UfM Member States adopt three landmark water strategies ahead of World Water Day 2026
- The Mediterranean is warming 20% faster than the global average, intensifying climate-related anomalies such as droughts, extreme heat, floods and ecosystem disruption, and threatening water, food and energy security for over 500 million people.
- Ahead of World Water Day 2026, UfM Member States adopted three landmark regional strategies – on the WEFE Nexus, Water Finance and Digital Transformation of the water sector – setting a shared course for the Euro-Mediterranean region through to 2030.
Barcelona, 19 March 2026 – The Mediterranean is warming faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. Droughts that came once in a generation now arrive almost every year. And across the southern and eastern shores of the sea, millions of people are facing a crisis that intensifies faster than any single nation can address alone.
On this World Water Day, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) marks a decisive response: the adoption by its 43 Member States of three strategic frameworks setting a unified course on water, energy, food, ecosystems, finance and digital transformation through to 2030.
“Water is not a sectoral issue. It is the foundation of life, development and peace. The adoption of these three strategies is a signal that, despite the complexity of our geopolitical landscape, the Mediterranean community is capable of collective ambition and coordinated action. The challenges are urgent, and only through sustained regional cooperation can we address them effectively,” said UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel.
“These strategies are already translating into action on the ground. Under the UfM WEFE Nexus framework, countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco have issued decrees and established institutional mechanisms to integrate WEFE approaches. This demonstrates how regional cooperation can support and accelerate national implementation,” said UfM Deputy Secretary General Joan Borrell.
Agriculture accounts for the largest share of freshwater consumption across the region, representing between 60 and 70% of total water withdrawals. Water and wastewater utilities spend up to a third of their operating budgets on energy, even as energy systems depend heavily on water for cooling, hydropower and hydrogen production. These interdependencies between water, energy, food and ecosystems have for too long been treated in isolation, with each sector optimising for itself and inadvertently creating risks for the others. The triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution is accelerating all of them, hitting hardest the communities already on the margins: rural households, informal settlements and conflict-affected populations.
The adoption of these strategies represents the most substantive advance in Euro-Mediterranean water governance since the first UfM Ministerial Meeting on Water. Each strategy addresses a dimension of the crisis that no country can resolve in isolation:
- Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus Strategy in the Mediterranean Source-to-Sea Continuum: Developed together with UNEP/MAP, GWP-Med (Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean), PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) and the WES-BCA EU project, this Strategy provides a regional framework for integrated WEFE governance. It addresses competing water demands across agriculture, energy, cities and ecosystems, ensuring that food and energy security measures protect rivers, aquifers and coastal zones – and translating that integrated approach into concrete policies and investments.
- UfM Recommendations on Water Finance: Prepared under the UfM Working Group on Water Finance and Investment and informed by the UfM Annual Conferences on Water Finance, these Recommendations address the chronic under-financing of Mediterranean water utilities. They offer governments, regulators, financiers and operators a practical roadmap to make water services financially sustainable while protecting access for low-income households and underserved communities.
- Strategic Framework for Digital Transformation of the Water Sector: Built on country case studies and international initiatives, this Framework guides Mediterranean countries in digitalising water systems to address water scarcity, reduce system losses and modernise ageing infrastructure. It promotes smart meters, sensors, data platforms and AI to boost efficiency and service quality, with implementation pathways adapted to the full range of national contexts across the region.
No Mediterranean country can manage shared aquifers, river basins or coastal ecosystems alone. A failure to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure in one country has documented ripple effects across supply chains, migration patterns and regional stability. The mechanisms that sustain the UfM Water Agenda – the Regional Platform on Water, the annual conferences on water finance and investment, the technical working groups – provide the framework for this collective effort.
Across the region, access to safe water and sanitation is improving, nature-based solutions are gaining ground, and blended finance is mobilising new capital. Yet progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 on universal water and sanitation access remains uneven.
More information
