More than two billion people woke up today unsure where their next safe drinking water will come from.
Some are forced to spend up to 15 per cent of their income just to access water, highlighting the global water crisis, according to Gary White, chief executive and co-founder of non-profit Water.org.
“That is a huge burden. It's a burden in terms of time spent walking to collect water. It is a burden in terms of health … and it's a burden in terms of girls not being in school because they're usually the ones charged with going to collect water,” Mr White told The National on Wednesday.
Mr White was speaking ahead of a talk he will give on Thursday at NYUAD Institute to examine ways to solve the crisis. The event coincides with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, where NYUAD and others are seeking solutions to such issues. And as preparations gather pace for the 2026 UN Water Conference, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, to take place in the Emirates this December.
The situation in the Middle East is dire. According to Unicef, about nine out of 10 children in the Middle East and North Africa live in areas of high or extremely high-water stress. Of the 17 most water-stressed countries in the world, 11 are in the region.
The growth of data centres, particularly to power artificial intelligence, is also expected to increase demands on water supply in the Gulf as they need water for cooling. Mr White said the UAE was a leader in securing water supplies efficiently and could be a “beacon” to the Middle East and world.
“Certainly there are water challenges here,” he said. “But the UAE is in a really great position to be an exporter of water technologies, water reuse, desalination and management on the demand side.
“This is a global crisis. But there's a lot that can be done to solve it and a lot of that originates right here in the UAE.”
But he cautioned that this had to be set against increasing population and rising demand, such as from data centres.
“When you look at the data centres and AI and the water use from those, then we have to remain vigilant and always trying to squeeze as much as we can out of each drop of water,” said Mr White.
The solutions are there, he said. They include using more efficient appliances, more efficient agriculture and landscaping, increasingly using renewables, deploying technology and AI to detect leaks in legacy water infrastructure right down to encouraging people to use less water when brushing their teeth.
“We're kind of coming to a point where we must face the music on water and I think that given ingenuity, given innovation and given the right policy framework, we're going to be able to do a lot more.”
The UAE knows only too well the challenges. Searching for water was a daily task until the 1960s with ground wells vital. But today, the UAE has scores of desalination plants to ensure a regular supply. The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 also seeks to reduce total demand for water resources by 21 per cent and increase the reuse of treated water to 95 per cent
“I think the mindset is here that says yes … this country is fortunate and it wants to look to how it can share some of that good fortune with the rest of the world, and that we see as a perfect partnership with us.”
The UAE’s expertise in water technology is now shared globally. UAE Water Aid (Suqia UAE), established in 2015 provides clean water in 10 countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
In 2024 it was announced the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative would invest $150 million for innovative solutions to tackle global water shortages, while The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award supports global water security initiatives with $1 million in prize money.
Mr White, meanwhile, founded Water.org with Hollywood star Matt Damon. Both were honoured in Time magazine’s list of the “100 most influential people” in 2011 for their work.
Financing, however, remains a key obstacle despite the World Bank stating for every $1 invested in water and sanitation yields a $4 economic return because of lower mortality rates, increased productivity and less demand on healthcare.
Mr White said money needed to come from governments, philanthropic donations and the private sector. Another challenge is that water utilities are often poorly run, with losses in some systems as high as 60 per cent.
“There's a real issue around billing and collecting tariffs for the water infrastructure,” he said. “You see infrastructure breaking down, leaking and not at a level that's going to allow a financial return on that investment.”
Water also crosses borders and does not recognise political boundaries, often leading to tension such as disputes over the Nile.
Mr White said he has travelled across the world from India to Bangladesh and has seen communities gain access to water for the first time. Through small affordable loans supported by his organisation, he gave the example of one woman in India who took out about $300 to install a tap.
“I was there the first day she was able to have that water connection. And it was amazing to me. She had put flowers around this water tap. She had incense burning around her water tap. It's almost like it was a shrine.”
For Mr White, it is a busy year. After the UAE, he travels to Davos for the World Economic Forum as preparations for the water conference grow. He said between now and December, it was possible to reach more than a million people with access to water through these small affordable loans.
He also wants people at the December conference to show up not just with ideas but with “things that actually will work and will actually deliver impact” as global water security is a “solvable problem”.
“We have the technology, we know how to make water safe and we know how to end a water crisis but trying to match the financial resources with those solutions is where a lot of this breaks down. As Ben Franklin said, when the well is dry, we know the value of water.”
'The worth of water: chasing solutions to the world’s greatest challenge' takes place at NYUAD Institute on Thursday at 6pm. It is open to the public
