At the start of the 2026 multilateral process, both the United Arab Emirates and Senegal held an international meeting on water issues at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on March 3rd, 2025. Through this Organizational Meeting, the Member States and stakeholders gave their insights about the six interactive dialogues that the September 2024 Conference established.
The primary purpose is to help nations reach Sustainable Development Goal 6 faster which requires everyone to have access to safe water and sanitation. The event showed worldwide leaders how they must work together to solve growing water problems.
Recognizing that access to safe and clean drinking water is a fundamental right, the #UAE has marked water as a priority.
— Permanent Committee for Human Rights UAE (@pchruae) March 3, 2025Last year, the UAE launched The Mohamed Bin Zayed Water Initiative @mbzwi to confront the urgent challenge of water scarcity around the world and… pic.twitter.com/gFdAPnKaCT
Setting the Stage for Collaborative Action
The session started with official speeches by Balalaa from UAE and Dieye from Senegal as Assistant Minister for Energy and Sustainability and Minister of Hydraulic and Sanitation respectively. The authorities from these countries showed their willingness to create an open and team-based planning path. The UAE leads world water action by spreading knowledge sharing and supporting global networks while increasing investment and technological improvement.
Dieye declared that the upcoming event stands as a key time for the species and demands actualized plans from the participants. He demands complete participation by all people during the development process. The two nations demanded quick action to manage water shortages because water problems threaten food supplies and public well-being and hurt economic growth.
Today’s Organizational Session on the 2026 UN Water Conference, co-hosted UAE
— UAE Mission to the UN (@UAEMissionToUN) March 3, 2025and Senegal
, raised global ambitions to shape a transformative agenda and accelerate action on water.
The UAE looks forward to welcoming the international community in 2026 to co-create a… pic.twitter.com/Xt4iIYGcRa
Charting the Course for Future Dialogues
Under the Organisational Meeting, Li Junhua and Alvaro Lario presented alongside 72 attendees from UN bodies and external organizations. UN DESA and UN-Water along with UN entities will assist Secretariat staff by helping develop study materials about possible meeting topics.
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On July 9th, 2025 the General Assembly President will finalize conference themes for later review. Before the December conference, the organization will gather leaders at a specific venue in Dakar for preparatory sessions. Through an official declaration, the UAE and Senegal demand all stakeholders to step up their water action so the worldwide problem of clean water scarcity can be solved.
