H.E. Abdulla Balalaa in The National: the global water conversation is changing
H.E. Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, has written in The National on how the global conversation on water is changing, and on what the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi must do to turn that shift into action.
Writing after the high-level week of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, H.E. Balalaa describes how conversations with technology leaders, investors, policymakers and researchers kept returning to the same subject: water. Food, energy, economic strength and thriving communities, he argues, all depend on it.
“Water security is fundamentally about people.”
From a resource to conserve to an asset to invest in
The piece sets out the scale of the challenge, from agriculture’s share of the world’s freshwater use to the hours women and girls spend collecting water every day, and makes the case that water can give countries a reason to cooperate at a time when trust in multilateral action is under pressure.
It also points to the UAE’s Crosscurrents report on the links between AI, water and energy, and to the growing coalition of investors, technology companies, researchers and young leaders now engaging on water.
What Abu Dhabi must deliver
Many of the solutions already exist, H.E. Balalaa writes; the task is to take them beyond the pilot stage, connecting capital to projects and innovation to communities. The 2026 UN Water Conference, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal from 8 to 10 December, is the first to be co-hosted by two countries from the Global South, and the first UN conference focused on accelerating the implementation of SDG 6.
Coverage and further reading
- The National: “The global water conversation is changing – now the UAE and the world must act” (9 October 2026)
- H.E. Abdulla Balalaa speaks to POLITICO on AI, data centres and water
- Press release: Water, AI and Energy Anchor UAE Global Engagements on Water at UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week
