一名高级政府官员告诉Semafor，阿联酋正推动各国政府和私人金融机构大幅增加对全球水基础设施的投资。尽管他拒绝透露具体的筹资目标，但阿联酋外交部负责能源与可持续事务的助理部长阿卜杜拉·巴拉拉（Abdulla Balalaa）表示，12月在阿布扎比举行的一场由联合国支持的重要水务峰会，其主要目标之一将是缩小目前近70亿美元的全球水安全融资缺口。
The UAE is pushing governments and private financial institutions to drastically scale up investment in global water infrastructure, a senior government official told Semafor. Although he declined to disclose a specific fundraising target, Abdulla Balalaa, the country’s assistant minister of foreign affairs for energy and sustainability, said that a primary goal of a major UN-backed water summit taking place in Abu Dhabi in December will be to shrink what is currently a nearly $7 billion gap in global water security finance.
巴拉拉说，尽管伊朗今年袭击了海水淡化厂，阿联酋的供水却一天也未中断，部分原因在于该国投资了利用人工智能提升用水效率的系统。然而，总体而言，水务投资仍受到缺乏支持性法规的限制，尤其是在发展中国家。他表示：“水务一直处于较低优先级，被视为理所当然，并且受制于其他事务。”“这需要一次范式转变。”
Despite attacks by Iran on desalination plants this year, the UAE hasn’t experienced a single day of water supply cuts, Balalaa said, in part due to investments it has made in AI-enabled water efficiency systems. But in general, water investment continues to be constrained by a lack of supportive regulation, especially in developing countries: “Water has always been under-prioritized, taken for granted, and held hostage to something else,” he said. “This requires a paradigm shift.”