Member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council are in talks to create a process around water co-operation, a senior UAE official said on Thursday.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, told reporters that GCC member states were in discussions on a water-sharing initiative, aimed at replicating the bloc's existing power co-operation model.
"This is a great example of co-operation," said Mr Balalaa. "There is an idea of replicating that in water as well."
His remarks come before the 2026 UN Water Conference, which will be co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal in Abu Dhabi in December.
The water conference, the third in 50 years, is the first to be hosted by nations of the Global South.
In preparation for the conference, the UAE has been pushing for momentum on water security and conservation as part of its foreign policy agenda at the high-level UNGA week.
Although the country has achieved 100 per cent coverage for safe water and sanitation, it is no stranger to water scarcity. The UAE obtains most of its water from desalination.
"We never had the luxury of treating water as a side issue," Mr Balalaa said.
"We are promising the world that the UAE will do its part. We also expect the international community and other member states to come with commitments that are implementation-focused, that eventually can move the needle and get access to those who are in need, quantified at millions, as of today."
Mr Balalaa said water shortage was a "global challenge", and that "no one is immune" from its consequences. He called for a collective effort to resolve it.
"The numbers today are shocking. And it's a problem or a challenge, if you want, that cannot be solved by a single country or two countries or five countries. This requires co-operation."
Mr Balalaa called for greater private-sector involvement, while urging nations to create the right regulatory frameworks for lenders and financiers to extend or access capital needed to resolve global water challenges.
He also invited technology owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators to "come to Abu Dhabi" and show their technologies and get in touch with other stakeholders "who can eventually help deploy technologies somewhere else and solve the problem of billions of people as of today who lack access to water".
