From the U.S. business community to the NGO community, members of the USGLC network are working on the frontlines to address the mounting global water crisis and celebrate World Water Day.

The Coca-Cola Company
Water stewardship is a business imperative for The Coca-Cola Company. In Colorado, the company is part of a coalition of partners working to restore a drought-stricken watershed. Trail Creek is a key tributary to the Taylor River, which connects to the Colorado River. A National Forestry Foundation-led team of conservationists and volunteers has installed 150 man-made beaver dams along a one-mile stretch of Trail Creek to restore the natural ecosystem in nearly 30 acres of wetlands. The project brings a host of benefits to the environment—from carbon sequestration to biodiversity improvements. We anticipate this project will replenish over 1 billion liters per year.

Cargill
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the world’s water challenges. Cargill’s local approach means that they look at specific issues people are facing at their community level and tailor solutions to their needs. For example, when asking a farmer in Iowa why they engage in regenerative agriculture, they share that they are concerned about the need to irrigate crops and the cost for pumping water. For Cargill’s communities in its cocoa supply chain in West Africa, the company works with NGO partners like Global Water Challenge to understand what could help these local communities in achieving access to safe drinking water and sanitation. To date, Cargill and GWC have reached nearly 35,000 people across Cameroon, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. Of those nearly 54% are women. The partnership has also educated more than 15,000 people on safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.

DAI
To tackle the rapidly growing population in Kenya’s needs, DAI led a water project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, that combined nutrition programming with improved access to water, sanitation, and hygiene—particularly in rural areas where nearly half the population lacks sufficient access to water. After six years, the Kenya Integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (KIWASH) project enabled nearly 900,000 Kenyans to gain access to improved water security, sanitation, and hygiene services as well as irrigation and nutrition services. Governance was a core tenet of KIWASH because local governments play a key role in the decentralization of the Kenyan water and sanitation sector—and so the project sought to play a facilitative, and supportive, role in working with local actors to find solutions to challenges in the sector.

Global Water Challenge
At Global Water Challenge (GWC), we believe in the power of collective action to galvanize sustainable solutions to water challenges. Through our impactful partnerships, GWC mobilizes investment and deploys innovative water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming globally. This World Water Day, we are proud to spotlight our Cargill Currents partnership, which was launched in 2021 to improve global water security as well as mobilize water access for up to 150,000 people in priority watersheds. To date, GWC is partnering with Cargill on 18 watersheds in West Africa, Brazil, North America and India.

RTI International
Accelerated urbanization has strained Nigeria’s water services delivery. The USAID Nigeria Effective Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services (E-WASH) program, implemented by RTI International, ended last year. The program applied a systems approach, covering technical improvements, institutional development, and resource mobilization. USAID E-WASH rehabilitated idle water supply schemes and installed new water facilities that delivered clean water to 225,000 residents and facilitated the passing and adoption of pioneering WASH laws and policies in five states. It also mobilized over $9 million in WASH sector finance to support urban water services improvements. Read more about RTI’s capabilities in the water and WASH sector: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Capabilities | RTI

Pepsi
2 billion people lack access to safe water. It’s an urgent issue that is central to PepsiCo Foundation efforts. The Pepsico Foundation’s partnership with WaterAid America and WaterAid Ethiopia in the North Mecha District of Ethiopia is an 18-month project that will bring clean water to more than 10,000 people in two towns whose water supply has been out of service for nearly a decade.

Winrock International
The people of Burkina Faso and Niger, two landlocked countries in West Africa, live in one of the hottest regions in the world: the Sahel. These days, it’s getting hotter – and drier – making survival increasingly challenging. Led by Winrock’s Sustainable Water Partnership, the five-year USAID TerresEauVie Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE II) activity is supporting communities to improve water security and resource management as the climate changes. TerresEauVie collaborates with communities, local governments and the private sector to address one of the biggest resource risks: dwindling access to secure water not only for household consumption, but also for agricultural and other livelihood activities. A major component of that work involves helping stakeholders in both countries to identify, map and assess existing water points and access, as well as measuring current groundwater supply and quality. Learn more on USAID’s Climatelinks.

World Vison
In the developing world, there is a persistent need for better water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This holds true in Bangladesh, where children are at a higher risk of diarrheal diseases.  Diarrhea is a leading killer of children, accounting for approximately 8 percent of all deaths among children under age 5 worldwide in 2016. Nobo Jatra — which translates to “new beginning” in Bengali — is a five-year program funded by USAID, or U.S. foreign assistance. The program is implemented by World Vision in partnership with World Food Program and Winrock International with the goal of improving food security, nutrition, and resilience in southwest Bangladesh. A big part of that is ensuring access to and proper management of sanitation and safe water.

Please contact Dana Bruce at [email protected] if you would like to add your story to the Water Day Celebration blog.

Photo provided by World Vision