2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, and private capital provides less than 2 per cent of water spending in developing countries
Private CEO roundtable at the UAE Mission to the United Nations convened by H.E. Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy, with H.E. Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, as a curtain-raiser to the conference the UAE will co-host with Senegal on 8 to 10 December
NEW YORK, September, 2026 — Some 50 chief executives, investors and philanthropy leaders gathered at the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations today to identify what it will take to move water projects from proven concept to financial close, at a private roundtable held as world leaders arrived for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
The roundtable, titled ‘Unlocking Water Investments, Unlocks Growth’, was convened by H.E. Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy, together with H.E. Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, who leads the UAE’s preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference. Moderated by Tania Strauss, Head of Sustainable Growth and People Agenda at the World Economic Forum, and held under the Chatham House Rule, it was designed as a business and philanthropy curtain-raiser to the conference, which the UAE and Senegal will co-host in Abu Dhabi from 8 to 10 December. It will be only the third UN conference dedicated to water in almost 50 years, and the first led by two countries of the Global South.
Water determines where food can be grown, energy produced, cities expanded and advanced industry located, including the data centres that power artificial intelligence. Yet in 2024, 2.1 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water and 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation. The 2026 SDG 6 Synthesis Report found that progress on safely managed drinking water must accelerate eightfold to reach universal coverage by 2030. The World Bank estimates that an additional US$131 to 141 billion a year is needed to reach universal water and sanitation, while less than 2 per cent of water spending in developing countries comes from private sources and official development assistance fell by 23 per cent in 2025.
H.E. Abdulla Balalaa said: “Around the world, water is one of the key defining factors shaping growth, competitiveness, and resilience. The AI revolution, the energy transition, food security and urban growth are all water stories. The AI transformation is equally a water transformation. The same is true for the energy transformation. Our technology and our energy resources are only as strong as the water resources that enable them. We cannot strengthen food systems, expand industrial capacity, nor build resilient cities without critical water infrastructure.”
H.E. Badr Jafar said: “Water is easy to undervalue because, for most of us, it appears on demand. Yet it is the infrastructure beneath every other infrastructure: food, energy, cities, and now the data centres behind artificial intelligence. The solutions exist. What is missing is the preparation, the risk allocation and the patient capital that turn a good idea into a financeable project. That is where business, investors and strategic philanthropy can each do what governments cannot do alone, and why the UAE is bringing them into one room.”
The discussion focused on the practical conditions for financial close in climate-stressed and fast-growing markets, including project preparation, offtake, regulatory and operating risk; on water constraints across food, energy, industry and data infrastructure; on making new technologies, including digital and AI-enabled solutions, affordable in developing economies; and on where catalytic and first-loss capital can make projects bankable that are not yet investable on commercial terms. Participants examined how long-term guarantees, local-currency finance and project-development facilities can bring viable projects to market, and where reuse, loss reduction, storage, efficient desalination and digital monitoring deliver the greatest returns when matched with sound governance and local operating capacity.
The roundtable forms part of the UAE’s wider engagement ahead of December’s UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi and builds on the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, whose US$150 million commitment anchors the five-year, US$119 million XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition for affordable desalination, and on the Abu Dhabi Global Water Platform, launched in January by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to mobilise US$2 billion and reach 10 million people by 2030. Registration for The Oasis, the UAE-hosted public programme of the conference, is free and open at unwaterconferenceuae.com.
About the 2026 UN Water Conference:
As the first UN Conference dedicated to accelerating implementation of SDG 6, and the first to be co-hosted by two Global South nations, the 2026 UN Water Conference – to be held in Abu Dhabi from 8-10 December 2026 – represents a pivotal opportunity to shift the trajectory of the global water agenda. Today, 2.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed areas, and an estimated USD 6.7 trillion investment gap remains to meet global water-related goals. http://www.unwaterconferenceuae.com
The UAE-hosted public programme, The Oasis, will feature high-level discussions, exhibitions, pavilions and opportunities to develop new partnerships around water. Registration for The Oasis is free and open to all at: unwaterconferenceuae.com/en/register.
About the Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business & Philanthropy:
The appointment by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, of a Special Envoy for Business and Philanthropy strengthens the country’s diplomatic influence by integrating business and philanthropy into its global engagements. It champions a diplomacy-driven approach that leverages the power of multi-stakeholder partnerships to drive sustainable impact and shared prosperity. The Special Envoy’s strategic objectives are connecting (facilitating engagement between the private sector and government entities in the UAE and internationally), mobilising (enabling business and philanthropy stakeholders to support the UAE’s diplomatic and strategic objectives) and advocating (promoting public, private and philanthropic coordination and collaboration). The mandate embodies the principles of the UAE’s national visions, including ‘We the UAE 2031’ and ‘Centennial 2071’.
