This policy case study, developed by the Design Policy Lab at the Politecnico di Milano as part of the European Commission's Water Resilience Experiment, presents a qualitative investigation into collaborative water governance through textual analysis, stakeholder interviews, and a focus group. The document examines how the Municipality of Milan and a coalition of territorial stakeholders responded to the severe drought emergency that affected northern Italy in early 2022, during which precipitation levels fell to approximately one quarter of normal seasonal expectations. The study describes Milan's complex hydraulic infrastructure, comprising major rivers, an extensive network of historic artificial canals, and a multilayered regulatory framework involving regional authorities, reclamation and irrigation consortiums, and municipal bodies. It details how the city's Food Policy Area convened an emergency roundtable that mobilised actors including the ETV Villoresi Land Reclamation Consortium and farmers' representatives, ultimately invoking national water legislation to prioritise irrigation for peri-urban agricultural production via the Ticinello canal. This intervention reduced crop losses to approximately 20 percent compared to 60 percent suffered elsewhere in the region. Drawing on retrospective stakeholder reflection, the document derives four action points addressing water-centred collaborative networks, dedicated institutional competencies, transparency of water data, and preservation of traditional local knowledge in water management. European examples from Rotterdam, Paris, and Amsterdam are referenced as comparable good practices. The findings are intended to inform future European Commission policy and support other urban authorities in designing climate-resilient water management systems suited to increasing drought frequency under climate change conditions.