted out of 1324 abstracts submitted. The congress covered seven main themes comprising: River and Sediment Management, Flood Management, Environmental Hydraulics and Industrial Flows, Coastal, Estuaries and Lakes Management, Urban Water Management, Water Resources Management, Hydroinformatics/Computational Methods. Our Congress opened on Monday 14th August by The Honourable Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. There were a total of 12 keynotes during the week involving leading specialists in the hydro environment domain from around the world. The Congress closed on the Friday after the Malaysian Deputy Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation gave a highly personal talk about his education, and the differ ences between public perception of water and the environment and that of scientists.