Prince of Wales’ initiative to provide clean water to 50m people worldwide
The Prince of Wales has launched the Resilient Water Accelerator to reach 50 million people in water-stressed areas with reliable and sustainable water sources by 2030 as part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI).
Through this initiative, people will be able access to clean and dependable water services for vital protection against threats like the current Covid-19 pandemic and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
The Resilient Water Accelerator, led by international development organisation WaterAid, will bring the key governments together, including United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Burkina-Faso, Nigeria, the Netherlands and city of Maputo.
The launch of this initiative follows a pledge at the SMI’s roundtable on Water in London to boost available finance for climate-resilient water programmes.
The Prince of Wales recently hosted a discussion attended by Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank; Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO of the Bank of America; Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF; Justin Abbott, Global Water Skills leader at Arup, Sir Graham Wrigley, chairman of the CDC Group and Betsy Otto, director of the World Resource Institute’s Water Program, amongst others.
At the event, attendees discussed the critical role that water plays in combatting the overlapping crises of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
The Resilient Water Accelerator will identify 6 locations in Africa and South East Asia, where a new approach can be tested, to address holistic threats on the ground, from pollution of water sources, rising levels of water-stress, exacerbated by dwindling ground-water supplies.
The coalition will work together to show that practical action to build resilience is possible, at a critical year for global climate and health discussions, ensuring that financing water programmes becomes a top priority for governments across the world. The coalition is targeting location finalisation by September 2021, with work on the ground set to begin in January 2022.
The Prince of Wales said “The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the need to ensure access to clean water services around the world. Since the first meeting in March of last year, the Water and Climate Finance Initiative Task Force has worked steadfastly towards achieving this, by boosting climate funding for comprehensive scalable resilient water programmes. I am delighted that the Resilient Water Accelerator has launched, which will work to provide reliable and sustainable water sources in countries that are battling the devastating effects of the climate crisis.”
Bangladesh's minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, Md Tajul Islam, said “Global adaptation action needs more effort given the scale of the devastation being caused by the impacts of climate change. A low carbon future is much appreciated, there will still be numerous people in Bangladesh and around the world whose access to water and sanitation is under threat and for whom even a small investment will have a meaningful impact.”