The Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction is one of the most important synthetic catalytic reactions developed in the 20th century. However, the use of toxic organic solvents for this reaction still poses a scientific challenge and is an aspect of economical and ecological relevance. The use of water as a reaction medium overcomes this issue. In the present work, we described efficient Suzuki coupling reactions in water, without any phase transfer reagents and it is possible to couple challenging substrates like aryl chlorides. Notably, this protocol also works with ultra-low loading of catalyst with high turnover numbers. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.