Millions Lack Clean Water as Minister Urges Water Investment

For millions of people across Africa who still live without reliable access to clean water, the distance between political promises and functioning taps comes down to money. That was the message carried to New York this week by Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina, who told a high-level panel that the continent’s development, climate resilience and economic growth all hinge on closing the water investment gap.

Speaking on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa at a roundtable hosted at the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, Majodina conveyed the President’s apology for his absence during UN General Assembly High-Level Week. Her appeal was direct: turn commitments into concrete investments that improve access to water for communities that have waited longest.

The panel, convened under the theme “Mobilising Commitments towards the 2026 UN Water Conference, the 2030 SDG Agenda and Africa Water Vision 2063”, forms part of the run-up to the 2026 UN Water Conference, which will take place in Abu Dhabi from 8 to 10 December. That gathering is expected to bring together governments, development partners, investors and other stakeholders to advance global cooperation on water and accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6, the global target for clean water and sanitation.

Behind the diplomatic framing lies a practical question: how do projects that could change daily life in underserved communities actually get funded? Majodina pointed to work already underway through the African Union-Africa Water Investment Programme, an initiative that grew out of recommendations from the High-Level Panel on Water established in 2016. In 2025, during South Africa’s G20 Presidency, the programme convened a Water Investment Summit in Cape Town, drawing governments, investors and development partners with the aim of accelerating investment in the continent’s water sector.

That summit produced two documents, the Cape Town Declaration on Water Investments and the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, both of which called for scaling up the initiative through a Global Investment Platform. According to Majodina, that platform and associated de-risking mechanisms are designed to mobilise bankable projects, provide blended finance and partnerships with public and private investors, help governments unlock investment at scale, match projects with financiers and strengthen global cooperation.

The programme has also done the unglamorous groundwork of preparing projects for the market. Working with AUDA-NEPAD, the AU-AIP has identified, packaged and delivered 80 investor-ready projects from across the continent, creating matchmaking opportunities in which Member States pitched their own projects as project owners. Majodina described the process as a “remarkable marketplace” and said it would be sustained and expanded, with the goal of making investment in water the norm rather than the exception. She welcomed progress on a commitment of between 10 and 12 billion US dollars that emerged from the process.

For the communities these projects are meant to serve, the stakes were put plainly in a message Majodina carried from the Cape Town summit: “If the world continues to under-invest in water, the world will under-deliver on development, climate resilience, and economic growth.” The flip side, she argued, is that adequate and strategic investment in water could allow the five Interactive Dialogues of the 2026 UN Water Conference to fast-track achievement of SDG 6.

South Africa has a particular role to play on the road to Abu Dhabi. It is co-chair of Interactive Dialogue F on Investments for Water, a dialogue co-hosted by Senegal, one of the founding Member States of the investment programme, and the United Arab Emirates. Majodina asked leaders and partners to maintain momentum towards December, saying South Africa and the AIP continue to request their leadership as the conference approaches.

She also named the African countries carrying the continent’s voice into the conference: Senegal, South Africa, Egypt, Zambia and Ghana, serving as co-hosts and co-chairs. Her request to fellow leaders was simple and personal in its framing. Attend the conference in person, she said, because, in her words, Africa needs the envisaged outcomes more.

Her closing appeal returned to the people the entire process is meant to reach. She called for continued leadership and action to transform the water ecosystem, assure investors of commitment through action, and bring hope to global citizens, particularly the unserved, by improving access to water for all at a global scale. “We look forward to your leadership in Abu Dhabi,” she said.