One Water Summit: EU supports renewed global commitment to water resilience

Heads of state and government from across the world gathered this week at a high-level summit in Riyadh to find concrete solutions to address the global water crisis and enhance international cooperation on water.

The One Water Summit, which coincided with the UNCCD COP16 in Saudi Arabia, also saw international organisations, businesses, scientific experts, NGOs, and other stakeholders gather to advance global action on pressing water challenges, including Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation, in preparation for the next UN Water Conference in 2026. 

It is a priority for the EU to accelerate global action to address the water crisis, which is driven by overdemand, mismanagement, and the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Water resilience is also key to preventing and addressing current and future threats to public health and ensuring food and energy security while promoting cross-sectoral cooperation on water resources. 

Several deliverables were announced at the summit, including:-

• The launch of a Transboundary Water Knowledge Platform aimed at strengthening transboundary water cooperation;
• A pledge to accelerate the Freshwater Challenge to ensure the restoration of 300,000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands by 2030, which the EU joined in May;
• The launch of the 'One Water Vision', a science-based initiative to co-design novel methods of water monitoring and management, and further develop early warning systems for droughts and floods.

Countries also agreed to raise awareness among young people on pressing global water challenges, through a new “adopt a river” project. The Commission welcomes this initiative and will promote it through its networks at the same time as exploring how to further support the newly launched initiative.

It will do this as part of its commitment to working with the international community to address the pressing global challenges in the water sector and promote a more sustainable and equitable approach to water management.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) joined eight Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in their commitment to enhance water security globally.

Background

The EU aims to keep water high on the global political agenda and to maintain the momentum from the UN 2023 Water Conference, where world leaders committed to accelerate action for clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. 

It is estimated that almost half of the world’s population will suffer acute water stress by 2030. Worldwide, 2.2 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water and more than half of the global population does not have access to safe sanitation. This threatens the health of millions of individuals, especially the most vulnerable groups.

Increasing water stress impacts food and energy security and ecosystem health, and hampers socio-economic and human development. Increased competition for dwindling freshwater resources also threatens stability among and within nations through conflicts, displacement or migration.  

More information

Recording of the One Water Summit

EU priorities at UNCCD COP16
 
EU efforts on the global water agenda

European Commission’s #WaterWiseEU campaign