SDG 6 Special Event (HLPF 2026 Side Event)

Thank you so much for the gavel.
Good afternoon, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the SDG six Special Event 2026 held in the context of this year HLPF.
My name is Paula Dada.
I'm Director of Environment and Forests at UNIC and it is my pleasure to be your master of ceremonies this afternoon.
As we approach 2030, progress on water and sanitation remains far off track in many parts of the world as you heard this morning.
At the same time, pressures are intensifying from climate change and ecosystem degradation to growing demand, rising inequalities, and increasing uncertainty.
These challenges reminders of a simple but urgent reality.
Progress on water cannot happen in isolation.
Delivering on SDG six requires stronger cooperation, better governance, greater investment, and more effective implementation at all levels.
Since 60% of freshwater resources are shared between two or more countries, transboundary cooperation is crucial for peace, sustainable development, and climate action.
Of course, this message is coming from me as UI, who hosts the 1992 Water Convention.
Community is accelerating action and today's program reflects exactly these priorities.
We begin with country acceleration case studies showing good practice in how countries accelerate progress towards SDGs.
We will hear from three countries whose experience demonstrates that progress is possible when policies, institutions, and partnerships are aligned.
Then these practical examples of country level action are especially valuable.
They remind us that peer learning and exchange are essential tools for accelerating implementation and strengthening multilateral cooperation.
Then we will move to a flagship of joint UN action coordinated by UN Water, the Impressive UN SDG six Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026, which will be launched and which provides an important reflection on where we stand, what has been achieved, and where acceleration is most urgently needed.
And finally, our discussion today will help us build momentum towards the 2026 UN Water Conference, of course, where the international community will have a critical opportunity to translate ambition into action.
Co hosts and co chairs will speak about their vision for the conference.
But now we start with welcoming remarks and we really have the pleasure of having an impressive panel.
To open the session, I will pass the floor on to Mr.
Lee, under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
Mr.
Lee is not only leading Deser's work on sustainable development, but is also Secretary-General of the upcoming December 26th UN Water Conference.
Over to you, Mr.
Lee.
Thank you, master of the ceremony.
Thank you for your kind words.
Yesterday, I'm here with all the colleagues and participants.
It's not as under S channel for the Department of Economic Affairs, but also, most importantly, the Sc channel of the Conference to provide our support and facilitation to all of you.
Well, good afternoon.
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to SDG six special event, jointly convened by the UN Water Department, the Department of the Economic and Social Affairs.
Well, I guess that we all agree that this year's event comes at a very critical moment.
With the four years remaining to achieve the 2030 agenda, Sustainable Development Goal six is once again under in depth review at the high level political forum.
Later this year, member states will come together at the 2026 UN World Conference to accelerate the implementation of the SDG six and strengthen the international cooperation on water.
These milestones remind us of a simple but fundamental truth.
That is, the water is not only the SDG six, it is a foundation for sustainable development, underpinning the progress across the entire 2030 agenda.
The past decade has shown that progress is possible.
More people have gained access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services.
More countries are strengthening the water governance and integrated water resources management, yet progress remained too slow and too uneven to achieve our shared ambitions by 2030.
The action is distinguished participants.
Today's launch of the SDG six synthesis Report 2026 is especially timely.
Prepared by the UN Word members and partners, the report provides an important evidence base for the CA's review of the SDG six and for the preparations for the 2026 UN Word Conference.
Evidence based policymaking is essential if we are to accelerate the implementation of the SDG six.
Our task now is to translate the evidence introduction through the stronger partnerships, integrated approaches, and sustained investments.
Together, we must turn the political commitment into measurable progress for people, prosperity, and the planet.
Also wish to express my sincere appreciation to the UN WA and all its members and partners for their excellent work in preparing this report.
I also thank the co host of the 2026 UN World Conference, the United Arab Emirates and Senegal for their continued leadership and commitment.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Lee.
I'm now passing the floor into miss Ranya Al Mast, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Africa.
First of all, also congratulating her for her Richardson appointment and on behalf of UC also to thank and thank Esc very much for the good cooperation on water and specifically Transboundary Water Cooperation.
The floor is yours, please.
Thank you very much, Paula and thank you, USG Lee.
Esqui is the Economic and Social Commission of West Asia and Excellency distinguished representatives, dear colleagues.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and discovering that the water flowing from your tap has stopped.
For many of us, it would be a brief inconvenience.
For millions across the region, it is daily reality.
More than 90% of the Arab region's population lives in water scarce countries with water stress increasing 13% since 2015.
In our region, every drop counts.
This is why I'm particularly honored that my first statement as Executive Secretary of ESCA at the high level political forum is at the water event.
Because if there is one resource that connects every development challenge, it's water exactly as the USG mentioned.
Water connects food, energy, and ecosystems, water connects health and human dignity, water connects resilience and stability.
I would like to thank you and DSA and UN Water for gathering us to launch the United Nations SDG six Synthesis report on Water and Sanitation 2026, which is the collective contribution that assesses where we are today and what we need to do together to accelerate progress.
That is precisely the mission of the United Nations system wide strategy for water and sanitation, which recognizes that water is not a standalone issue, but a connector, a connector across the UN system and across the SDGs.
Through our engagement with UN Water and our 21 member states, ESCA advances this vision, translating global goals into action, connecting countries and communities around common water challenges.
This is particularly important in the Arab region where two thirds of freshwater resources cross one or more international border.
In support of SDG 6.5, ESQAS strengthens connections between countries through, first, policy networks and partnership, such as our ESQ intergonmental committee on Water Resources, the Arab Ministerial Water Council, the MushRk Waters Knowledge Series we organized with the World Bank, and the Transboundary Water Cooperation Coalition.
Second, legal instruments, including the UN Water Convention with UN ECE, and third, regional digital platforms such as ESQA'S Groundwater Knowledge Platform and RCR Climate and Water Knowledge Hub.
Our solutions are thus as connected as the challenges we face.
Ladies and gentlemen, despite immense pressure, we can see stories of progress.
In the last ten years, over 960 million people globally have gained access to safely managed drinking services, including 80 million people in the Arab region and about 1.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation services, including 87 million people in the Arab States.
These figures represent more than statistics.
They represent healthier communities, greater dignity, and greater opportunity.
Some of these achievements are documented in UN Water's SDG six country acceleration case studies, including those prepared with Saudi Arabia in 2025 and in Jordan in 2024 with the help of ESCA.
Today's session will feature SDG six insights from China, Sotomo, and Uzbakistan.
These efforts remind us of a simple but powerful truth.
Progress is possible, progress is happening, but more investment is needed to scale achievements and ensure that no one is left behind.
Ladies and gentlemen, the question before us is not whether achieving our water goal is possible.
We know it probably is.
The question is whether we can move fast enough for the hundreds of millions of people who still can't access clean water and sanitation for a dignified life.
Because 2030 is no longer a distant destination, it is just four years away, the upcoming 2026 United Nations Water Conference hosted by the UAE and Senegal offers a crucial opportunity to accelerate action and turn commitments into results.
In support, ESA is expanding the Arab Initiative for mobilizing climate Finance for water with partners, which was launched as a Water action agenda commitment in 2023 and featured during Cairo Water Week last year.
ESCA is also organizing the Arab Regional Preparatory meeting for the 2026 UN Water Conference in September in Amen to support member countries arrive in Abu Dhabi with a joint message on the way forward to 2030 and beyond.
Our goal is not simply to generate more recommendations.
Our goal is to advance what I would like to call the AAI initiative, innovative solutions that harness technology and regional cooperation, integrated solutions that connect water, energy, food, and climate, and investable solutions that deliver tangible results.
To do so, we need to scale what works and do so with urgency.
Let us work together to deliver solutions that are innovative, integrated, and drive investment for people, planet, and prosperity for all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Madam Executive Secretary.
A ay ay, I think we will remember that.
Thank you so much.
There is a small change in the program now and we are going directly to the keynote.
It is my great pleasure to welcome miss Redno Marsudi, United Nations Secretary-General Special Envoy on Water.
At time of growing water stress and increasing pressure on shared water resources, strong diplomacy and stronger cooperation are essential.
So we are pleased to welcome you and give you the floor.
Over to you.
Thank you very much, Madam Master Officer Morty.
Excellencies, colleagues, ten years ago, the international community made an important decision.
For the first time, water and sanitation were recognized through a dedicated sustainable development goals.
The ambition was clear to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, for the people.
And today as we review a decade of implementation, we can ask a simple question and I had mentioned it this morning.
Has SDG six made a difference? And the answer is yes.
But these progresses should not make us be compleant.
The progress we have seen is not fast enough to cope up with the emerging needs in this complex work.
With less than five years remaining until 2030, we are not on track to achieve SDG six.
The main challenge before us, as the previous speaker mentioned, is not a lack of knowledge, but implementation.
At scale at speed, including the capacity to implement, especially in countries and communities in needs.
Colleagues, we have today the opportunity to learn good experiences from China, Sotoman Principal, as well as Uzbekistan on how water action in their respective countries have been successfully implemented how to elevate water in their political agenda, how to strengthen coordination across sector, how to strengthen governance in water management, and what challenges are pertaining and what barriers are remaining.
On top of that, from today's meeting, I expect three things.
First, expect to learn how investment in water can really make impacts and drive progress underground.
In all water meetings that I have participated, colleagues, the issue of investment always emerge.
How non state actors are encouraged to support countries in investing in water.
How the enabling environment is important to guarantee lasting and meaningful investment in water.
Or even in what type of investment are important to produce multiple impacts.
Second, expect action oriented lesson learns and findings that can be contributed to the upcoming UN Water conference.
We could scale up the action oriented lesson learned and present them to the 2026 UN Water Conference.
Last, we must expect this meeting to spark ideas about the future of global water agenda after and beyond 2030.
Currently, we are looking at a buildup of momentum around SDG six, but we need to ensure that the momentum generated does not stop in 2030.
Therefore, we must prepare ourselves to maintain the momentum and prepare what agenda we want to beyond 2030.
Excellency, Slleue, the number of expectation we set in the beginning of this special session will determine how far will the result of our discussion be carried forward.
From this event, I believe we must expect no less than discussion, focusing on ways to strengthen investment W to make impacts on the ground, contribute to the 2026 UN Water Conference, and shape the future of water agenda beyond 2030.
At the very end, this expectation will dictate our intention, which I believe is to accelerate SDG six for the people.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to the special envoy and thank you to the high level panel we have here today with welcoming remarks while we change the post, Moving to a particularly important part of today's program, the launch of the SDG six country acceleration case studies.
These case studies remind us that while the global progress on SDG six remains uneven, real progress is possible.
They show us that with the right policies, partnerships, and sustained commitment, acceleration can happen.
Success stories matter because they demonstrate what works, but also that change is actually achievable.
To guide us through this next segment, it is my pleasure to invite miss Mia Villar Fournier, Deputy Director of the Strategic Partnerships Management Division of the United Nations Development Coordination Office.
Mia, the floor is yours.
I don't know what I, please.
I'm going to move next year.
Well, dear colleagues, dear guests, a very welcome to you all to this session, the special event on SDG six in advance, thank you for the opportunity to moderate.
During this session, we will hear about excellent examples of how water can be a superconnector to de acceleration, which have also been turned into contract acceleration case studies by UN Water.
First, we will be hearing from Mr.
Yu Ki Yang, Chief Planner at the Minister of Water Resources of China and Mr.
Lee Rui, Director General of the Department of Water Resources of Zijian Province in China.
We were expecting to hear from his Alexei Cardoso, Ministry of Infrastructure and Natural Resources from Sotome and Principe, but unfortunately, he could not join us.
Finally, we will also be a hearing from His Excellency, Rtumbaev Timur Nurkovic, Deputy Head of the administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
China's Asian province, Automeya, Principe, and Uzbekistan show how focused public action, predictable finance, professionalized service delivery, and data driven innovation can accelerate progress on water, sanitation, and hygiene.
All our speakers have made a long trip to come here to the UN headquarters to share their experience, and we sincerely thank them for us today.
Across very different geographies and economies, each case share the very same core truth.
When political leadership, public finance and operational reforms aligned with technology and community engagement, measurable progress on SDGC follows.
China's Xijian province moved from large rural gaps to near universal rural tap water coverage.
In less than ten years, it has expanded safe water access to more than one quarter of rural inhabitants, including in remote mountain and island areas.
Taking a people centered approach to water supply, combining standardization with innovation, this was central to an overall rural revitization strategy.
Uzbekistan achieve a rapid reduction in water withdrawals through water saving reforms and investments.
Over the last decade, Uzbekistan has decreased water stress by reducing water usage and promoting water savings.
For a varied landlocked country, these are critical changes as non renewable water resources are being depleted with insufficient water left for water related ecosystems, particularly the RLC.
These are not abstract successes.
These are concrete bpical approaches that can inspire other countries to act.
Along these studies that we're presenting today, UN Water has developed 15 SDG six case studies as a key activity from the UN Water Task Force on country level engagement where RCs and UN cities from around the world participate.
With this body of research, UN Water is providing countries and the RCs and UN cities with actionable lessons and developing a knowledge base on how to turn the global water targets into actionable change at the country level.
This body of research also allows for cross country comparison, which helps national policymakers in the multilateral system.
The studies developed by UN Water cover a breadth of SDGs indicators and regions, as you will be able to see in the map.
They are all available on the website if you wish to learn more about any of them.
As I said, all of them share a core message.
SDG acceleration is possible and it's practical.
Without further delay, let me back Mr.
Yu Qi Yang and Mr.
Li Hui to present to us the experience of the Xi jiang province.
Please note that they will be making their presentation in Chinese and translation is, of course, available for those who need it.
Over to you.
Okay.
Thank you.
Understood.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
Chair, distinguished colleagues, good afternoon.
It's my great pleasure to participate in this special event and share China's practices and experience in ensuring safe drinking water in rural areas.
And Safe drinking water lies at the heart of achieving SDG six and is fundamental to people's health and well being guided by people centered development philosophy, China has consistently regarded ensuring safe drinking water as a key public service and an essential safeguard for people's well being, achieving remarkable progress over the years.
In 2021, President Xi announced at the National Conference on poverty alleviation that safe drinking water had been secured for all the people lived out of poverty.
Historical progress has been made in addressing drinking water shortage in impoverished areas, enabling billings of rural residents to replace blackish and unsafe water with clean drinking water.
Since 2021, China has continued to improve the quality and efficiency of rural water supply from moving From fragmented systems to large scale networks from traditional management to digital and smart governance, by the end of 2025, China has completed 3.8 million rural water supply facilities serving approximately 850 million people.
Rural tap water coverage reached 96% nationwide, providing a solid water supply foundation for rural revitalization and agricultural and rural modernization.
China's experience can be summarized in four key areas.
First, putting people first by continuously advancing rural drinking water safety as a major public welfare initiative.
China has consistently treated safe drinking water as essential basic public service, increased public investment, and ensure that no household and no individual is left behind, enabling rural residents to benefit from modern water supply services.
Second, strengthening accountability through a systematic approach to drinking water security.
China has continuously improved the planning, construction, operation, and regulatory framework for rural water supply, while clearly defining the responsibilities of local governments, sector regulators, and water supply operators.
China has also introduced the standardized three plus one model for rural water supply deployment and management.
The three refers to integrated rural urban water supply, scale up centralized water supply system, and standardized management of small scale water supply scheme.
One refers to account level professional unified management, establishing a standardized governance framework, covering the entire water supply chain from source to tap.
Third, harnessing IT innovation to modernize governance.
China has accelerated the application of digital technology, including digital twin technologies in rural water supply projects.
Around 63% of countries and counties have established smart management platforms, significantly improving operational efficiency.
Dynamic monitoring has also been strengthened through hotline websites and mobile applications operated by the Ministry of Water Resources and local authorities, enabling the timely identification and resolution of rural water supply issues.
Fourth, enhancing emergency preparedness and strengthening the resilience of rural water supply systems.
China has been accelerating the development of national water network and continuously improving emergency water supply systems that serve both routine and emergency needs.
It has strengthened the capacity to ensure water supply during earthquake, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters safeguarding rural drinking water security.
Ladies and gentlemen, on June 22nd this year, the Chinese government released the National Human Rights Action Plan.
2026 to 2030, which sets the goal of fully implementing the standardized three plus one rural water supply model nationwide over the next five years and raising rural water coverage to 98% by 2030.
China stands ready to continue improving and implementing the global development initiative and deepening cooperation with the UN system governments and international organizations, especially partners across the global south in rural area to deliver water supply in rural areas.
Also, we want to advance the implementation of SDG six and contribute China's experience and solutions to building more equitable and resilience global water governance system.
Thank you so much.
I would like to make a small correction to the program that I had highlighted earlier.
The second representative of the Republic of China is Mr.
Xi Shuang.
He's the Deputy Director General of the Department of Rural Water and Hydropower or the Ministry of Water Resources of China.
Junior large I Mr.
Chairman, distinguished delegates and experts, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
It is a great honor to share the Giants practice in rural water supply at this SDG six special event.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to rural drinking water safety, calling for clean safe water for all urban and rural residents scheduled by people centered philosophy, the Giant has made the rural water supply part of basic public services and a key lever in building its demonstrations of common prosperity through high quality development.
We have found a path that fits our problems and benefits our people closely aligned with SDG target 6.1 universal equitable access to safe and affordable drinking worldw.
The lies on China's southeast coast with 67 million residents, 27 million of them rural.
Water resources are evenly distributed and under stress, we have a large population, limited land and 70% of the province is mountains and hills.
Mountain and island areas face drought induced shortages or ability after heavy rain to bring urban quality water to these residents.
Since 2023, has pursued standardized construction and professional management of rural we projects, focusing on upgrading small weather stations.
We have taken six measures.
First, stronger legal and policy support.
At the legal level, provincial government regulations govern the construction and management of rural water supply at the planning level, water security plan maps, all resources, plans, and networks, and the Provincial Department of Water Resources issued supporting policies that make both fully operational.
Second, classified construction adapted to local conditions.
Urban networks are extended first, now serving 78% of rural residents.
Large scale plans serve clusters of nearby villages, capturing economies of scale and covering 33%.
In mountain areas beyond reach, small work stations are upgraded with unified design, tendering, and procurement, cutting costs while ensuring quality for the remaining 9%.
Third, practical technological innovation, enterprises and research institutes develop new treatment devices for small stations, zero carbon microfiltration membranes, and compact integrated membrane units, small footprint, easy operation, low O and M cost and more stable supply.
Fourth, sound management and service mechanisms.
In each country, one professional company operates and maintains all real world projects funded by world fees, government subsidies and corporate investment.
It covers every link, source protection, quality testing, pipeline inspection, equipment repair, and customer service, keeping world safe for all.
Fips, digital management.
Online monitoring devices feed a digital platform that tracks word quantity and quality in real time, enables early warning and dispatching and promptly resolves residents work issues, cutting labor costs and lifting service efficiency.
Six, public participation.
Campaigns promote safe and efficient word use.
Villages help design, build, and supervise wordsations and 24 hour service hotline stays open, building a strong sense of core governance.
After years of efforts, Xiaojian is the first province in China to achieve urban rural drinking water parity with clear gains in cost efficiency and service.
Tap world now reaches every rural household.
W quality meets national standards and rural life has improved market.
Stable high quality supply has also powered new businesses, homesteads, agriculture, de processing and agturism, advancing rural revitalization and common prosperity.
Ladies and gentlemen, from mountains to islands, Zi Qiang has built a province wide lifeline world network.
W is a global issue and achieving the SDG is of UN cause for the international community to move forward together under the coordination of Chinese mint Wsources we stand ready to share experience, deepen cooperation and contribute to the G's wisdom to safe drinking water for all.
Thank you.
Thank you, indeed.
Let me now turn to His Excellency Umbayv Timur rigatovic to share with us the experience of Uzbekistan.
Excellency, the floor is yours.
Distinguished Chair.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Anessa, UN Water and FAO for organizing this forum at such a high level.
I also thank the distinguished delegation of China for this insightful statement.
The UN 2030 agenda and SDGs marked a key step toward a sustainable future through balanced development.
Today, water has become one of the world's most pressing global challenges.
Water scarcity is increasingly affecting food security, public health, economic development, and national resilience, highlighting the water energy food nexus.
Earlier this year, a report by the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned that humanity has entered an era of global water bankruptcy.
In other words, the global water crisis is no longer a challenge of the future.
It is an urgent reality of today.
Per capita renewable water resources in Central Asia are approximately half of the global average.
Climate change is reducing river flows and intensifying droughts, floods, and socioeconomic as well as environmental pressures.
Despite these difficult conditions, Uzbekistan is implementing a systematic and innovative water policy.
Uzbekistan has integrated the SDGs into its national development agenda and established a results oriented monitoring system for their implementation.
As a result, over the past decade, Uzbekistan has become one of the countries that has made the most significant positive progress toward achieving the SDGs.
In particular, under SDG Indicator 642, the level of water stress decreased 169-122% 2017-2022, which is being recognized as a positive result.
According to our estimates, water stress is currently around 117% in 2026, and we are working to reduce it to about 95% by 2030.
This progress is not only important for Uzbekistan, we believe our experience can benefit other water stress countries facing similar challenges.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to UN officials for recognizing Uzbekistan's efforts in the water sector and its progress under SDG six in 2026.
Distinguished participants.
Allow me to briefly acquaint you with the work carried out and the results achieved in our country regarding SDG six.
First, the institutional and legal reforms in the water sector of Uzbekistan.
Under the leadership of His Excellency President Shavkat Mirzv, water has been elevated to a strategic priority of state policy.
Major institutional and legal reforms, including the establishment of the Ministry of Water Resources, the adoption of a new water code and the water sector development strategy through 2030 has transformed the water governance into a single, integrated, accountable, and results driven system.
Second, ensuring access to clean drinking water.
Since 2017, investment in the drinking water supply sector has increased tenfold and more than 20 million people or over half of Uzbekistan's population have benefited from improved water supply and sanitation services through expanded access to centralized clean drinking water and modern sewage infrastructure.
Behind these numbers are real improvements in people's lives, safer water, healthier communities, and development opportunities.
These results demonstrate that Uzbekistan is fully fulfilling its commitments under the protocol on water and health.
Third, the adoption of water saving technologies is becoming a state policy in Uzbekistan.
In our country, nearly 90% of water is used in agriculture and reforming irrigation is one of our strategic objectives.
Before 2017, water saving technologies covered less than 1% of the total 4.3 million hectares of irrigated land.
Today, they cover 2.6 million hectas or over 60% of irrigated land, aiming for 100% coverage by 2030.
Uzbekistan has turned water conservation into a nationwide movement, building a unique experience.
We are not only adopting technologies, but also adapting them to local conditions and improving efficiency.
This experience is also attracting significant international interest.
Fourth, digital water management.
Digitalization is being widely introduced in the water sector and a unified digital database is being developed that will cover more than 600,000 water users.
Fifth, the modernization of infrastructure.
Around 60% of Uzbekistan's irrigated agriculture relies on pumping stations, making the country irrigation system one of the most energy intensive in the world.
Until 2017, pumping stations accounted for around 20% of the country's electricity consumption.
Thanks to modernization, today it is 7% with further reductions expected.
Looking ahead, we will continue investing in canal lining, modern pumping infrastructure, renewable energy, and innovation to improve water and energy efficiency.
Overall, these measures are already saving around 11 billion cubic meters of water every year.
By 2030, annual water savings will reach approximately 15 billion cubic meters, equivalent to one out of every 4 cubic meters of water currently used in Uzbekistan.
In addition, I would like to emphasize that Uzbekistan has joined the World Bank's Water Forward Initiative, becoming one of 15 participating countries committed to advancing water sector reforms, modernizing infrastructure, and mobilizing investment for sustainable water security.
Dear participants, allow me to briefly touch upon regional water diplomacy and capacity building.
Today, transboundary water is more than a shared resource, is a breach for regional cooperation, trust, and development.
At the initiative of His Excellency Presidential of Katmirv, a new architecture of regional dialogue and cooperation has taken shape in Central Asia.
Since 2018, the consultative meeting of Central Asian Heads of State have become an effective platform for addressing water challenges and strengthening regional partner cooperation.
This new spirit of regional partnership was reflected in the 2026 Astana statement of the Heads of State Founders of the International Fund for serving the RLC, where all countries endorsed Uzbekistan's initiative to declare 2026 2036, the decade of practical actions for the rational use of water in Central Asia.
Starting next year, Uzbekistan will chair the International Fund for saving the RLC, aiming to accelerate regional water, socioeconomic and environmental efforts and strengthen action against desertification in the RLC region.
These efforts contribute to ensuring regional cooperation and sustainable development in line with SDG six.
Uzbekistan is strengthening human capital in the water sector.
In the past two years, Tashkan Irrigation University has risen 89 places in international rankings and now educates over 10,000 students from 16 countries, including through a master's program in international water diplomacy.
In addition, the National School of Water Managers has already trained more than 90,000 water sector professionals and farmers in efficient water use and irrigation management.
Uzbekistan is expanding its international presence and strengthening water cooperation.
In 2025, 2026, the country hosted major international events including Tashkent Water Week and the first Tashkent Women's Water Week, reaffirming its commitment to inclusiveness and women's empowerment in the water sector.
Building on this momentum, the ancient city of Smarkan will host the World Water Conservation Forum this autumn.
We look forward to welcoming you to Uzbekistan, where together we can turn dialogue into practical solutions for a more water secure future.
Distinguished participants, Uzbekistan's experience shows that even in one of the world's most water stressed regions, progress is possible political will, reform, innovation, and cooperation.
We are ready to share our experience with countries facing similar water challenges and to learn from others.
Only through stronger partnerships, greater investment, wider technology transfer, and mutual trust we can achieve SDG six and ensure water security for future generations.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, excellency, and indeed, congratulations.
Following the presentations, we have the opportunity to hear from two respondents who will be reacting to these experiences.
To begin, let me turn to his Excellent, James Brown, who's the Minister of Housing, local government and Heritage of Ireland.
Thank you very much Chair, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Ireland thanks China and Uzbekistan for sharing their case studies.
China's experience of safe drinking water, particularly in rural areas.
This is a topic that resonates with Ireland as we have an active community led rural water sector, which ensures the vibrancy of rural communities.
Ireland is actively implementing drinking water safety plans for all water supplies similar to China.
Uuzbekistan has highlighted the value of monitoring to track the progress being made on integrated water resource management.
The innovation, technology and digitalization, are highlighted as important aspects of modernization in the water sector.
Putting people first and leaving no one behind are important lessons from these case studies.
So again, I thank very much China and Uzbekistan.
Ireland recognizes the importance of sustainable development goal six, ensure access to water and sanitation for all.
Ireland welcomes today's launch of the 2026 SDG six synthesis report.
Ireland aligns itself with the statement of the European Union and its member states which highlights the strong interlinkages between water, climate, food, biodiversity, among others.
This report will provide valuable, qualitative and quantitative information necessary to take the progression of this SDG goal into the next year.
Ireland is grateful to those who carried out the reporting and data collection and provided case studies.
We welcome the inclusion of case studies as they facilitate peer to peer learning necessary to localize progress towards sustainable development goal six.
Ireland would like to highlight the progress that has been made towards sustainable development goal six.
This has the effect of highlighting water policy at national levels, streamlining approaches and fostering multi stakeholder participation.
However, it is evident that progress towards sustainable development goal six remains off track.
Fragmentation and a lack of financial resources as well as gaps between global goals and local capacities are possible causes for this.
To address these gaps, alignment with international commitments and transboundary cooperation are key.
Ireland aligns itself with the vision for Sustainable Development Goal six that prioritizes increased monitoring, data collection, and innovative financial partnerships.
Ireland, on a practical level, we have focused on integrated water resource management through the effective implementation of the Water Framework Directive and its Daughter Directives, the Drinking Water Directive and Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.
We are working toward this achievement of good ecological status across all surface and groundwater by 2027 by focusing on targeting the right measures in the right place.
We are also committed to the EU Water resilience strategy, which aligns with the Water Framework Directive.
Ireland has committed to acceding to both the UN Water Convention and the Protocol on Water and Health during the lifetime of the Irish presidency of the European Council.
We aim to have acceded to these multilateral environmental agreements by 2026 and the UN Water Conference in December.
This means Ireland is committing to increase international cooperation towards the achievement of SDG six and sending a strong political signal on the importance of transboundary cooperation on water.
We look forward to the 2026 UN Water Conference and the opportunity to contribute towards the threatening of a global agenda on water in the coming decade.
I acceding to these multilateral environmental agreements during the Irish presidency of the European Council.
Ireland is sending a strong political signal on the importance of transboundary cooperation towards the achievement of sustainable development goal six.
Again, thank you, Chair, and thank you to China and Uzbekistan.
Thank you, Minister, Excellency, thank you for your reflections.
Let me now finally turn to Ev Kwasi Komlan, who's the Director of Water and Sanitation Practice at UNICEF.
Thank you for your thoughts on these experiences.
Thank you very much, and I'm very happy to be here with you today.
Excellency, distinguished representative, and also dear colleagues.
It's my pleasure today to address you in my capacity of co coordinator of the UN Water Task Force on country level engagement.
UN Water Cory level engagement work is led by the task force coordinated by FAO, UNDP, and UNICEF.
Throughout this task force and working closely with UN DCU, UN W reinforce the interagency effort of UN re coordinator and also UN country team on water related issues in the country and also coordinate efforts among UN water related and also intervention at the country level and many other initiative.
As part of the implementation of the UN system wide strategy for water and sanitation, UN water support, collaboration for joint country programming by integrating water into the country plan actions, and also connecting country with expertise and initiative by strengthening also coordination at the country level.
Today, case study are quite powerful and I just want to congratulate China's autoe Principle and Ubekistan for a very nice case study presented today.
Those case study presented an excellent example of how you and collaborate with country and also promote capacity building.
Those case studies explore also country pathway to accelerating progress on SDGCs at the national level.
They also document replicable good practices for achieving SDG target and also examine how progress can be accelerated across SDDGCs at the country level.
So on behalf of the task force, I'm pleased to announce that the second round of the UN Water seed funding to country was launched and UN Water received more than 40 application by different UN country team.
Those proposal are presented by two or more UN agency at the country level in coordination with UN resident coordinator at the country level.
The quality of those proposals were very, very high and excellent.
UN Water has decided to start working with 13 of those countries with the remaining of those country in the pipeline pending resource mobilization and also additional resource to mobilized.
You might be willing to hear about 13 countries.
I think some of them have received notice already.
Those countries include Cabo verde, Guyana, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Napal, Pala, Panama, Tajikistan, and Zambia.
So congratulations to all those countries.
Thank you very much.
This is my statement today.
Thank you.
Thank you to all those that spoke.
We have heard about what progress can be achieved when we apply a systems approach to water management, what happens when community owns and is engaged and participates of the decision making, but also of the management of those systems.
The opportunities that investments in water have also for creating and strengthening human capital.
We've heard about the power of digitalization to bring scale and efficiencies in those systems, but also the important role that water plays in regional trust, diplomacy, and how it can act as a multiplier for many other sectors in our economy and in our society.
We've heard about irrigation, about energy efficiency, et cetera.
We've been all very, um um, limited by the time that we had offered, and we have now the happy circumstance of having about 15 minutes, which is a wonderful opportunity, a little bit off script to exchange about what we've heard.
I would like to elicit either comments or questions directed at the presenters, or questions that could be also channeled through the task force on country level engagement, particularly messaging that could be received by the UN country teams, where they are particularly the ones that have applied and are working actively on water issues.
With that, I would like to open the floor and invite for comments, questions again to the speakers or more broadly.
If you could introduce yourselves when you intervene.
Thank you.
Hi, Roderick Hart, speaking on behalf of the EU.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I'm speaking on behalf of the EU and its member states actually.
We welcome the launch of the 2026 SDG six synthesis report as a timely and essential contribution to this year's HRPF and its in depth review of SDG six.
The report provides an indispensable evidence base to assess where we stand to identify remaining gaps and inequalities and to guide the urgent course correction that is needed.
Importantly, this report helps us better understand the strong interlingages between water, climate, food systems, energy, health, biodiversity, and resilient ecosystems.
These synergies must be placed at the heart of our policy response, which must be based on science and integrated approaches to water management.
We also see strong value in peer learning and country acceleration efforts, including through practical experiences and SDG six case studies, which help translate global commitments into scalable national and local solutions and thank you to everyone who presented today.
At the same time, progress will not be possible without stronger transboundary water cooperation and increased financing from all sources.
The 2026 UN Water Conference will be an opportunity to turn the synthesis report's findings into enhancing implementation, accelerating action, strengthening accountability, and building momentum for practical solutions at scale.
We stand ready to work with all partners to ensure that this opportunity delivers meaningful outcomes.
I thank you.
I cannot see all the lights from here.
I'm sure there are many that are already.
Let.
No, I didn't mean that one.
You have before you two countries that have made amazing work around the water agenda, and this is a unique opportunity to address them directly.
Please go ahead.
Hi.
I'm here representing the International Association for Human Values and the Art of Living Foundation, present in 182 countries.
We have just concluded a side event focused on community led water conservation and river rejuvenation.
We have developed a methodology to revive rivers and we have done so more than 70 rivers across India.
We are here to offer that methodology to the other countries that may be facing similar challenges.
I'm so grateful that I had a chance to be in this room and hear from so many distinguished speakers.
Please know I'm here.
That's all I wanted to say.
Thank you.
Thank you in advance.
If you want to know about river rejuvenation with very proven test cases in India, she's the one.
Do you have a question? Please go ahead.
Hi.
My name is Alex.
I'm a youth and I founded an organization named Social Security.
My question to many of the presenters today, we've seen demonstrated examples of how they've found success in their respective countries.
My question to the distinguished presenters today is that, how have youth played a role in their specific countries and helping them reach the goals of SDG six and do they think that youth are important in these cases? Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm going to take one or more question and I'll give the world back to our presenters.
Thank you just First and foremost, I would like to congratulate I am the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation.
I would like to congratulate the organizers of the approach on the approach being taken in the 2026 conference, which improves from my point of view, the shortcomings and missteps of 2023.
However, there are several issues, as I said this morning that concern me and which I do not have seen reflected in the seven key messages.
The first question is toxic discharges and the toxic contamination of drinking water.
My view and my data are that they are on the rise in many countries, driven by mining agrochemicals and emerging contaminants such as pay haze, a trend that is being masked by a lack of transparency, and I think it's very grave this question.
Second, I think we need to pay specific attention to the dialogue with recognition and participation of right holders, beyond stakeholders, right holders who are often criminalized for defending their rights with women at the forefront, as I said this morning and who are and must be considered key allies in making effective progress in SDG six.
Given the deep commitment, they are the ones with stronger commitment because they're more interested in progress in SDG six.
Finally, for me, when we talk on strengthening multilateral approach, there is a concrete issue that I insist, institutionalizing the W conference by ensuring the adoption of a human rights based approach and broad social participation.
For me, this is a key issue for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Just before wrapping up this segment, I just wanted to see if there was any interest in reacting to the question around youth or in the issue of contaminants, if this is something that your countries have been able to work on.
Just now, we heard a couple of very good questions.
Actually, in addressing the water safety, we went through different stages.
First, we need to address the quantity of safe water supply and access to safe water of the population.
At the same time, we also placed emphasis on quality of the water supply.
Through 2012, we adopted three plus one water supply approach.
We prioritize on the quantity of water supply.
That is, we centralize the water supply from fragmented water supply into centralized water supply, we build large scale water supply pipeline and network to supply safe drinking water to rural areas.
At the same time, we protect the quality of the water source, we protect the water source quality, we monitor the ambient water quality so as to comprehensively enhance the water quality and to ensure safety of the drinking water.
And in China, we formulate very strict water quality standards.
We enhance monitoring and water source side protection to improve the water supply quality, to ensure the safe drinking water access to all At the same time, we emphasize on the sustainable operation of water supply facilities.
That is, once we build the water stations, we need to make sure they can operate in a sustainable manner.
So on the county level, we adopted a county level unified management approach in order to address the issue of sustainability of water supply stations.
So once they are built, they can operate sustainably and through these interventions, our population can have access to quality water supply in a sustainable manner.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And with this, we reached the end of this segment.
In concluding, I think it's very clear and we all share the vision that water is indeed a superconnector for SDG acceleration, and there are many, many countries that can help us see the way with investments and the capacities that they have already created.
So I conclude this section here, and we can move towards the presentation of the report.
I congratulate Uzbekistan in particular for the recent accession to the protocol on water and health.
While we change the podium, allow me to say a few words about these case studies which have reminded us that progress on SDG six is possible when political commitment, strong institutions, and effective partnership come together.
While country experiences help us understand what progress looks like in practice, our next segment takes us back to the global picture.
The UN SDG six synthesis report, as already reminded us by the EU delegate, provides us a critical evidence base for understanding where we stand, where progress is accelerating, and where major gaps remain.
It helps us move beyond individual success stories to a broader understanding of the systemic changes needed to deliver SDG six by 2030.
I need the speakers to be a bit.
Thank you.
Now allow me to introduce the next panel, which will be guided by Joachim Arlen, Chief Manager of UNEP DHI Center on Water and Environment and Coordinator of the UN Water Expert Group on the 2030 agenda and inviting the speakers in the room if they want to chat to do so outside, otherwise, we don't hear the speakers in the room.
Thank you.
Joachim, over to you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And thank you for joining today.
Today's briefing, it's a briefing on the third edition of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal six Synthesis Report on water and sanitation, as you can see on this slide.
The first report was produced in 2018.
And that report showed that we in the UN system could deliver as one for SDG six, and we provided data and a global baseline for us now to make progress.
As you can see, there we have the three reports to date, right? Then 2023, you may recall this was produced shortly after the conference, and it provided a blueprint capturing the findings and discussions and putting forward a blueprint for acceleration.
It made the case for a dedicated UN system wide, strategy on water and sanitation, among other things, and it also informed a General Assembly resolution shortly afterwards.
Today's briefing is about the report now in 2026, and we've given it the title, Ten Y of SDG six in the Path to 2030 and beyond.
Next, please.
As you can see the aim of the report here, why this report matters.
It's been ten years now since the adoption of Agenda 2030 and therefore also of the SDG six.
This report provides us now with a ten year review of the actual progress achieved in terms of the numbers based on the latest data and evidences, but it also examines the impact this has had on development and the value added to stakeholders.
Secondly, with the less than five years remaining, the report also provides some lessons and recommendations how we can accelerate progress and strengthen UN multilateral approach to water and sanitation also beyond 2030.
The report is a product of us in the UN Water family.
We're trying to speak here with one voice, and we represent 36 member organizations and 54 partners.
The report also is published under the UN Water logo with a foreword by our Secretary-General.
Well.
Now I hand over to you, Life to give a walk us through a little bit of the progress.
Okay.
Thank you.
Excellent.
This is a good guess.
I think the report provides very good overview and on this slide, you can see all the eight target and 11 indicators we reported through here.
You can see indeed for most of the indicators, they already show very positive progress that has been made.
This is really come from the comprehensive analysis that we analyzed all the data collected and through the Integrated monitoring Initiative for SDG six, compromise of the constituency agencies for each of the indicator and coordinated by UN voter.
Next, please.
We are very confidently that we can see that after ten years of SDG six countries are delivering meriable progress and the examples here, you can see billions of more people can access safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Certainly, volage efficiency has also been improved.
When we talk about the volage efficiency, Indeed, FAO is the custoency agency for that and that has been increased above 20%.
However, this indicator is really defined as the GDP generated per sector divided by the amount of water withdrawn per sector.
Certainly, the increase is mainly due to the economic growth rather than a decrease of water withdrawal.
Similarly, I think the next indicator for which I feel is custody is the water stress, which didn't show much changes, which you can understand that the global score of the water stress is above 80%, which basically means that about 80% of available freshwater is being used by Earth.
This does not change over time.
But then if you look at specific country level or region level or basin level, the water stress could be very, very high, especially in North Africa, west and Central Asia regions.
And certainly many more countries, about over 60% of more countries really applying integrated water resource management.
From a data perspective, certainly SDG six has ignited a holistic global effort to monitor, to measure, to manage, and to improve water resources management.
Although we still facing some of the challenges, some of the data gaps.
Next, please.
The new analysis were undertaken also to examine the trends and also signals of acceleration at the regional and country level.
The results are very positive and encouraging.
They show, for example, firstly, more countries are making year on year improvement between reporting cycle for most indicators.
Secondly, there are signals of acceleration.
Rate of progress in some countries and regions for some indicators are really increased.
There's a specific details you can find in the report.
While the progress is accelerating, it remains active and also incremental.
There continues to be an area of stagnation or decline, specifically, as I mentioned previously, like the voltage stress.
It remains more or less the same, although some of the countries and regions are facing much more challenges.
The report also include a time to target analysis and globally, current pace remains too slow, as we heard over and over in today's remarks.
It remains too slow to reach the target by 2030.
We also provide some of the estimates for some of the indicators as included in this report.
Next, please.
Then the Chapter three, we look at the impacts of SDG six on the policy development and also implementation.
This is really built upon the quantitative analysis in the Chapter two, and this chapter really provide an assessment of each of the eight SDG six targets and also their specific impact from a policy perspective.
Target by target it examines the benefit beyond the numbers that SDG six progress has had on the water and sanitation, as well as the other SDGs and intergovernmental processes such as on health and climate actions and biodiversity.
It's captured the main challenges and also limitations after decades of implementation.
It also highlights emerging issues on the horizon towards 2030 and beyond.
Additionally, for each of the SDG six target, there are several key messages directed to the member states and the policymakers on how implementation can be accelerated towards 2030 and beyond.
Finally, Chapter three also include practical examples from SDG six country acceleration case studies.
We just heard some of the examples this afternoon, and that is really coordinated by UN Water since 2022.
Let's really explore the country's pathways towards achieving accelerated progress on different SDG six targets and 11 indicators at the national level.
With that, I'll hand over to Sophia.
Thank you very much.
As in the next few slides, we will look at the stakeholder was done for the synthesis report and what the main findings of that was.
As we heard today in the thematic review of SDG six, stakeholders are instrumental in the implementation of SDG six.
As an input to the report, we wanted to consult and capture the experience and perspectives from stakeholders.
UN Water undertook a public consultation at the end of 2025, conducted as an online survey in all six UN languages.
Survey link was circulated through the vast networks of UN water members and partners, major groups, as well as via list serve and social media channels with particular effort to reach youth, women's organizations, private sector, as well as actors working nationally and locally.
There were a total of 1,261 responses, which is very good.
More than three quarters of those responses came from the national, sub national and local levels.
In the graphs there on the screen, you can also see the geographic distribution.
36% of the respondents came from S San Africa with the following largest regional group represented being Asia Pacific with 18% of the respondents.
What was very good is that these were very informed respondents.
70% of the respondents are actively engaged in supporting and implementing SDG six.
Next slide, please.
So the key findings from the consultation are presented in detail in Chapter four and also here on this chart, which can be a bit hard to see on the screen there.
So I'd like to emphasize a few of the important findings.
The good news is that 97% of the respondents considered SDG six to be useful.
That might not be surprising given that I just said that 70% of these respondents are actively involved in implementing it, so we're glad to find that they find it useful.
They reported that it was particularly useful for agenda setting, providing a common reference, elevating water as a priority in the global political and development agenda.
However, the respondents found SDG six to be only moderately impactful.
Many reported the SDG six has led to more incremental than transformative in terms of progress, addressing inequalities and fostering cross sector coordination and partnerships.
And more alarmingly, the respondents found that SDG six is only partially achievable under the current conditions.
Some reported that it was not seen as a direct driver of service delivery outcomes, while others pointed to the disconnect between high level policy objectives and local operational realities.
Another important result from the survey was the overwhelming support for water and sanitation to continue as a global development goal beyond 2030.
96% of stakeholders indicated that it would be valuable to have a water and sanitation goal in future global frameworks, and nearly three quarters considered that it would be extremely valuable.
So in summary, the results of this consultation show that the existence of a dedicated global goal is seen as having helped to align actors across government, civil society, development partners, and the private sector around common objectives and language.
Several respondents noted SDG six offered legitimacy for water and sanitation issues within broader development planning processes, helping to justify inclusion in national strategies, sector plans, and investment discussions.
However, respondents noted persistent sectoral silence and weak coordination across institutions and levels of government and a fragmentation of financing as well as insufficient integration of climate risks, environmental sustainability and resilience.
You heard me today earlier in the SDT system thematic review, perhaps in my statement, reiterating the IUC and call for global framework for water action and governance to exactly address some of these structural issues that the respondents identified in the survey as well.
Over to you, Joachim.
Thank you very much.
So on the basis of these different elements of the ten year review, we distill six key findings.
One, SDG six has elevated water as a political priority.
It has shaped country pathways to progress.
It's been used to formulate policy, set national targets, align definitions, harmonize technical standards, strengthen institutional arrangements and delivery systems.
SDG six has provided an entry point for coordination and cooperation across sectors and levels.
And it has catalyzed stakeholder action.
As we've heard in the previous presentations today, while stakeholders found SDG six to be very useful, their responses call for stronger delivery mechanisms.
We need to get closer links between policy commitments and operational realities on the ground.
SD six implementation has been constrained by under resourcing.
Persistent gaps in capacity, governance, operational performance, and financing have limited progress.
And finally, UN system wide coordination and delivery has been strengthened through UN Water, the interagency coordination mechanism, the Integrated SDG six monitoring Initiative, the UN system wide strategy for water and sanitation, and country level engagement through RCs and UN country team systems.
In this way, UN Water is already responding to UN AD call for more effective coordination.
These are some of the lessons we've learned.
Next, please.
Meanwhile, we've had ten years where we have taken stock, but at the tail end of this, we now have a very much a changing global landscape and the implementation of Agenda 2030 is within it and we have to navigate a period of tremendous change.
The report explores a few opportunities and constraints in this evolving landscape.
It discusses advances in science and technology and innovation to help overcome persistent barriers to progress.
Also, there is discussion on the context and approach of financing, particularly development finance and ODA.
The multilaterlism presents new challenges and opportunities.
This includes within the current landscape of UN 80 reforms.
Water is also seen increasingly as a superconnector for Agenda 2030 and beyond.
The interconnected nature of water and achievement of many SEGs and Agenda 2030 as a whole is more clear than ever.
Ambition on water is rising on the international agenda.
After a gap of 46 years, we're now in a sequence of three UN General Assembly convened conferences on water, and we also have the appointment of the first UN Secretary-General special envoy on water.
Next slide, please.
So looking forward, there's an urgent need now to move from incremental to transformative progress.
This is a message that's coming through from our report.
And water and sanitation needs a strong multilateral approach towards 2030 and beyond.
The final chapter of the report provides recommendations from the UN system on the path to 2030 and what we can also do beyond 2030.
I'll try to walk us through these recommendations.
The first is around, as you can see, accelerating, improving, and transforming SDG six implementation.
We have a recommendation on scaling up financing and capacity development and taking advantage of science and technology and innovation as we capitalize on upcoming 26 and 28 conferences on water.
Our second recommendation is addressing water as a systemic driver of sustainable development.
This is around the role of water as a superconnector that can help accelerate and transform.
We also have a recommendation to continue mainstream order related issues within existing intergovernmental processes.
This can be done through ligning efforts towards compatible policy objectives, targets and indicators.
Now we need to move slide.
Next, we have recommendations related to strengthening a better structuring stakeholder engagement, both locally in support of direct implementation of SDG six at national and subnational levels, but also as well with an existing and future related intergovernmental processes at the UN.
This includes bringing stakeholder engagements and efforts 2023-26 and 28 conferences.
We have a recommendation to build on the lessons learned from SDG six to improve future water related goals.
The main finding from the ten year review is the need to better link high level policy goals and targets with the means of implementation, grounding it in operational realities.
Perhaps in the future, we don't have the means of implementation as add ons at the end of our targets, but integrated into the targets.
Consolidate evidence and data to strengthen future goals and targets include potential candidates, indicators for a post 2030 and beyond framework.
Two final recommendations fit to shape future pathways for water at the UN first.
Ensure a future intergovernmental process for water at the UN beyond 2030.
The endpoints are fast approaching for the water action decade on 28 2028 and current mandate for SDG six at the end of 2030.
Member States can decide to convene such a process within the General Assembly or Economic and Social Council.
This includes the possibility of substantive outcomes such as intergovernmentally agreed declarations.
Finally, in support of member states it is proposed to scale up agile and effective UN system wide support, coordination and delivery of water and sanitation by strengthening existing water and sanitation programs within the UN entities, members of UN Water, Scaling up, localizing implementation of UN system wide strategy for water and sanitation, and we also have a recommendation to enhance UN water itself by involving its Secretariat into a coordination office that serves the interagency mechanism.
This would increase visibility in the UN system efforts to deliver coordinated and support based on the needs of member states on demand and at the scale required.
So to close, ten years of implementing SDG six have shown that progress is not only possible, it is already happening at scale.
But gains remain uneven and incremental.
Implementation gaps persist.
With less than five years until 2030, we are at a critical juncture to bridge the gap between potential and reality.
Looking ahead, addressing future water challenges will require more action on water and sanitation.
Taken together, this makes the case for building on SDG six to sustain momentum with a dedicated goal on water in the post 2030 and enhancing multilateral efforts that can drive lasting and systemic impact.
With that, thank you very much and I hand over back to Paula.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Joachim, and thank you to all the speakers.
It is my great pleasure now to pass the floor for an intervention to Alice Bishck, chair of the Bureau of the Uni Sea Water Convention from the Ministry of Natural Resources Special Planning of Slovenia.
Alice, over to you.
Thank you.
Excellencies, dear colleagues.
As a water rich country with a long tradition of integrated water resources management, through years, Slovenia has made substantial progress towards ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all based on strong environmental and water related legislation, well established tradition in integrated planning, reliable monitoring systems, and close cooperation among national institutions, local communities, scientific organizations, and water utilities.
In combination with sanitation, Slovenia's experience highlights also other important accelerators, advanced source to sea approaches, integrating river basin and marine management closely linked with flood risk management and spatial planning, strengthens resilience to increasing climate variability, Restoration and conjunctive management of rivers, wetlands and groundwater as well as involvement of nature based solutions contribute simultaneously to biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and human well being.
Digital technologies, satellite observation, artificial intelligence offer new opportunities for improving water monitoring and anticipating future risks.
Lastly, transboundary cooperation is another important accelerator of SDG six implementation as it enhances resilience to floods and droughts, supports sustainable development, and contributes to peace and stability in the regions.
In this regard, Slovenia in its daily activities in transboundary context, also values the experience gained through its chairmanship of the Bureau of the UNEC Water Convention.
Slovenia's experience shows that water security is not achieved through infrastructure alone.
It is built through sound management and governance, long term, stewardship of water resources, transboundary cooperation, stakeholder involvement, and participatory solutions.
We would like to congratulate to UN Water for issuing the third UN SAG six synthesis report on water and sanitation.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Alice and thank you and Slovenia, for the amazing work you're doing on water in general and also Convention is so much appreciated.
Before I open the floor for questions, I just wanted to remind everybody that we have copies of the executive summary of the SDG six report is very light.
You can take it in your luggage.
That's why they did it so light and it's really well done.
Please, we have copies next to me and I think also at the entrance.
Now, we have a few minutes for questions.
I'm very happy to open the floor.
Just wave in case so that I can see you if you have any questions.
I see a hand there.
Maybe you can take the microphone and also introduce yourself before the question.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
My name is S Kachi Williams.
I'm the founder and Executive Director of the Williams Super Life Humanitarian Foundation in Nigeria.
I'm so happy to be here and it's so interesting hearing our great speakers speak of different implementation of AGG six and how they have scaled and achieve success.
All very important to me is the rural communities.
My foundation has been able to impart some of the communities through menstrual hygiene education, and GGC in terms of water and education.
So I know Channel was speaking, they talked about that they were able to scale even more than 90% success in the rural communities.
How can we effectively affect the rural communities.
I just want to know more of the strategies so that we can be able to implement it.
Also, I was also so interesting that countries, let's say, like, for instance, like my country, Nigeria, that that we need all those kind of, um, advice and strategies.
How can also we bring those interventions and to influence countries that are not implementing it very well so that they can also become part of the success of other countries that have recorded remarkable success.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any of you that wants to take this, how do we bring successes where there are none at the moment? Joachim? Yeah, I was wondering if we heard anyone here from Unicef in the room.
Yes, no.
There was a hand for something else.
Um This is a very important question and topic.
We could say that, in general terms, we can say that SDG six has been very successful at a global level to set the global agenda, also at policy level at country.
However, we're less successful in the implementation side and also getting down to the subnational levels, and this is something that we want to strengthen and work more with, and that's some of those pathways we have in the report speak specifically about that.
Terms of sharing experiences and also, you could say learning and the learning, this is super important and that's why I think we also are recommending that these two conferences that are now with 2026 and 28, that they become regular events where those lessons can be shared.
And you also heard earlier today that we you and Water have country case studies.
So it would be also welcome maybe to have a country case study from Nigeria related to menstrual hygiene and how you've made advances there.
Could be a good topic also to make a case study and share those lessons.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
Since you asked the question about the rural community, can I ask the audience in this room, how many of you really come from you consider yourself from agriculture sector agriculture sector or rural works on rural issues.
University.
We have a couple of hands.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That speaks a lot, right? That speaks while agriculture accounts for over 72% of global threshold withdrawal.
Here in this room is pretty much the least representative group.
Having said that, I think in the country studies, we do at some of the country studies, we do look at how the water and sanitation issues had been addressed, how the agriculture water management has been improved in some of the areas.
I think from those country studies, maybe we can further dig in to see how those experience can really help to advance the water management in the rural areas both for the community but also for the food security in the future.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
So much.
If I could also just jump into the question about rural communities because it's a really good one.
I think one of the challenges that we have today is that a lot of the water and sanitation services in rural communities in many parts of the world are provided by humanitarian actors and you have this separation between SDG six, the development agenda, and the humanitarian was sector with its sphere standards.
That's again, one of the reasons why we are calling for some process, a framework that would tie together the humanitarian and the development work.
We've been talking about this for a long time.
I was doing was programs with Oxfam 20 years ago, and we were talking about linking relief to development back then, but we haven't really seen that happening.
So making that connection, providing more holistic and comprehensive and consistent service provision and service improvement for rural communities is what's needed.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Sophie, we still have time for another question.
If I yes, please I see two hands.
First is the lady here to my right has asked for the floor.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah, please go ahead.
It's you.
Yeah.
Hi.
Thank you.
First of all, I wanted to thank the representative from China very impressed with what China has done in relation to ensuring safe and strict standards for their water.
Speaking from the US with an organization called Commission on Voluntary Service and Action.
We're a consultative and coordinating body of grassroots non governmental organizations um, that are addressing the needs in their community and also fighting for solutions using the framework of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as that framework to address systemic solutions.
He with our report from it's called the 2026 US People's Report on Sustainable Development, and we do have a section on goal six.
And in this section, it does talk about how the United States is moving farther away from this target, not closer.
Because water is not solely a developing country problem, to some extent, water scarcity and pollution problems faced by developing countries are consequences of US corporations or military operating in their countries that do harm to their environments.
So the US handling of water protection, management, usage, and distribution is a problem both at home in the US and abroad.
And so I wanted to make people aware that we do have this report available.
The US government doesn't see water as a human right and in the absence of that federal commitment to the goal of universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, in the US, the local municipal and state governments struggle to develop solutions to the overwhelming speed with which our water sources are being depleted, contaminated, or both.
We're also seeing effects of extreme weather events and high cost of water management, which are placing extreme strain on the water nation's systems.
So this report is available if people would like to see me afterwards, and we could share that with you to hear what is happening in the US.
This is put together by grassroots organizations that are addressing those needs.
And so it talks about what they're doing in the positive to deal with their communities who have had their waters contaminated, who don't have access to water or can't afford water.
So this is available, and we'd like to make that and share that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I think that I saw someone behind you, exactly see a hand.
I don't see the person.
Maybe you want to introduce yourself and take the floor.
This is the last question.
Please, this is a panel for questions.
If you want to inform us of something, it's okay, but maybe you want to ask questions to our panelists as we have the privilege of having them here.
Over to you.
Hi, thank you.
Amelia Winger from Wildlife Conservation Society.
I've saw really good examples of success stories.
I'm curious in the report, which were the SDG six targets that weren't doing so well and what do you think we can learn from the ones that have been lagging to bring those SDGs up to be better performing in the next few years? No.
Who wants to take this one? Yeah, please.
Yes.
Since you talk about the wildlife conservation, if you look at the SDD six indicator on threshold ecosystems, I think that's probably indicator that should have been speed up.
I think a That seems a little bit slow in my view.
Also I shared the view regarding the score of water stress.
Globally, we talk about about 20% of the available freshwater has been used and that remains more or less the same in the past ten years and that's largely because we already have used the available water resources.
But then going forward, I think that we still have a huge challenge in terms of reduced the water stress.
For agriculture, for food system alone, we did the forecast.
If by 2050, if we could produce 50% more food to feed the world population compared to the production level of 2012, even considering all the scenarios, at least, we need additionally 25% more threshold.
In the world, now we see in many places rivers get dry, wetlands get dry, lakes get into dry.
How can we get the additional 25% of more freshwater to produce food? It's a huge hugely challenging even considering that's over 60% of water flowing across different boundaries.
In a number of areas, we do see that huge huge challenging and we have to speed up the actions.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Jo add something.
I wasn't really going to add something, but what I'd like just to say this that we can see progress on all targets.
However, it's not going fast enough.
Even on the goals on water supply and sanitation, we need to accelerate six to eight times to achieve global access to everyone.
So not saying that there isn't progress, but the progress isn't fast enough.
Thank you very much.
Allow me to really thank this panel, my colleagues from UNEP, FAO, and UUCN and of course, Slovenia, so thank you very much.
Big luck to you.
As we change the podium again, just reminding you that this report is very important because it does more than describe where we stand.
It also helps us understand what needs to change if we are to accelerate progress in the years ahead.
Again, exec summary is here.
The report also provides a strong foundation for our final segment today, which looks forward to the 2026 UN Water Conference.
The conference would be a critical moment to translate evidence, experience, and recommendations into stronger commitments and concrete action.
We will now hear from the conference co hosts and the co chairs of the six interactive dialogues on how the messages emerging from the synthesis report can inform the preparation for December.
For this segment and to guide this discussion, it is my pleasure to welcome miss Makevan Ginken Water envoy for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Make over to you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Let's get to work on the UN Water Conference 2026.
Some of you have been sitting in this room since 3:00 P.M.
Um.
We need to wake up a little bit, and I would like to ask Her Excellency, the Minister of Water of South Africa, also known as my sister Pemi to help us a little bit with some thunder.
I'll stand up.
I.
Make your hands free.
Let those hands be free.
Let the hands be free.
Now, C are gathering, Clause are gathering, Claus are gathering, Cs are gathering, is rainy, is raining raining.
Is rainy Ta.
Ka.
Double da, top, up, up, up, double a.
Pop, up, up, double anda.
Chanda.
Thank you.
I Thank you very much, Pemi and thank you very much to all of you.
I think that revived our energy for the last part of this session.
The 2026 UN Water Conference starts 154 days from today.
I don't want to stress you out, Muhammad and Shia, but counting down.
What we're going to do today is we're first going to hear from the co hosts of the UN Water Conference, United Arab Emirates in Senegal, and then we'll have a As far as possible, free flowing discussion in this room with the panel chairs on how far they are in the planning and how this relates to what we've heard in the first part of this session.
Without further ado, I would like to invite Sharman Kaag and doctor Mohammed Yata to give us a short introduction on where we are on the water conference.
Thank you.
Thanks, Micah.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you all for being here.
I know it's late in the day, but hopefully it'll be a very fruitful discussion and closing to the evening.
As we gather to review and accelerate the sustainable development goals at the annual high level political forum, it is wonderful that we are meeting today on SDG six as we are six months to the 2026 UN Water Conference.
Water is life.
It's a basic human right.
It's the foundation for safety, stability, economic development, and opportunity for all.
All of us here are very familiar with the critical fact that Sustainable Development Goal six is absolutely necessary to achieve the sustainable development agenda and without access to clean water and sanitation, children cannot receive an education, families cannot thrive in every industry from energy to agriculture to technology, and the growing AI sector cannot grow and support our communities.
Almost ten years after the adoption of SEG six, we gather today to reflect on our collective progress and build momentum to finish the job that lies ahead.
It's an honor to join colleagues and friends from across the globe today as we celebrate our achievements and progress to implementing SCG six.
Over the past decade, more than 961 million additional people have gained access to safe drinking water.
But we are not naive about the scale of the challenge that remains before us.
Today, 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water, while nearly 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least one month every year.
And there is tremendous work to be done to ensure every child and every adult has access to clean water and sanitation.
There are complex geopolitical, financial, cultural, and multilateral considerations that make navigating this challenge even more nuanced.
With less than five years to our goal for 2030, we are at an inflection point.
Now is the time to accelerate our collaborations, scale our innovations, and operationalize our commitments.
The 2026 UN Water Conference presents that unparalleled opportunity to improve lives, restore ecosystems, and accelerate access to clean water and sanitation systems for all.
In less than six months, the world will gather in A Dy, for the first ever UN conference dedicated exclusively to accelerating the implementation of SDG six.
Most astonishing is that this is only the third ever UN Water conference.
The UAE and Senegal are bringing together the world for a truly dedicated moment on water, and there is room.
And need for everyone to be involved in this process.
We place inclusivity and co creation at the heart of our process.
To us in the UAE as co hosts of the conference, this is an inclusive collaborative process.
It is more than just an event.
The 2026 UN Water Conference is the opportunity to catalyze transformative and long standing development and progress.
We're already breaking new ground with the 2026 UN Water Conference.
It's the first where preparations began more than two years in advance.
It is the first where the interactive dialogues, which we have expanded to six, we agreed by consensus before the conference and for the first time, our 12 co chairs were selected nearly one year in advance, giving them the time and space to build meaningful partnerships and ambitious results.
Two years ago, I attended HLPF for the first time.
To begin socializing the vision for the 2026 U and Water Conference alongside our colleagues from Synagogue.
At that point, our modalities resolution had not even been adopted, yet we deliberately chose to engage early because we wanted this conference to be built through consultation, co creation, and partnership.
This consultative process has laid a strong foundation for the conference.
Almost one year ago on ninth July, the UN General Assembly adopted the consensus, the six themes of the interactive dialogues.
At a time when confidence in multilateralism was being tested, water brought us together.
This HRPF demonstrates just how far the international community has come, bringing together so many partners to showcase contributions and their aspirations to the future.
And vital to this process are our 12 co chairs guiding our interactive dialogues.
Since the high level preparatory meeting in the car earlier this year, we have embarked on a collaborative and ambitious process with our co chairs to ensure an inclusive, action oriented preparatory process that delivers practical, forward looking outcomes and drives collective global action on water.
Each co chair has developed a clear work plan with priorities, milestones, and consultation process, which was shared with the international community during the 43rd UN Water meeting in Rome this March.
Since then, we have been working closely with the co chairs to advance a select number of flagship initiatives for each interactive dialogue.
These initiatives are meant to be transformative, scalable, and innovative and measurable, bringing together member states and diverse stakeholders around shared priorities to drive meaningful and lasting impact beyond the 2026 UN Water Conference.
You will hear more from our co chairs today and I encourage you to join our ministerial side event on 14 July here at UN headquarters where we will share further updates on the preparations and the road to Awolaby.
We invite everyone here to join us on the 14th and to join us at the conference in December.
This conference will bring together the most vital voices from governments, UN entities, international organizations, financial institutions, the private sector, civil society, indigenous peoples, academia, philanthropies, innovators, and technology experts and youth, our future stewards.
I encourage everyone to take every opportunity to engage with the conference.
Applications for side events and UN accredited special events are now open with a deadline of 31st July.
Let us seize this opportunity to give water the attention it deserves on the global agenda to set the path forward towards sustained, coordinated global dialogue and action on water and together turn our shared ambition into lasting impact.
Thank you.
Thank you, Shama.
Thank you, Mike, UN Secretary's Special Envoy Ministers.
Dear colleagues, I would like to thank you for convening these important sessions on SDG six, just a few months ahead to the 26 UN Water Conference.
As all you know, the world is on off track to achieve the SDG six by 2030.
Yet these challenges also present us with a unique opportunity to change the course.
The 26 UN Water Conference must become the moment when international community collectively decide to accelerate implementation of SDG six.
Senegal, we have the honor to co host the 26 UN Water Conference with the United Arab Emiate.
He is committed to making it the conference of implementation.
We know that everything has been set in the past few years, now is the time for implementation.
Our ambition is to transform commitment into investment, partnership into measurable results, and solution into tangible improvement in people's lives.
SEG six is the greatest accelerator of the entire 2030 agenda.
Investing in water means investing simultaneously in health, food security, energy, sustainable cities, climate action, biodiversity, economic growth, and peace.
In Senegal, this vision is being translated into action through ambitious reforms, but also we launched the Water Compact of Senegal 26 2030, which sets out a priority investment pipeline aimed to strengthening water security, sanitation, climate, et cetera The compact reflects our determination to connect water, agriculture, energy, and climate policies within a comprehensive development framework.
Let's accelerate the progress throughout SEG six.
This is why we believe that the 26th UN Water Conference should form part of a coherent political together with the high level political forum that we are celebrating today, but also the 11th World Water Forum in Rit in 27 and the 28th UN Water Conference in Bushamb.
SS continuity will strengthen accountability, sustain political momentum, and ensure that implementation remain at the center of the global W agenda beyond 2030.
The conference will also provide a unique opportunity to build a shared implementation agenda around the six interative dialogues.
Together, these dialogues show that accelerating SAG six require integrated solution, strong partnerships, and sustainable political leadership across the entire W agenda.
Excellency, the time for Genysis is behind us now.
The time has come to build a renewed global water agenda based on cooperation, innovation, financing, and action, inclusivity, inclusion, co creation, integration, implementation, accountability archy words.
Senegal reaffirms its full commitment to working with all member states and partners to ensure that the 26 UN W Conference in Abu Dhabi marks a decisive turning point in accelerating the implementation of SDG six and ultimately the achievement of the entire 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goal.
I thank you.
Thank you very much, Shia and Mohammed.
Of course, we also very happy to have Asudi the special envoy for water here because organizing the UN conference is really a trio of good cooperation between the United Nations and the two co hosting countries.
I'm also very happy to have my brother from Tajikistan here, our co hosts from 2023.
I think these conferences show that if you do this well together, very different countries can become brothers and sisters, and that's also multilateralism.
Um, good to see that the 2026 conference also put inclusivity, cross sectorality, and action at the center.
It is conference of implementation, and what I understand is that it's not a conference with a negotiated outcome, but that these flagship initiatives are really at the core of the outcome, and hopefully we'll get our co chairs of the interactive dialogues to already say a little bit, what are the flagship initiatives and how can we join them? Because let's remember they're only flagships if there's not too many of them.
Otherwise, they're just initiatives.
Um To remind you, there are six interactive dialogues, they're numbered with letters.
Interactive dialogue A, water for People, Ghana and Switzerland, interactive dialogue number B, water for Prosperity, China and Spain, interactive Dialogue C, W for Planet, Egypt, and Japan, interactive Dialogue D, Water Cooperation, Finland and Zambia.
Interactive dialogue E, water multilateral processes, Germany and Mexico, interactive dialogue F, investment in water, France and South Africa.
We have most of these countries here.
Most of the interactive dialogue chairs have agreed that one of the countries will speak for them, which helps me in keeping time.
Thank you for that.
Some of us know that list and we're not surprised.
Other of us here in this room are completely confused, what is this.
Hopefully, we'll clarify that a little bit.
So we've heard the SDG six synthesis report today, we will ask interactive dialogue chairs to think what's relevant of that? What are the aspects of SDG targets that you will address? Are these findings supporting the ideas being presented, as I said earlier, can you already reveal a little bit what you're thinking of interactive dialogues and how people can join? Um, for all of this, we have 55 minutes, so I'm going to be a little bit strict.
I'm not going to do them in alphabetic order.
I'm just going to pick on you.
I first want to give it's not picking on Anti Ratova, one of the very few other special envoy for water in Finland who will speak for Interactive Dialogue Dwater for cooporation, but maybe you can start kicking us up on how is the interactive Dialogue D water for cooperation that Finland and Zambia are co chairing progressing? How do these findings that you've heard today related? Can you give a peak preview of what you're working on in terms of flagship initiatives? To be free flowing.
So I scrapped my notes and just to say that it was a very good sample when we talked about the synthesis reports.
The first one said that we are off target long ago, six, seven years ago.
Then the second report said that we are alarmingly off target.
Now the third report reaches beyond the agenda of 2030.
I think that's really important and this linking the conference with the actual synthesis report findings is critical.
Um, what I'm reading in the report, it basically says that countries are delivering, but we are behind.
That actually means, in other words, that we as a community are not meeting the responsibilities that we have in human rights to water and sanitation, at least not in full.
So that makes me ask that, what do we need to do? So are we working all six parallel and they are separate? I don't think so.
We are 12 co chairs here, but all of these discussions are very cross pollinated and the topics are close to each others.
So when I'm reading the synthesis report and looking at what we are trying to achieve in Ab Dhabi, it makes me think that there are three things that we really must nail this time around.
The first one is the UN border governance structure led by Mexico and Germany to discussion.
This will give us some accountability mechanism at global level and the leadership what we are doing.
Secondly, we need to have the rules based system in place.
We need to have the UN Water Convention, really happy that Ireland was speaking.
They are joining acceding.
So we need to have much more countries acceding to the UN Water Convention.
This is probably the bread and butter of the discussion or dialogue discussion we have together with Cambia.
So we have something that is very appealing, name, 100 parties initiative, who would oppose that.
I'll tell more later on, so to give time also to other colleagues to respond.
But I also want to say the third one.
The third one, the financing.
I think it's France and South Africa who are leading on that one because the financing is lacking and without financing, we cannot meet the other targets that we are trying to achieve.
So if we can unblock these three things first, then everything else will follow.
In that way, we can realize the human rights to water and sanitation.
I also then want to conclude and say, actually the most important part of our dialogue, science, cooperation, inclusivity.
So I think it's very fundamental that we hear the diverse voices and base the decisions on science and data must be public good and open science principles must be advanced.
Indigenous and local knowledge must be heard and integrated into that data.
And this is the only way we can make the decisions on our topics.
I'll leave it there.
Thank you very much, Auntie and thanks for kicking us off in a very practical way, something like the 100 parties Initiative.
It's nice because it actually builts on something that already exists instead of adding new layers of initiative, which we sometimes see with these big conferences.
It's also practical, extending the number of parties and really focusing on the UN convention we have on transboundary waters.
Let's to Yes.
One more thing from Aunty.
Signing on site in Abu Dhabi, hopefully at least eight.
Already several have signed this year, but we are also coming out with a declaration of Interest, which we hope to have many 2030 countries signing so that express their interest that they are starting to explore possibility to join the UN Water Convention and the rules based order of our freshwater governance.
If you're not yet a member a party to the Water Convention, go to Zambia, Finland, or Sonja somewhere here.
The secretary of the Water Convention and sign up now or do your what was it called candidate membership? You're a nicer word for that, but sign up later.
Great.
Let's move to interactive dialogue number C, Water for Planet and that Egypt and Japan were sitting there brotherly together and I understand that the intervention will be done by His Excellency Ambassador Iab Mustafa Awad Mustafa, permanent representative of Egypt to the United Nations.
I saw you before the football match, sorry.
Welcome.
But our position hasn't changed much since then.
Very happy to hear that.
Thank you very much, Micah, for moderating this session.
I'm happy to be here sitting with Professor Kenzo Hiroki, the Japan as a partner, co chair of the Interactive Dialogue Sea titled Water for Planet.
First of all, we welcome the release of the Secretary-General SDG synthesis report.
We believe that the report and the recommendations therein come at a very crucial point in the preparatory process for the 2026 UN Water Conference and beyond.
As I said, Egypt and Japan as co chairs of Interactive Dialogue C are currently looking at how we can use the report itself to inform the discussions at the Water conference.
We believe one of the key recommendation most directly linked to interactive dialogue C in the reports call to treat water as a systemic driver of sustainable development.
This is the recommendation that best captured the spirit of interactive dialog Cy, in our view, because it places water at the center of climate action, biodiversity, ecosystems, agriculture, energy, health, urban planning, finance, and resilience.
It frames water at the connective tissue of our planet, which is truly is.
That's exactly the approach we are taking in framing interactive dialogue C.
The report specifically calls for stronger cross sectoral coordination for mainstreaming water in existing intergovernmental processes, and for aligning water related objectives, targets and indicators across national plans and multilateral frameworks.
This is a very important call that we are happy to see in the report.
One of the key deliverables we would like to achieve in interactive Dialogue C is to move from monitoring and planning to implementation.
Data on water resources and ecosystems should not remain confined to reporting exercises, in our view.
It must guide planning, regulation, investment, and decision making so that development choices reflect ecological limits, long term risks, and system sustainability.
We believe that the 2026 and the 2028 UN Water conferences together are a critical opportunity to translate data and evidence into implementation.
The report calls for using these conferences to galvanize political will, reinforce partnerships and international cooperation, and align efforts behind national water and sanitation plans, financing strategies, and transboundary cooperation.
This is exactly what we plan to do at Interactive Dialogue C in December.
We are currently looking at tangible outcomes from the dialogue that can help achieve this goal in a practical manner.
We will be informed by the discussion on SDG six during the HLPF and we will take SDG six into perspective along the way till December.
As a practical step in this direction, Egypt is launching next week a series of water dialogues named Water on 44th and 44th here is the street where our mission is located.
The first of these dialogues will be held on Monday the 13th and we'll specifically focus on how SDG six can be linked to the outcomes of interactive Dialogue C and how the 2026 UN Water Conference can contribute to the future of water and sustainable development beyond the expiration date of Agenda 23 2030.
I look forward to the participation of all here and thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Ambassador and thanks to Egypt and Japan, for all the initiatives they're taking.
Let's go to Water for People, Ghana and Switzerland and they're represented here by Ambassador Christian Vogar, the Assistant Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Water for People, very small subject.
What are you, uh What are you planning? Very, very small subject indeed.
Yes, we have had quite some conversations already, consultations.
Next one, will be also on Monday 13th at Unicef House 115 together with Ghana and many of you to pursue the conversations and looking forward to it.
I'm slightly nervous right now because Switzerland is playing the round of 16 games at the World Cup right now against Colombia and a So I have an eye on a mobile phone, I have to admit, and it's 00 still.
Anyway, interactive dialogue one, it's a vast topic and I agree very much with Any.
We have to look at across these interactive dialogues and come up with a few tangible conclusions, actional conclusions on which we can work further.
From the perspective of the interactive dialogue, a key takeaway obviously is that the water crisis is not primarily an infrastructure crisis anymore.
It's increasingly about equity, governance, and resilience.
Progress has been significant, but those left behind are still the same groups.
Women, girls, people living in poverty, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples.
Displaced populations and communities affected by a conflict and fragility.
For Switzerland and Ghana, this points to the need for a renewed commitment on the human rights to water and sanitation with a strong focus on participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability.
A second message is what matters equally are strong institutions, effective regulation, sustainable financing, adequate capacities, and reliable data.
This becomes even more important in the context of declining ODA and growing needs.
We need to use resources more strategically, target those furthest behind and ensure that investments actually help reduce inequalities.
At the same time, climate change disasters, conflict, and displacements are placing additional pressure on wash systems.
We therefore need stronger links between water, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and peace building.
In a fragile settings, the humanitarian development piece nexus is critical.
Finally, better data remain essential.
One of the clearest finding of the SDC six review is that monitoring drives action and yet important gaps remain, especially on inequalities and underserved populations.
We want to if we want to leave no one behind, we need better data to know who is actually being left behind and why.
As co chairs of IDA, Switzerland and Ghana, therefore encourage all participants and all interactive dialogues to reflect on one question.
How do we make sure that the final push towards 2030 reaches those who are still excluded from safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services? Thank you.
You.
Thank you, Christian.
I have a follow up question.
This morning we heard S Rosa, the Director of the World Bank for Water, talk about the MDB Initiative Water Forward, which certainly deserve the name flagship Initiative because together the MDBs have pledged that over 1 billion people will be more water secure before 2030.
It very much is part of the last question you asked.
It doesn't fit in one of these interactive dialogue because it's an integrated initiative.
How do we deal with that? Are you taking that up? How do these things that are happening around us fit into the planning of the flagship initiatives? I think Wward we all are taking it up and water forward is taking our inputs up.
I think as these presentations also water forward evolve with the national compacts, the national country led compact based on local needs, local realities, local capabilities.
I think this is increasingly mutually beneficial.
I It also water forward also becomes more nuanced, particularly on the big first pillar on water for people.
It's not just about big urban infrastructures.
It's about rural water supplies and it's about the differentiated approach to financing.
Yes, some will attract private sector funding.
Other financing still has to be, uh subsidized, particularly for vulnerable populations in rural areas, both with domestic resources being utilized, domestic budgets being utilized.
We also heard that only 0.5% globally of domestic budgets are actually used for water sanitation, and hygiene or SDG six in general.
So there is room for improvement also in domestic budgets and international budgets.
So we all have to take up water forward and water forward has to take in our concerns as they've been doing so far.
Okay.
I hear that we have one flagship initiative there and it will be renewed and better by the time it arrives in Abu Dhabi, so that's nice.
Let's go to interactive dialogue number B, Waterf Prosperity, China and Spain are leading on that and I understand that Sing Deputy Director General of Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Water Resources of China is here as well as Alva Diaz Duque, Deputy Director for Development Corporation of Spain.
The word is the floor is yours.
Um, we have read through this synthesis report.
We find it's very comprehensive and very timely reports.
With regards to ID two, water for prosperity, we think the recommendation that addressing water as systemic driver of sustainable development is highly consistent with the key focus of ID two.
Um, ID two, as I mentioned, is water for prosperity.
Throughout the series of discussion.
During this preparatory process, we recognize that water is the most fundamental and essential resource for driving prosperity.
It is the cornerstone and catalyst for economic, social, ecological, and health related prosperity.
Just now my colleagues from Egypt also mentioned that this recommendation from the report is very relevant to IDC.
Yeah.
But I would like to elaborate from other perspective.
First, the natural attributes of water determine that.
Within a river basin, the various ecological elements, mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, along with the upstream, downstream, left bank, right bank, mainstream, and tributaries are closely interconnected and mutually dependent.
They form an indivisible river basin life community.
Therefore, we must treat water as the controlling elements of the ecological environments.
Take the river basin as the basic units and implement systematic governance of rivers and lakes and deepen the unified planning, governance, regulation, and management of the river basins.
Secondly, we should enhance cross sectoral coordination that's been mentioned by several delegates this morning as well.
The interconnected nature of water means that it flows through the entire spectrum of agriculture, energy, industry, and urbanization.
So as the report says that water is the superconnector, So practice has already proven that we must break down the institutional and regional barriers to form a synergetic synergistic and efficient governance framework.
But how? By just sitting here and discuss is not enough at all.
Yeah, we can discuss the dates but we can exchange datas and information, but still we cannot reach a consensus.
Hereby, I would like to highlight the principle of balancing spatial distribution by Balancing spatial distribution, we would look at it from two aspects.
The first aspect, on the one hand, we should align urban planning, land use, population distribution, and industrial development with available water resources.
On the other hand, we must also optimize and adjust the spatial distribution of water resources through infrastructure and non and non nature based solutions to meet the needs of high quality economic and social development.
We cannot just blindly expand high water consumption industries.
For example, as the report also mentions that a lot of country pay a lot of attention to develop AI centers, digital centers, which consumes a lot of energy and water, but we could not blindly expand such high water consumption industries without considering the carrying capacity of the water resources.
Otherwise, it will also ultimately constrain economic development.
Only by embedding water resources management into the decision making stage of development planning, can we ensure that all sectors finally can have water and water governance can be realized.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You want to add something or otherwise, you get a question for me.
To add something.
Actually, I'm the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I'm here on behalf of our Ministry of Environment, they really asked me to add something.
I will try to be as short as possible.
Of course, it's a great honor for me to co chair the interactive Dialogue to Water for prosperity, because we believe water is far more than a resource.
It's a fundamental human right, a strategic asset, and a driver for prosperity, resilience, and social cohesion.
The reason, Spain advocates for a systemic approach based on integrated management, circular economy principles, climate resilience, inclusive government and sustainable financing with the objective of delivering measurable progress towards SDG six.
During the preparatory meetings held in Dhaka, Dusambia and Paris, Spain emphasized the need to address water through an integrated approach recognizing its close interconnections with ecosystems, climate, food production, and energy.
Solutions that are water reuse, desalination, efficient water use, diversification of water sources, and innovative technologies will be essential to ensure water resilience for present and future generations.
Together with China, we have presented a work plan aimed at strengthening integrated planning through national roadmaps and river basin management plans, restoring key ecosystems and integrated water planning with sectorial planning in order to ensure an equitable and sustainable allocation of resources.
Our priorities are clear.
First, we must advance towards the full and effective implementation of integrated water resource management in line with target 65 and Indicator 6.6 0.51.
However, at the current pace, the work will not achieve the global target at least until 2049.
To accelerate this process, we believe we must strengthen political leadership, increase financing, improve cross sector coordination, and reinforce the interlinkages between water, climate, energy, food systems, and ecosystems.
Secondly, we must accelerate progress on water efficiency and circularity.
Water use efficiency improved globally by 19.5% 2015-2022.
Yet average global water stress remains virtually unchanged at around 18% with critical increases in regions such as North America and Western Asia.
This calls for scaling up innovative technologies and practicing, prioritizing investment in vulnerable regions, and improving basin level and seasonal data collection.
Thirdly, we must properly value water within the economy, finance, and investment frameworks.
Closing the financing gap will require robust regulatory frameworks, innovative financing instruments, for cost recovery mechanisms, and stronger integration of water related risks across sectors.
This vision is fully aligned with high level leaders PAC launch in Madrid last October.
Finally, allow me to conclude by highlighting several transformative actions such as ensuring fair water allocation and valuation, promoting non commissional water resources, modernizing the agri food sector, strengthening inclusive governance, mobilizing sustainable finance, and integrating the value of water throughout the entire economy.
All of these must be underpinned by science, international cooperation, and the meaningful participation of women, youth, indigenous peoples, and other key stakeholders.
Water prosperity requires commitment, collaboration, and ambition, and we stand ready to lead and contribute solutions towards a sustainable, resilient, and prosperous water future for all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Also a very big subject.
I know that in this room and outside of this room, there are sometimes concerns whether water in agriculture, water for food gets sufficient attention in the way these interactive dialogues have been set up and in a way, you as prosperity also dealing with this.
I heard Alfred Diaz Duque just in the end, mentioning modernizing the the agri food sector, also a small action.
But for people who are looking to join or proposed flagship initiatives around water for food and water for agriculture, are you already thinking about that? Can they come to you? Because I think that's something that we need to make sure that that part of our sector also feels home in the UN Water Conference? I have considered water for people and the water for foods in our ID too.
Especially water for food because water for people has its own AIAD.
You talk about industry, but agriculture is such a big water user and so determinant for water systems on the one hand and on the other hand, water is so determinant for food security that especially debt linkage, water and food production or water and agriculture, how are you dealing with that? Because you have a very big agenda, but how are you dealing with this part of it? Yeah.
Our ID is really a very big topic.
It covers a lot of the areas, including the agriculture sector.
Just my colleague from Spain mentioned that a the agriculture sector is the biggest water consumer right now, and when we look at prosperity, we must look at agriculture industry and the urban development as well, so from all these sectors.
So when we talk about agriculture, when we talk about all these water demands, we can find that there is a lot of competing water demands.
So that's why I'm talking about this sectoral planning should be integrated and This is part of the picture, part of the action.
We think more importantly is that we should pay more attention to water conservation.
The total amount of water is just there.
Agriculture needs it, industry needs it, and people need it.
We all need to survive, but the total amount is it's just there.
We cannot increase it.
That's why we need to increase water use efficiency.
Actually, in our flagship initiative right now between China and Spain, we're already discussing it.
We will include the plans for water conservation in our flagship initiative and to call for different sectors to increase their water use, for the agriculture sector industry and other sectors as well.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
I think water conservation is very important topic.
I also know that some people are actually thinking about working with industry with agriculture on a water reuse target and how do that fits in, also circularity as well.
So if I look at those first interactive dialogues, it actually makes me happy because we launched a report this morning, we said there's quite a lot of progress, but we need that extra push to really get to 2030.
I heard a lot about what that extra push means for international waters, for water for people, for water for prosperity, for water for nature.
But I also heard that all of this is not going to happen without money.
We have an interactive dialogue on investments in water.
I hope that that part of the puzzle will also be made.
It's being co led by France and South Africa and the Minister of Water and Sanitation of South Africa, you saw and heard earlier.
Pemi Majorina is here I don't know whether you're going to speak French because you represent the French as well, but you are also very happy to do it in English.
How are we going to get this investment into the water sector and what can Abu Dhabi do for us there, Madam Minister? Ben u.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much, moderator.
Let me appreciate the two co hosts towards our well spoken about UN Water convention.
It is important that I also greet all the deputy ministers, the ambassadors that are here, ladies and gentlemen.
South Africa is out of World Cup.
But France is representing us there I All the countries that are still to play, you must be careful.
If France lose, there will be no investment in water.
It.
IT six is the mother of all other five IDs.
When all is set, it must be funded.
Sustainable water management Needs by diversity and climate resilience.
If our infrastructure is not climate resilient, we'll invest and invest and invest.
It means we have to think out of the box, come up with new methodologies and technology to say, how do we meet climate change versus the traditional infrastructure that we have been using for years because it has since proven that it might not take us long.
We have to attend to water pollution through our laws, as a member states, as it is becoming a big nightmare.
Those countries that are on the upper stream, they must know that there are people lower stream.
So if all of us we commit that part of that funding will also be used in terms of monitoring and avoiding pollution, but also those who are polluting rivers, canals, they must be penalized and pay, we take that money back to the system.
Because if we do that, each country will act very responsibly.
The transboundary relations are going to be very important towards our conference and after conference.
For instance, if that in S South African development community South Africa is sharing waters and water with six more countries.
List, Botswana, Sowa in Mozambique, Namibia, Angola.
We share some water and make sure that that bring us together.
We must be concerned about what is happening in country A because should there be a challenge, all of us are going to be affected.
We have to build strong relations based on our transboundary water and let's allow water to flow.
Water knows no political affiliation, water knows no boundaries.
It must be allowed to flow and for it to flow, we must have bankable projects.
When we approach financial markets, when we approach the banks, we must approach them with our bankable project and we say, this is how we want to develop our economies.
This is how we want to develop our population.
This is how we want to have sustainable water as well as a healthy hygienic sanitation.
We must also make sure that as we enter into public private partnership, we construct more water resources to have big storage capacity, to ensure that there is water security.
There are counts and areas which used to have a lot of rain, but now of late we no longer get the rain that we used to get.
It means we need to do more in terms of building bigger storages to be able to have water.
We must be robust or non revenue water.
In my country, for instance, we have water but we don't have water.
That might seem to be a contradictory statement.
We have water in terms of raw water, bulk water supply, but when it comes to that water getting into the tap of rest of citizens, that water is not there because of reticulation and distribution, which is done by another level of government, which is a local government.
It therefore means we must declare serious war on non revenue.
We cannot afford to lose a drop of water.
The user pay policy must be adhered to by all water users.
Previously, World Bank, Mr.
Said, water is valuable asset and nobody can just use water and not pay for water.
When we use water, pay for water, but invest back to the water infrastructure if you are to have a sustainable water throughout.
We have to keep interlinkages between water, sanitation, electricity, human settlement or human development, as well as agriculture.
These must go together so that when you do your planning, you make sure that these entities, they work together for us to be able to have this SDG six been achieved and realized moving forward.
Because I have my co host here, France, who is playing on my behalf there.
Can I give you my 2 minutes? Yes.
I just wanted to say that we have a huge responsibility on our shoulders now in the World Cup, but we gladly represent South Africa and we'll also represent Egypt if you were to face Argentina in the final.
Now, I wanted to first congratulate you and Water for the launch of the fifth iteration of the logistics Cory acceleration case studies and for the new UN SDGics synthesize report on water and sanitation.
The materials here serve as a reminder that while some progress are made to achieve sustainable development goal six and acceleration of our efforts is urgently needed if we want to be able to meet these global targets.
I would like to highlight three points.
First, we are pleased to see that the synthesis report dedicated one full chapter to the provision of data on the evidence on water.
Reliable data availability is key.
In this regard, I would like to recall that during the One Water Summit in Riyadh in December 2024, coganized by France, Kazakstan, and the World Bank, We launched the One Water vision.
This vision has brought together international organizations, research institutions, and academia to strengthen Earth observation, improve data sharing, and support evidence based water resource management.
Second, for implementation, we need resources.
Let's be clear, SDG six implementation has notably been constrained by gaps in capacity and limited resources.
This is why I'd like to fully support what my colleague Minister Penny Morina just said today.
We would like to insist on the full dedication of France and South Africa to prepare hand in hand, the interactive dialogue on investments for water, finance, technology, innovation, and capacity building, which will take place at the UN 2026 Water Conference.
While we are now conducting consultation of stakeholders, we will soon move to select selection of various panelists for this dialogue.
Thirdly, I would like to underline that water issues must not be addressed in silos.
We need cross cutting approaches.
This is why under the French presidency of G seven, we build upon the achievements of recent G seven presidencies, including the loans to the G seven Water Coalition to affirm the G seven shared and determination to prevent water pollution at source.
With a focus on emerging pollutants, including plastics and chemicals.
These interconnected approaches are highly important as we prepare for the next UN Water conference and for the upcoming negotiation session of the plastics Treaty.
To finish, you can count on France standing alongside South Africa, United Arab Emis, Senegal, and other partners to make of the UN 2026 Water Conference a success.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You.
Sorry? You must slap me.
The slap for him.
Thank you.
It's a seamless team.
I can see and thank you for highlighting not only the need for investment, but also the need for reliable data and data sharing because being in the house of the UN here, that's under threat.
Science and data are being questioned and we shouldn't forget the role of the UN as a referee for good data and for equal access to data.
Maybe also worth a flagship or something at the UN Water conference.
Yeah, I think that the loss of the Netherlands against Morocco needs to be reframed as a strategic retreat.
Because we don't want to be in the way of water investment and otherwise we would have to play France.
Let's go.
We still have one interactive dialogue to go and I kept it to the end.
It's interactive dialogue E, waterway multilateral processes, Germany and Mexico because it's of a slightly different nature and it's very important to discuss it here at the high level political forum.
Because you have the interesting task to think about how do we anchor water within the multilateral system, whether it's the UN or the multilateral development banks or the regional multilateral systems.
Beyond 2026, we already heard from Egypt about the next W conference in 2028, but probably even more important beyond 2030 when a lot of our commitments, including the SDGs, please for the moment end.
We have ILCA here, the Deputy Director General of International Affairs of the Federal Ministry for Environment, NATO Conservation, nuclear safety, and Consumer Protection.
Of Germany, very short ministry name, as well as your colleague from Mexico, very happy to see Mexico here as well because sometimes you haven't been represented in some of the meetings.
Over to you with the same questions, starting with whoever you want to start with on the questions, what's in this report? Do you already have ideas and how can people contribute to your interactive dialogue? I'm the timekeeper here, so you're the last one.
I will give you some space, but we also need to finish on time, please go ahead.
Thank you, Mike, and let me start by saying that Mexico and Germany are both soccer nations, but we're also out of the game, so we can only support each other in our sorrow, I guess, when it comes to soccer.
But this gives us, of course, more energy and time to concentrate on our interactive dialogue.
So there's always something good and bad things actually.
No, but really, I must say, I want to start by saying how excited and honored we are to be able to share this dialogue together with Mexico.
My minister went to Mexico to see Alicia Barcena last month and in order to kick off and start discussions how to do this and how to have really good results, hopefully, and this is how we want to support Senegal and UAE in their endeavors.
I really want to start by this, and it's great our ministers really get along, and we have a lot of hope for this.
I also want to thank the team because now coming back to the report we're actually talking about, thank the team that prepared this SDG six synthesis report.
As, for example, China mentioned, we also think it's very comprehensive and it really will be an excellent basis for all of our work in these upcoming months.
We think it really sends a clear message there is a positive story to tell.
SDG six has delivered results, but nevertheless, to fully implemented, we will need more time and also an accelerated pace of implementation, eight times faster will be a hard thing to do, I guess.
Um We do see a growing demand from member states to discuss water and sanitation at the heart of the UN system.
Meanwhile, we of course also have to keep in mind, we have the UN 80 process that is shaking up the UN system.
I think I can say this here.
We think that achieving SDG six requires us to cooperate better together and UN AT requires us to cooperate more efficiently, and we think that both go hand in hand.
B is possible at the same time.
It's not an either or in our opinion to start by that.
The 2026 UN Water Conference can be a conference of implementation.
It provides us with a unique mandate to make water a real blueprint in our opinion, for a UN system that can deliver.
But this starts with us, the member states, and we need to shape our ideas now on how to cooperate on water.
That's what we're doing, of course.
We started, We started consultations.
We've had some rounds, and in a few days, we will publish a first state of play report on our consultations and meanwhile, of course, continue these consultations by focusing more and more on the input that we've had.
For example, tomorrow, we're organizing a stakeholder meeting here.
Um, I to have this special view of the stakeholders.
But I think I cannot invite any more people because we have more than 100 people who want to come in only 50 places.
Hopefully many of you are already registered for this event.
But also at the at the Stockholm Water Week, we also will continue these consultations.
Now I want to highlight three recommendations from the synthesis report that do resonate quite well with our ongoing consultations and where we we have that can inform the outcomes here.
First, ensuring a steady intergovernmental process on water at the UN beyond 2030, as you already said, Mike, to keep water a priority on the global agenda.
Such process could, of course, include agreed intergovernmental declarations.
Establishing regular UN water conferences with negotiated outcomes could be a way forward to strengthen coordination, monitor progress, and improve donor coordination.
Member States guidance on supports coherence and efficiency and thereby also contributing to the UN AT initiative in our view.
Secondly, strengthening UN water as an enabler of joint delivery across the UN system.
This, of course, may require a stronger institutional mandate, sustainable funding, obviously, and an enhanced coordination office to give water a clear voice within the UN system.
And thirdly, enabling more structured and meaningful multi stakeholder engagement and dialogue on water.
This recommendation really resonates with our consultation so far.
There is a strong case for any intergovernmental process to be accompanied by well structured participation.
It's about stakeholders and rights holders as active partners and not as observers.
We think they can help us find solution even when they criticize us as governments, but it does help us to become better.
As the matter is complex, of course, we will continue this discussion tomorrow in the stakeholder dialogue.
To sum it up and I don't want to take so much more of your time, we do see a lot of coherence between the synthesis report and our preliminary findings.
Let me share one observation from the report to end with.
Water emerges as a litmus test for multilateral reform.
So I think this is very true and we have no time to waste.
The question is whether we as member states assume our responsibility here.
Do we have the strength to build an intergovernmental process on water and enshrine it in a follow up resolution, hopefully, we really hope so, and we will do our utmost here to make this dialogue a success.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you very much to Germany and Mexico, and I think we have a call to action for the member states to join you.
To wrap up this discussion, we go back to the tri partnership that's actually behind this UN Water conference.
I would like to give the floor to a Senegal, UAE, and to the Special Envoy on Water from the United Nations to do a few reflections before we wrap up.
Mohamed.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you to the cochs country.
I would like to say that at this final stretch toward the conference, I would like to reassure you that we are on track for the UN Water Conference in December in Abu Dhabi.
The 12th Cochs country shown a real commitment.
They are very engaged and open, and we have a well mobilized water community throughout the conference.
We have a real political leadership and a shared ambition for this conference.
The cohorsts are very committed and engaged to deliver, to connect the dolls, and to impact the SDGs and the global water agenda.
Have a country we already ready to welcome you and to host an ambitious and historic UN Water conference.
Let's work together at this one to deliver for the water community and give hope for these people who don't have access to water and sanitation.
It's a duty for us.
Thank you.
I know you're all tired, and so just a short message and building on what Da has said, The conference in Abu Dhabi is really a conference for all.
Your participation is encouraged, not at any level, but at all levels, especially at the highest.
We are here to determine the future together of water and without you, we will not be able to design the future we all strive for.
We look towards you for alignment for complementarity and implementation to showcase it at the conference in Abu Dhabi, but really design the roadmap of our future for our youth in the coming years.
You role is extremely important and Throughout this journey, please on board as many as you can, your ambassadors through this journey, and we welcome you all, Nabu Dhabi.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Micah.
I have nothing to say on football because there is no UN team on the world Cup and there is no Indonesian team in the world cup as well.
So colleagues, thank you very much for this discussion.
Thank you to co hosts, to co chairs.
I think I have to commend all the preparation.
I listen very carefully to all the preparation, especially the flagship from each interactive dialogue.
We still have six months to crystallize the flagship, hopefully, and I do believe that at the end of the process in Abu Dhabi, we will be able to present the real flagship of each interactive dialogue.
As mentioned by co host and all of us, that this conference is an action oriented conference.
So the actions will be the beef of the conference.
Let us work together to bring the beef to our people.
This is a UN conference.
It is the duty of the UN to work with the cohort, with the co chairs, with you all.
A Shama mentioned, it is a conference for all.
Let us work together.
I stand ready, UN stands ready to work with you all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for the energy in this room for many things.
We have a few flagship initiatives that are semi cooked to stay in the beef area, such as the 100 parties initiatives around the UN W Convention, the water forward initiatives of the MDBs.
We also still have some cooking to be done.
We have 154 days.
Great thing is that in the coming seven days, there are sessions on all these interactive dialogue, so mobilize, go there.
I think this is a conference of action and a conference of consolidation of a lot of initiatives.
In Duchamber said on behalf of the kingdom of the Netherlands that we pledge not to have individual initiatives from my country.
The Netherlands loves individual initiatives of my country, so that's difficult for us.
I really call upon all of you Leave your little flag of your own country at home.
Think about the United Nations, think about how we join in these flagship initiatives, how we work together, and we actually make sure that we do better and more efficient.
That's true for water use, but it's also true for international cooperation.
With that, enjoy the rest of the day.
Take part in the different missions and I hand back to our overall moderator.
Thank you very much and please stay set because it's not over yet.
It's not over yet.
Thank you so much for our wonderful moderator maker and the wonderful panel.
Thank you also for reminding us that sometimes there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
We already have some tools.
One is the UN Water Convention.
UNIC is servicing it and hosting it.
We are 59 parties at the moment with Finland You have heard this Initiative 100 parties.
Us I'm here, Sony is here this week, so let's do something practical.
If you look for us, we will help you with getting closer, whether it is accession or just a commitment to aced shortly is always welcome.
Last but definitely not least and proudly from my region, Usi, I have the pleasure to welcome His Excellency, unbek Ikmat permanent representative of Tajikistan to the United Nations.
Before I give you the floor, I would also like to congratulate Tajikistan for a wonderful event last week, a few weeks ago on the fourth Du Chambe Action Conference for Water.
It was a success, so congratulations on that.
Over to you for concluding remarks.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Madam Modera.
Distinguished colleagues in football.
I love football.
I support Netherlands.
Unfortunately, that's not conference does with you in football, a match cannot be won by one player.
Argentina is an exception.
But here, I would really like to thank our co host of the interactive dialogues.
Co chairs of the interactive dialogues led by our co host, UAE and Senegal, I see a great team.
It takes me back to our time in 2023.
This is how we managed to build the synergy.
I think you are a good team.
You have a full confidence and trust of the entire UN membership, and you are under the leadership of our great co host, UAE in Senegal, we We hope that you will succeed and we will all succeed because we are all together in the same boat.
We either succeed together or we fail, but failing is not an option because we had a really great interactive session today in the morning on SDG six and we've heard from different from academia, from World Bank and from UN member states, of course, Madam special envoy about the opportunities, challenges.
But I would really want us to focus on opportunities because indeed, 2026, it's a great milestone for us as a family and water community to make sure that we learn our lesson and we we move towards more implementation because commitments are there.
But now it's right time to move to commitments and also today we heard about the accountability.
Accountability is very important, but as a government, as we heard today in the morning, we need to take the first step.
That's very important.
Once again, I really would like to thank you and please join us for our side event on 9th of July in CR five from 115 where we will talk about the outcomes of the Dushanbe Water process.
Thank you very much.
Thank you everybody for being here.
Thank you all for your participation and thank you to the Secretariat for organizing this meeting.
Thank you.
Thank you.