J. Albert Gamboa l 22 April 2022 l The Manila Times
An international non-government organization co-founded by Hollywood actor Matt Damon and water engineer Gary White has called for collective multi-stakeholder action to solve the looming global water crisis.
In a webinar titled “The Worth of Water” last month, Water.org presented its innovative financial solutions aimed at ending the water crisis. It convened the public and private sectors to engage in a dialogue on how to collaborate and address the issue of sustainable access to safe water and sanitation.
Water.org Inc. was founded in 2009 after Damon and White met at an international summit on global poverty, and now has representative offices in 17 countries worldwide. To date, it has reached more than 43 million people with its advocacy of empowering women to increase their access to water and sanitation at home through affordable financing while providing them greater resilience to COVID-19 and other diseases.
Griselda “Gay” Santos, Water.org regional director for Southeast Asia, said: “Water has many values, from the household level to national and global infrastructures. The challenge of water is multifaceted, ranging from the need for capacity development to empowering communities and even the challenge of data.”
Thus, Water.org has partnered with public utilities and financial institutions to bring sustainable access to sanitation and safe water. It may be noted that 771 million people lack access to safe water at home, while 1.7 billion people comprising one-fourth of the world’s population do not have access to a toilet.
Webinar attendees came from multilateral organizations such as the World Bank Group, International Finance Corp. (IFC), and Asian Development Bank as well as aid organizations like the US Agency for International Development or USAID. Representing the financial institutions sector were the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), Rizal MicroBank, and Cantilan Bank.
Keynote speakers were Socio-economic Planning Undersecretary Roderick Planta of the National Economic and Development Authority; Housing and Settlement Director Tri Dewi Virgiyanti from Indonesia’s Ministry of Planning and Development; RCBC President and CEO Eugene Acevedo; RCBC Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva; Cantilan Bank EVP and Chief Technology Officer Tanya Hotchkiss; World Bank Indonesia water and sanitation specialist Risyana Sukarma; and Aurelie Chardon, IFC Asia Pacific regional lead for urban infrastructure and services.
Among the presentors were financial ASA Philippines Foundation, KOMIDA of Indonesia, and Chamrouen Microfinance of Cambodia. These financial institutions emphasized the technical assistance and capacity-builiding support from Water.org that allowed them to implement a facility called WaterCredit. As a result, some 16 million people in these three countries have gained access to sanitation and safe water.
PERPAMSI of Indonesia and Palawan Water from the Philippines also gave presentations during the webinar. Their partnership with Water.org is intended to improve the operational capacities and financial readiness of these water providers so they can improve and expand their services to more households.
Each of us has a water story to tell and at one time or another has experienced the challenges brought about by the lack of access to this precious resource. Santos emphasized that the water crisis is not a public sector problem alone, while Chardon highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships.
For millions of women and children, access to safe water can turn problems into great potential – thereby unlocking opportunities in education, health, and the economy at large.
The author is the chief finance officer of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and chairman of the FINEX Media Affairs Committee. The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions and The Manila Times.