The  executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, has called for urgent action to close Africa’s huge financing gap in water and sanitation investments.

Mr Gatete made the call at a high-level side event on Financing Africa’s Water Investments during the 2026 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

He said inadequate investment in the sector was slowing progress on sustainable development, climate resilience and economic transformation across the continent. According to him, Africa requires more than 50 billion dollars annually to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation.

Mr Gatete, however, noted that current annual investment in the sector stood between 12 billion dollars and 15 billion dollars.

“The challenge is not a lack of solutions; it is about how we prioritise, finance and implement them at scale,” Mr Gatete said.

He said that more than 400 million Africans still lacked access to basic drinking water, while more than 700 million people remained without safely managed sanitation services.

Mr Gatete also warned that water-related projects received less than three per cent of global climate finance in spite climate change impacts being largely transmitted through water systems.

“This imbalance has created a growing disconnect between the scale of the risk and the scale of investment,” he said.

He described water as critical to agriculture, energy, industrialisation, public health and regional integration, stressing that underinvestment in the sector had become a major economic constraint.

Mr Gatete urged African governments to integrate water into national development plans, fiscal policies and investment strategies. He also called for stronger project preparation systems to develop investment-ready water infrastructure projects across the continent.

The ECA boss further advocated expanded blended finance mechanisms and stronger governance systems to attract private capital and ensure accountability.

“The next phase must focus on turning the discussions into tangible results, including financed projects, stronger partnerships and improved access to water and sanitation for millions across Africa,” Mr Gatete said.

He reaffirmed ECA’s commitment to working with the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission and other partners to advance implementation of the Africa Water Vision 2063.

(NAN)