EESC Contribution to the UN Water Conference 2026: from the EU Blue Deal and Water Resilience Strategy to global water action

The EU Youth Test at the EESC was applied to this opinion. The IWA - International Water Association  was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.

This opinion is part of the EESC pilot "Enlargement Candidate Members (ECM)" where representatives from Ukraine will take part in the study groups and in the Section meeting.

Key Points

The EESC:

• Underlines the importance of the UN Water Conference 2026 to make water resilience a global priority, and calls for a worldwide paradigm shift from linear water use to circular systems, recognising water as a public good with social, environmental and economic value.
• Calls for a horizontal governance approach integrating water across sectors and levels of government at global level with the transversal involvement of civil society.
• Calls for the international community to unequivocally condemn attacks against essential water infrastructure, which is indispensable to the survival of civilians, and recognise it as a war crime.
• Recommends systematically applying a ‘Water Test’ in all relevant EU and global policy initiatives, to assess their impact on water resources, water efficiency and water resilience.
• Considers water a public good and underlines that affordability of water for vulnerable groups is critical to ensure water justice worldwide. 
• Stresses that achieving water resilience requires a fundamental shift in behaviour across all sectors of society, including by adapting agricultural and industrial practises, reinforcing climate adaptation and conserving wetlands.
• Considers nature-based solutions, including wetlands, to be critical infrastructure for water resilience and to be embedded in all thematic dialogues for the UN Water Conference 2026.
• Calls for a mobilisation of public and private capital to support a robust pipeline of bankable SDG6 projects. 
• Calls for more support for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) through integrated climate-resilient approaches combining infrastructure development, governance and capacity building, paying particular attention to vulnerable and marginalised communities.
• Considers that, in the event of conflicts over water use, priority should be given to the drinking water supply.
• Calls for the transition towards a water-smart society to be accelerated globally.
• Advocates the establishment of global targets to improve water efficiency by at least 10% by 2030 and to significantly increase water reuse levels across all sectors by the same year.
• Recommends developing harmonised indicators, monitoring mechanisms and reporting frameworks, to track progress on water resilience and ensure accountability at global level.