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The Department of Water and Sanitation Minister, Mr Senzo Mchunu, will lead a South African delegation to the United Nations (UN) Water Conference scheduled to take place in New York, United States of America from 22-24 March 2023. 

Minister Mchunu will participate in several panel discussions with his counterparts on the African continent and across the globe, to discuss in-depth measures being undertaken by the South African Government to ensure water security by 2030 and beyond. 

The Minister will be supported by the Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips and several other senior officials in the Department responsible for integrated water resource management in the country.   

The Conference is co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands and will take place under the theme “Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028”.

Some of the discussions Minister Mchunu will participate in include a dialogue focusing on water for climate, resilience and environment, the launch of the International High-Level Panel Campaign on Water Investments as well as discussions on multistakeholder commitments to the water action agenda. 

Minister Mchunu will also lead a discussion on Thursday, 23 March, themed “Focusing on National Leadership for Inclusive Water Governance: Call for Renewed Water Action and Commitments,” which will see his counterparts from Senegal, Germany, Zambia and Tanzania share experiences from their respective countries on inclusive water governance. 

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s participation in the conference aims to build, reinforce and sustain relationships with African and global partners and counterparts; identify active donors as well as mobilise donors by co-investing/ cost-sharing in targeted cooperation. This is as the Department continues to prioritise investment for monitoring, evaluation, knowledge and information management and learning towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG6) on water and sanitation by 2030 and beyond. 

The South African Government continues to embrace the requirements of the United Nations SDG6 with the objective of ensuring availability of, and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. It further seeks to recognise strives to enhance the role of the Dakar Declaration of the 9th World Water Forum as a catalyst for international efforts and actions to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.

This is through the alignment of activities toward the global agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paris Agreement and the African Union Agenda 2063.

Issued by the Department of Water & Sanitation