Shumirai Chimombe
The 39th AU Summit – Prioritising Water and Sanitation for Agenda 2063
The 39th African Union (AU) Summit was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the theme: “Assuring sustainable water availability and achieving safe sanitation systems to realise the goals of Agenda 2063.”
The AU Summit, held from 11 to 15 February, marked a pivotal milestone as, for the first time, water and sanitation were prioritised as the main theme of the AU’s annual gathering of Heads of State and Government. Unlike previous summits that primarily focused on peace, security, or education, this year’s event placed water and sanitation as a central pillar of Africa’s development agenda. This led to important decisions being made aimed at strengthening the continent’s capacity to ensure clean water access and safe sanitation for all.
The AU has also declared 2026 as the “Year of Water Sustainability – assuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems to achieve the goals of Agenda 2063.” This theme, which was officially launched during the Summit, elevates water and sanitation to a continental political priority, recognising them as catalysts for economic transformation, climate resilience, public health, food security, and regional stability.
According to the AU millions of Africans still lack safe water and sanitation, undermining health, productivity, and human dignity. At the same time climate change is intensifying water stress through droughts, floods, and hydrological disruptions. The AU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) H.E. Moses Vilakati emphasised the strategic importance of the theme:
“It is estimated that over 400 million people on the African continent lack water for their daily livelihoods. And over 800 million still lack basic hygiene services. Compounding this is the persistent gap between required and available investment in water and sanitation. There is an annual shortfall of approximately $30-billion to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets. It is against these drivers and challenges that the African Union adopted the theme of the year as water and sanitation. This reflects a collective recognition of the strategic importance of water and sanitation as an essential element of human security, social stability and economic transformation on the continent.”
A major outcome of the Summit was the adoption of an implementation framework for the theme which consists of activities to be undertaken throughout 2026 to ensure it is amplified and awareness is created, and to ensure that Africa develops a united position on issues of water and sanitation to be presented at the upcoming UN Water Conference.
Another key milestone was the launch of the Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy, a strategic framework aligned with Agenda 2063 to guide water governance, infrastructure investment, and sanitation improvements across AU member states. This key document positions water as critical for achieving Agenda 2063’s goals to transform Africa into the global powerhouse of the future: from poverty eradication, food security and industrialisation to climate resilience and regional integration.
Water, Peace, and Prosperity – An Integrated Approach From The AU
Leaders at the summit reaffirmed that water security is directly linked to peace, economic integration, and prosperity. In an interview with the African news channel Pulse of Africa, Mr Harsen Nyambe, Director of Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy (SEBE) at the African Union Commission gave a breakdown of why water and sanitation is a critical issue for Africa and key to attaining the aspirations of Agenda 2063.
“For us to achieve our goals for Agenda 2063 we need healthy populations, and water and sanitation are at the center of primary health care issues. If we are talking about peace and security, you cannot have that if there’s not enough water, because there will be conflicts as communities fight over limited resources.”
He added that if transboundary water resource management is not managed properly to ensure that every country benefits, it will become another issue of conflict. Water is key to achieving prosperity in terms of, for example, food production and establishing factories to employ the youth. “So basically at the end of the day we need water for every sector, whether it’s industrialisation, agriculture, road construction.”
A Call For Collective Action
The African Union Commission reiterated that successful implementation requires collaboration among governments, regional economic communities, private sector actors, civil society, academia, and development partners. “As Africa advances toward the aspirations of Agenda 2063, the 39th AU Summit has positioned water and sanitation as a cornerstone for achieving inclusive growth, sustainable development, and a prosperous future for all Africans.”
Water As A Human Right
The UN General Assembly officially recognised access to water and sanitation as a human right in July 2010 – fundamental to everyone’s health, dignity and prosperity. The right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. The right to sanitation entitles everyone to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, and socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity.
Water-related Challenges
- Globally 2.1 billion people lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation (OHCHR)
- Improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene can save 1.4 million lives per year. (WHO, 2023).
- Better water, sanitation, and hygiene could prevent the deaths of around 1 000 children under 5 per day. (WHO)
- Approximately 10 percent of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress (FAO/UN-Water 2024)
- Water-related disasters have dominated the list of disasters over the past 50 years and account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters. (World Bank, 2022)
- 44% of household wastewater is not treated properly, damaging ecosystems and human health. (WHO)
- 72% of all freshwater withdrawals are used by agriculture. (FAO)
The UN Call For Action:
Civil society organisations should work to keep governments accountable, invest in water research and development, and promote the inclusion of women, youth and indigenous communities in water resources governance. Generating awareness of these roles and turning them into action will lead to win-win results and increased sustainability and integrity for both human and ecological systems.
Source: UN-Water | Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Sources: African Union | Pulse Of Africa (POA) | United Nations
