BATOOL GHAITH (ABU DHABI)
The UAE aims to push water higher on the global economic and investment agenda when it co-hosts the 2026 UN Water Conference in December.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, said the conference would seek to turn years of international discussions into practical partnerships, commitments and projects.
The event, which runs from December 8 to 10 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, will be co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal.
For the first time at a UN Water Conference, an interactive dialogue will be dedicated to investment and finance — a move Balalaa said reflects growing international recognition that implementation of water solutions cannot be separated from how they will be financed.
“The world agrees that much more needs to be done to close the $6.7 trillion global financing gap required to meet water infrastructure demands and achieve SDG 6,” he said. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Governments alone cannot provide investment on that scale, Balalaa said. Commercial banks, institutional investors, development finance institutions, multilateral development banks, philanthropies and the private sector will all have to view water as both an economic and investment priority.
The objective of the Investments for Water Dialogue, he added, will be to examine how finance, technology, innovation and capacity can be mobilised and aligned to move projects from ambition to implementation.
Balalaa said entities across the UAE are already working to make water projects more attractive to investors, through stronger project pipelines, suitable financing structures and partnerships that reduce risk and attract capital.
He highlighted First Abu Dhabi Bank’s commitment to mobilise Dh100 billion in blue finance, describing it as an important signal to both the domestic and international financial community.
He also pointed to the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development’s Global Water Platform as an example of how development finance can mobilise capital and connect water needs with investable projects.
“If water is fundamental to economic growth, it must be reflected in investment decisions,” Balalaa said.
The conference’s focus on SDG 6 comes at a critical point with less than five years remaining in the 2030 agenda and progress still off track. It will be the third UN Water Conference, following Mar del Plata in 1977 and New York in 2023 — and the first led by two Global South co-hosts, with the UAE bringing experience in water scarcity, stewardship and innovation, and Senegal in access, sanitation and clean water.
Balalaa pointed to the scale of the challenge: 2.1 billion people worldwide still lack safely managed drinking water; 3.4 billion lack safely managed sanitation; and 1.7 billion lack basic hygiene services at home. Women and girls spend almost 250 million hours a day collecting water — time he said could otherwise go toward education or work.
UN data confirms agriculture accounted for 72% of global freshwater withdrawals in 2022. Water and energy are similarly interconnected, Balalaa said, because water is required to produce and move energy, while energy is needed to generate, treat, transport and secure water.
Technology is becoming increasingly dependent on water as well, as water is essential to the data centres, infrastructure and energy systems underpinning the rapid expansion of AI, he said. This makes responsible water use an important part of enabling technology to scale sustainably.
“This is why water is not simply an environmental issue or a development issue, Balalaa said. “It is an economic issue. An infrastructure issue. A security issue. And increasingly, an investment issue, and an investment opportunity.”
The conference will be structured around six Interactive Dialogues: Water for People, Water for Prosperity, Water for Planet, Water for Cooperation, Water in Multilateral Processes and Investments for Water.