Your Excellencies, distinguished Ministers, Members of the Shura Council, Members of Parliament, representatives of the World Water Council, leaders of civil society, ladies and gentlemen — good afternoon.
I bring you greetings from the Global Parliamentary Water Network and from Honorable Silas Aogon, a three-term Member of Parliament from Uganda. He is also the Chair of the Global Parliamentary Water Network and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene — one of the longest-standing parliamentary water caucuses in the world. He and I are grateful to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Water Council for convening us here in this beautiful city.
Let me jump immediately into the deep end of this pool, because this moment calls not for long speeches but for clear action. On behalf of Honorable Silas, I have two calls to action.
Our first call is to the water sector — to the technical experts, the development partners, the donors, the multilateral institutions.
We must do more to reach out to the legislative branch. And we at the Global Parliamentary Water Network welcome that outreach, and want to be a resource for building that bridge.
In every country, it is legislators who write the laws that govern water. It is legislators who vote the budgets that fund our water programs. And it is legislators who provide the accountability that ensures promises become pipes and taps. Lawmaking, budgeting, and accountability are the engine of accelerated progress on water. And yet the legislative branch is too often an afterthought. The Global Parliamentary Water Network is grateful to the World Water Council for consistently including parliamentarians in its convenings through the decades.
Our call to action is simple: in every country where we work — donor and developing alike — strengthen the relationship with the legislature. Brief the relevant committees. Provide parliamentarians with the data they need. Do not wait for legislators to come to you. Go to them. And do not stop at national parliaments — bring in the governors, the mayors, the local council members who are closest to the communities we serve.
Our second call is to legislators themselves — to every parliamentarian and elected official listening today and beyond.
The call to action is this: Show up.
Legislators must come to the World Water Forum in Riyadh next in March 2027 — not in a separate room, but as integral participants in every segment of the Forum. And when those inspired legislators return home, they must carry these messages into their chambers, committee rooms, and constituency offices.
Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, said earlier today: “Let’s put water at the top of every agenda.” Thus, when Members of Parliament return to their countries after Jeddah and Riyadh, they must sit down with their Ministers of Water, Public Works, Finance, and Health — and strengthen genuine working partnerships. They must engage civil society and the private sector, because the financing gap for water cannot be closed by public budgets alone. They must indeed strive to put water at the top of every agenda.
We believe in “Action for a Better Tomorrow,” the theme of the 11th World Water Forum. But action does not come from communiqués or declarations alone. Action comes from laws passed in national assemblies, from budget lines approved in committee hearings, from a governor who decides that every healthcare facility, school, and community in her district will have clean water and marshals every resource to make it happen.
The tools, financial instruments, and knowledge exist. What has been missing is accelerated political leadership to match.
Make no mistake – we are making progress in the water sector. Billions of people have achieved access to safe water over the past 2–3 decades. But the progress is linear. Let’s go exponential in the run up to the World Water Forum.
Let us make Riyadh 2027 a turning point. Let us ensure the legislative branch is not on the margins but at the center. Let us leave Riyadh with concrete commitments: new parliamentary water caucuses formed, new laws drafted, new budgets pledged, and new partnerships forged.
On behalf of the Global Parliamentary Water Network, Hon. Silas Aogon and I thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Water Council for this platform.
Thank you. Shukran. Asante sana.