UfM Ministers renew their commitment to water resilience in the Mediterranean

Water Ministers from the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) met in Rome on 28 September 2026 to adopt a new Ministerial Declaration on Water, renewing their commitment to stronger cooperation on water management across the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The declaration comes almost ten years after the first UfM Ministerial Declaration on Water, adopted in Malta in 2017. Since then, the pressure on water resources has continued to grow. Water scarcity, pollution and more frequent droughts and floods are affecting communities, ecosystems and economic activities across the Mediterranean, while climate change is making these challenges even harder to manage.

New priorities towards 2030

The declaration sets a renewed direction for regional cooperation, with particular attention to water governance, the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus, finance and investment, digitalisation and climate resilience.It also gives more space to the role of technology in the water sector. Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence are highlighted as ways to improve the management of water resources and services, alongside better planning, stronger cooperation between sectors and more sustainable financing.

One of the main outcomes of the meeting is the Rome Initiative on Water, which aims to strengthen technical capacities and support the development, financing and management of sustainable water projects in the Mediterranean.

The initiative will also contribute to the UN 2026 Water Conference, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates in December.