2026 UN Water Conference: Preparations Begin and What’s at Stake
Preparations begin for the 2026 UN Water Conference, focusing global attention on water scarcity, resilience, and cooperation. Explore what’s at stake in the coming phase.
Preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference are moving into a sharper, more public phase, with Dakar hosting a high-level preparatory meeting on 26–27 January 2026. The main conference is scheduled 2–4 December 2026 in the UAE, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, with SDG 6 as the core target.
What’s at Stake for Water, Food, and Economic Stability
Talk around the conference is heating up because water stress is no longer a side issue. A recent UN University report warned of “global water bankruptcy”, pointing to overuse, pollution, and shrinking natural supplies that already place billions at risk. And global forums are treating water like a hard economic topic, not a soft environment line.
The Dakar meeting is set to pull in governments, UN entities, regional bodies, global finance players, sector ministers, civil society, youth, Indigenous Peoples, academia, and business. It is a wide room, and wide rooms can still get stuck.
UN-Water has been pushing Dakar as the place to lock political ambition and practical action, not polite statements. The preparatory agenda centres on six dialogue tracks, including “Water for people” and “Investments for water”.
The Dakar Push and the Real Pressure Points
Several issues are expected to dominate:
- Financing: bankable pipelines for water, sanitation, and resilience projects
- Agriculture: irrigation efficiency and supply risks tied to food prices
- Cities: groundwater stress, leakage, and safe reuse systems
- Cooperation: shared basins, data sharing, and conflict prevention
The UAE host role also raises expectations on delivery and partnerships, because the clock is tight and the SDG 6 gap is plain. Stakeholder channels and participation updates sit on the official UN conference site.
