The UAE and Senegal aim to make implementation the focus of this year's UN Water Conference, calling for faster action by governments, financial institutions and the private sector to address the worsening global water crisis, a senior Emirati official has said.
The UN Water Conference, which will be held in Abu Dhabi from December 8 to 10, comes as rising populations, urbanisation and climate change place mounting pressure on global freshwater supplies.
“We want to focus our conference on implementation,” Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, said in an interview on the sidelines of the UN High-Level Political Forum, where he led the UAE delegation on water. “There have been so many talks and initiatives, which we support and cherish, but what will fulfil the gap is implementation.”
Mr Balalaa said water had long been overlooked in international policymaking despite underpinning food security, energy production, public health and economic development.
“The biggest example of how water is underprioritised is that this is only the third United Nations water conference in 50 years,” he said. “We are trying to bring water back to the centre stage.”
The conference will bring together UN member states, civil society and the private sector and encourage action on major issues including access, co-operation and financing.
The UN High-Level Political Forum was a key milestone on the road to the conference, with the co-hosts and co-chairs holding a flagship event on “Accelerating Momentum Towards the 2026 UN Water Conference”, as well as engagements to advance key issues.
Mr Balalaa said the conference aims to encourage countries to launch practical partnerships and flagship initiatives rather than issue broad political declarations. “People know water is life,” he said. “The lack is in action. This is what we're doing.”
But the key challenge remaining is financing.
The UAE minister estimated the global funding gap for water infrastructure exceeds $6 trillion and said governments alone cannot meet demand.
“The financial gap is huge,” he said. “The demand is there.” Multilateral development banks, infrastructure funds and philanthropies, he added, should help expand investment through guaranteed schemes and other de-risking mechanisms that make projects more attractive to investors.
He pointed to the World Bank's Water Forward initiative as one example designed to help countries access financing for water projects.
The UAE, one of the world's most water-scarce countries, is making investments in desalination, artificial intelligence and water reuse. Mr Balalaa pointed to the Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative, launched in 2024, to develop desalination technologies that are “sustainable, scalable, affordable and deployable”.
“Our platforms are AI-enabled to utilise this resource in the most efficient way,” he said. “Water is not an exception. It's happening across the board.”
Beyond domestic projects, he said, the UAE was sharing expertise through capacity-building programmes with partner countries, describing knowledge transfer as “at the heart of what we do”.
Mr Balalaa also called for stronger international co-operation on water governance, saying demand will continue rising as populations grow and economies expand.
“Water is a main enabler for national and international sustainable development and should be governed in a fair way where all parties can benefit,” he said. He cited Europe as an example of successful co-operation built around benefit-sharing between countries.
To encourage follow-through after the conference, Mr Balalaa said each partnership announced would include its own implementation milestones, while existing UN mechanisms would provide broader multilateral oversight.
“The UAE walks the talk,” he said. “When we say we will do something, we do it.”
Ministers and technical teams have met regularly to refine work plans, while civil society organisations, non-governmental groups and youth representatives have also been included in the process.
“We don't compromise with inclusivity, especially when we're talking about water,” he said. “Everyone needs water hence the process must be inclusive.”
He added that the UAE has also launched a Global Youth Water Envoys Programme, which will select and prepare 100 young leaders from across the world's regions for structured, substantive participation in global water governance, saying young people would play a critical role in sustaining momentum on global water action.
“We want people to come with optimism, with an open mind to partner, but also to implement,” Mr Balalaa said. “It's time for less talking and more doing.”
