Through its presidency of the Executive Committee of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), Senegal aims to reposition water and sanitation—long relegated to the margins of international climate negotiations—as a central pillar of climate and development policies.
The Ethiopian capital will host the summit under the theme: “Water as a Vital Resource for Development and Life.”
On that occasion, Senegal intends to champion a strong continental voice in favour of water and sanitation. According to Dr. Bakary Faty, Director of Water Resources Management and Planning at the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, the initiative reflects Dakar’s commitment to strengthening cooperation among African states and mobilising stakeholders around a shared continental vision.
As head of AMCOW’s Executive Committee, Senegal has structured its presidency around four key priorities. The first focuses on strengthening the organisation’s governance framework to better align with Africa’s ambitions and accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation.
The second aims to secure adoption by heads of state and government of the African Water Vision and Policy 2063. The third centres on high-level political advocacy to ensure water remains firmly anchored in the African Union’s agenda. Finally, the fourth priority seeks to unify Africa’s position in global water-related negotiations and mechanisms.
This advocacy comes against the backdrop of growing vulnerability of Africa’s water infrastructure to climate change. “Not all infrastructure is currently resilient enough,” Dr. Faty warned.
Some river basins could experience increased rainfall, while others—such as the Zambezi basin—may lose up to 60 percent of their hydropower potential, with significant consequences for energy costs and population security, he cautioned. In his view, this calls for a fundamental rethinking of hydraulic planning models to adapt them to evolving climate scenarios.
Infrastructure to rethink, uses to reconcile
Beyond infrastructure resilience, climate change also intensifies competition among water uses: drinking water supply, irrigated agriculture, industry, energy production and ecosystem preservation.
In a context of mounting water stress, these trade-offs become major political decisions with direct implications for social and economic stability.
Moreover, an infrastructure-only approach is no longer sufficient. Protecting aquatic ecosystems—groundwater reserves, wetlands, lakes and mangroves—is increasingly recognised as a natural climate adaptation lever, often less costly and more sustainable than purely technical solutions.
Financing and climate data challenges
Financing remains a critical issue. Despite its pivotal role in climate adaptation, water continues to receive limited attention in international climate finance mechanisms, which remain largely focused on carbon emission reductions.
“Water is the great forgotten issue of climate conferences, even though it is a direct marker of climate change,” Dr. Faty noted, echoing sector experts. AMCOW is therefore calling for a substantial increase in investment in water infrastructure, particularly through financial instruments dedicated to climate resilience in Africa.
In the face of growing water stress, transboundary cooperation is seen as essential. Information sharing, coordinated planning and joint resource management are key conditions for water security and regional stability, according to Dr. Faty.
He pointed to the Senegal River Basin Development Organization (OMVS) and the Gambia River Basin Development Organization (OMVG) as examples of African states’ capacity to build peaceful, shared governance frameworks for transboundary basins.
For AMCOW, it is urgent to channel greater funding not only toward climate-resilient water infrastructure but also toward reliable hydrometeorological data production, science-based planning and technological innovation, including early warning systems and climate modeling.
Beyond diagnosis, the political message Senegal intends to deliver on behalf of Africa at the upcoming summit is clear. The continent has harnessed only about 5 percent of its hydropower potential, compared to more than 70 percent in developed regions, highlighting a massive infrastructure investment gap.
This deficit, combined with some of the world’s lowest water access rates and insufficient financial mobilisation, constitutes a major structural constraint on Africa’s development, industrialisation and energy transition.
Conversely, investment in water represents a high-impact lever with economic, social and environmental benefits. For Senegal and AMCOW, the 39th AU Summit must mark a decisive turning point—elevating water from a secondary consideration to a strategic pillar of Africa’s climate and development policies.
ARD/ac/lb/as/APA