RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday called for laying joint plans to ensure the management of water resources.
Mohammed bin Salman made the remarks while addressing the One Water Summit in Riyadh. He added that Saudi Arabia provided funds of more than $6 billion to support more than 200 development projects in water sectors in over 60 developing nations.
The Crown Prince said that organising the water summit on the sidelines of the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP16) shows Saudi Arabia’s utmost keenness on climate issues, Saudi Gazette reported.
“The world today faces increasing challenges in the water sector and this includes an increase in drought rates, which causes numerous crises in terms of shortage of usable water, worsening desertification problems and consequently threatening human lives and societies.
This requires our joint work to lay out plans to ensure the sustainability and management of water resources,” he said.
The Crown Prince emphasised that Saudi Arabia worked to include water issues for the first time in the Work Plan of the G20 during its presidency in 2020.
He added that Saudi Arabia is preparing to host the 11th session of the Global Water Forum in 2027.
The Crown Prince said that Saudi Arabia aims to develop and integrate the efforts to comprehensively address the water challenges.
“The organization will work on tackling issues related to water on the international level, unifying efforts to find inclusive solutions to water challenges, such as exchange of expertise and innovative technologies, and enhancing research and development,” he said while urging the UN member states, the international organizations and the private sector to join this organization.
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He was hopeful that the efforts of the international community would contribute to addressing water challenges.
President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the President of the World Bank Ajay Banga have co-organised a “One Water Summit“.
The Summit is being held in the margin of the high-level session of the sixteenth session of COP16 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It aims to contribute to the ongoing United Nations discussions and process to enhance global water governance and accelerate action on SDG6 on water and sanitation, building on the momentum of the UN Water Conference in 2023.
