Ambassador Amaka Judith Nweke (Nigeria)

Ambassador Amaka Judith Nweke (Nigeria)

(Commissioner, Enugu State Local Government

 Service Commission & Chair, WASH Committee 

| 1st Runner-Up, Policy & Advocacy Trailblazer, 

African Women in WASH Awards)

Ambassador Amaka Judith Nweke has spent her career insisting on an idea that sounds simple and is, in law, radical: access to safe drinking water is not a favour granted by government. It is a right owed to citizens.

That conviction found its landmark expression in the Enugu State Water Law, which recognises citizens' rights to basic potable water and sanitation services — among the first pieces of legislation in Nigeria to enshrine water as a legal right. As a leading voice in the Network of Water Rights Initiative and the driving force behind the #ClaimYourWaterRights campaign, Ambassador Nweke helped secure and champion that law, working alongside the Enugu State Government and development partners to see it launched and implemented.

She serves as a Commissioner of the Enugu State Local Government Service Commission and chairs its WASH Committee — a position from which she has pushed water and sanitation up the agenda of local government administration, where service delivery either succeeds or fails.

In January 2026, her advocacy reached the global stage. Representing Enugu State and Nigeria at the XIX World Water Congress in Marrakech, Morocco, she won the award for Overall Best Scientific Oral Presentation — an achievement no delegate had recorded in the Congress's previous nineteen editions, selected from among 65 research submissions from around the world. Her presentation set out Enugu's water transformation: nature-based solutions, sustainable urban drainage systems, rainwater harvesting, wetlands restoration, community participation, and international investment partnerships. Delegates and global water experts described the Enugu model as a compelling example of modern water governance in Africa.

Weeks later, in February 2026, she was named 1st Runner-Up for the Policy & Advocacy Trailblazer award at the inaugural African Women in WASH Awards in Yaoundé, Cameroon — co-organised by the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) and the Rural Water Supply Network from more than 250 nominations across 48 countries — recognised for spearheading #ClaimYourWaterRights and helping secure the landmark Enugu State Water Law.

From state legislation to global scientific acclaim, Ambassador Nweke's work traces a single line: water rights move from promise, to law, to lives changed. She embodies what this campaign celebrates — African women who do not merely advocate for water, but rewrite the rules that govern it.

Sources: The Water Diplomat (March 2026); THISDAY (January 2026); African Examiner; Blueprint Newspapers; 1st African Women in WASH Awards (AfWASA/RWSN, 2026)