Africa Needs Over $50 Billion Annually to Meet Water and Sanitation Goals — ECA Chief
Africa must urgently close the financing gap for water and sanitation investments to accelerate sustainable development, climate resilience and economic transformation, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, has said.
Speaking during a high-level side event on Financing Africa’s Water Investments at the African Development Bank Group 2026 Annual Meetings, Gatete said the continent faces a growing mismatch between the scale of water-related risks and the level of investment needed to address them.
“The challenge is not a lack of solutions; it is about how we prioritize, finance and implement them at scale,” Gatete said.
He commended the African Development Bank Group, the African Union Commission, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) and development partners for convening what he described as a timely discussion on Africa’s water future.
According to Gatete, the discussions come at a critical stage in implementing the Africa Water Vision 2063, which aims to achieve a water-secure and climate-resilient continent with safe sanitation for all.
He noted that while water remains central to development and climate adaptation, investments in the sector continue to lag behind global needs.
Globally, about 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, while 3.4 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation services. In Africa alone, more than 400 million people lack access to basic drinking water and over 700 million remain without safely managed sanitation.
Gatete warned that water-related investments receive less than 3 percent of global climate finance despite water being the main channel through which climate impacts such as droughts, floods and unpredictable weather patterns are experienced.
“This imbalance has created a growing disconnect between the scale of the risk and the scale of investment,” he said.
He further revealed that Africa requires more than US$50 billion annually to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation, yet current investments range between only US$12 billion and US$15 billion each year.
According to Gatete, the financing gap is affecting multiple sectors beyond water, including agriculture, energy, industry, urban development, public health and climate resilience.
“Underinvestment in water is not only a social concern but a structural economic constraint,” he said.
Gatete called for a shift in how African countries view water, saying it should no longer be treated merely as a utility service but as a strategic economic asset capable of driving growth, jobs and resilience.
“Water is the bloodstream of our economies,” he said, adding that it supports food systems, energy generation, industrialization, ecosystem protection, public health and regional integration.
He also emphasized the importance of water in unlocking opportunities within Africa’s blue economy.
To address the challenge, Gatete outlined four key priorities for action.
He urged African governments to place water at the centre of economic policymaking by integrating it into national development plans, fiscal policies and investment strategies.
Gatete called for stronger project preparation systems capable of generating investment-ready water projects, including innovative solutions such as wastewater reuse, nature-based systems and climate-resilient sanitation infrastructure.
He emphasized the need to expand blended finance and risk-sharing mechanisms through initiatives such as the African Water Facility to attract greater private sector investment and diversify financing sources. He added that stronger debt management and financing reforms would also help create more fiscal space for water investments.
Gatete stressed the importance of strengthening governance systems, improving data credibility and enhancing accountability frameworks to ensure investments deliver measurable and sustainable outcomes.
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