Exclusive: UAE pushing for more investment in global water infrastructure

Despite attacks by Iran on desalination plants this year, the UAE hasn’t experienced a single day of water supply cuts. The UAE is pushing governments and private financial institutions to drastically scale up investment in global water infrastructure, a senior government official told Semafor. Although he declined to disclose a specific fundraising target, Abdulla Balalaa, the country’s assistant minister of foreign affairs for energy and sustainability, said that a primary goal of a major UN-backed water summit taking place in Abu Dhabi in December will be to shrink what is currently a nearly $7 billion gap in global water security finance. Despite attacks by Iran on desalination plants this year, the UAE hasn’t experienced a single day of water supply cuts, Balalaa said, in part due to investments it has made in AI-enabled water efficiency systems. But in general, water investment continues to be constrained by a lack of supportive regulation, especially in developing countries: “Water has always been under-prioritized, taken for granted, and held hostage to something else,” he said. “This requires a paradigm shift.”