The UAE and Senegal will co-host the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi from 8 to 10 December, with investment placed at the centre of talks as the world faces a $6.7 trillion financing gap to meet water infrastructure needs and achieve universal access to safe water and sanitation.
Abdulla Balalaa, UAE Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, told a media briefing in Abu Dhabi that water can no longer be treated as an environmental footnote. ‘Water issues may not always appear as a standalone line item in budgets, but they underpin every aspect of development and economic activity,’ he said. ‘If we are serious about implementation, we must be equally serious about financing. Investing in water is investing in people.’
The event will be only the third UN Water Conference since 1977, the first led by two countries from the Global South, and the first dedicated specifically to Sustainable Development Goal 6, which calls for clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
A dedicated investment dialogue at the UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi
For the first time at a UN Water Conference, the agenda will include a sixth Interactive Dialogue focused specifically on mobilising finance, technology and innovation. Titled ‘Investments for Water,’ it was adopted by consensus among UN member states and will run alongside five existing tracks: Water for People, Water for Prosperity, Water for Planet, Water for Cooperation and Water in Multilateral Processes.
Balalaa said governments alone cannot provide the scale of investment required. Commercial banks, institutional investors, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions and the private sector all need to treat water as both an economic priority and an investment opportunity, he said.
The UAE has been building the case through a series of preparatory moves. Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that Balalaa launched the Water Acceleration Programme on 4 November 2025, briefing high-level officials from 18 federal and local entities on conference preparations. Two technical sessions with federal and local entities and the private sector followed in November and December 2025.
In January, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a high-level dialogue during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026, in collaboration with Masdar and the Global Climate Finance Centre, drawing ministers, CEOs and senior leaders from financial institutions and multilateral development banks. Outcomes fed into the High-Level Preparatory Meeting held in Dakar on 26 and 27 January.
On 2 July, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs convened a closed-door panel at London Climate Action Week, bringing together senior officials across public policy, infrastructure, technology and finance to advance urban water resilience solutions.
Finance commitments and the scale of the challenge
The numbers behind the push are stark. Some 2.1 billion people 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 collectively spend nearly 250 million hours a day collecting water.
Agriculture accounts for 72 per cent of global freshwater withdrawals, and Balalaa added that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence is making water demand more acute: the data centres and energy systems that support AI all depend on reliable water supply.
Two concrete financial commitments illustrate the direction the UAE wants others to follow. First Abu Dhabi Bank has pledged to mobilise Dh100 billion in blue finance; on 4 June, WAM reported the bank also announced a strategic partnership with Water.org and its affiliated impact investment manager WaterEquity, including an investment in the WaterEquity Everspring Fund. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development launched its Global Water Platform on 8 January 2026, describing it as a vehicle to turn water needs into investable projects by aggregating different sources of capital.
The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, is backing the XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition, a five-year, $119 million prize focused on affordable seawater desalination. As of 22 September 2025, the competition had awarded 143 qualified teams.
The conference will be structured across two spaces at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi: the UN-accredited Blue Zone, hosting the six Interactive Dialogues and official plenary sessions, and The Oasis, a UAE-hosted space for exhibitions, pavilions and partner activities. The Oasis will also host the inaugural Abu Dhabi Water and Power Week, led by the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, with this year’s programme focused on the water sector.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been building institutional links: in May, Balalaa signed a memorandum of understanding between the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy and the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, covering research, training and knowledge exchange. The 2023 UN Water Conference was co-hosted by the Netherlands and Tajikistan, and continuity between that event and the Abu Dhabi conference was a central focus of the visit.
The virtual side-event application window for the December conference closes on 16 October.
