FUNDING Water doesnt come out of thin air, investment and funding are intergral to ensuring everyone has access to water.
WaterConnect:
connecting people to water and funding to projects Water is vital to life yet globally 2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation. This can only be described as a crisis, and its scale may feel overwhelming, but there are organisations that are working tirelessly to turn crisis into opportunity.
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ne of the key issues regarding water and sanitation projects is funding. Squaring ‘water as a human right’ versus ‘infrastructure needs capital’ is a theme that rears its head throughout the water crisis discourse. There are organisations such as Water.org, a non-profit that seeks to expand access to water and sanitation through leveraging funds that aims to address this issue head-on. The organisation sees water as a catalyst for economic growth, improving
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communities and lives, and if funding is a hurdle their mission is help solve this. John Moyer, President of WaterConnect says, “Water.org has historically focused on catalysing investment at a household level. This has led to the construction of facilities like pipeline connections, toilets, sewer connections, septic tanks, and so on. But we know that we must also address gaps in financing at a city or municipal level; building septic tanks is an important step, but if there are no sludge treatment facilities those tanks won't realise their intended purpose.”
Enter WaterConnect This is the context in which WaterConnect exists. WaterConnect is a dedicated initiative of Water.org that is accelerating the volume and pace of investment in sustainable water infrastructure by supporting early-stage project development. “WaterConnect brings a new model to the same mission statement: provide access to clean water and sanitation for everyone, everywhere,” adds John. WaterConnect's model of partnering with the private sector mirrors Water.