Water for the Poor Initiative

Enhancing Access to Clean Water and Sanitation Services
The United States will invest $510 million through USAID programs worldwide, concentrating on investments in countries where water authorities are undertaking the reforms necessary to enable viable partnerships that engage local governments, water utilities, the private sector, NGOs, communities and families.  For example:

• In South Africa, USAID spends $6 million annually to provide sustainable water and sanitation services to municipalities through public-private and public-public partnerships. Fifty-three water and sanitation projects have been completed to date, and many of the recipients are the urban poor. USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) provided loan guarantees that enabled municipalities to finance high priority infrastructure projects for the provision of water and sanitation to poor areas not being served or served inadequately. This enabled the Vlakfontein Outfall Sewer District to initiate a $2.5 million project to provide sanitation to approximately 100,000 poor people previously lacking access. The Mission has begun talks on a new facility.

• In Ghana, Mali, and Niger, USAID is a partner in the West Africa Water Initiative, a new alliance of twelve organizations worldwide announced at WSSD. The United States provided $4.4 million, complementing over $36 million in total resources, to invest in small-scale potable water supply and sanitation, hygiene, and water management, primarily in poor rural and periurban communities. Since WSSD, drilling equipment has been ordered, and hydrologic studies have begun for boreholes in Mali.

• In India, USAID spends over $4 million annually to support the Finance Institutional Reform (FIRE) project to demonstrate innovative financing for water partnerships. Since WSSD, DCA private sector financing raised a total of $6.4 million in Indian rupees for six projects in the state of Tamil Nadu including a $403,000 project in the township of Valasaravakkam to lay underground water pipes from a safe drinking water source to serve 26,000 people.

• In the Central Asian Republics, USAID has launched several activities in the water sector, including a large program on potable water in the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan, an area hit hard by the Aral Sea Disaster. The project will bring water to over 500,000 people in the region through new wells, purifying equipment, and delivery systems.

Improving Watershed Management
The United States is investing over $400 million over the next three years to integrate surface water, aquifer, and coastal zone issues to better manage water resources and to protect watersheds. For example:

• In Morocco, USAID has spent $30 million over the past ten years to promote improved water resources management in the Souss-Massa River Basin and in other important basins in the country. These activities have resulted in improved decentralized management of water resources through the formation of operational basin water authorities.

• In Jamaica, the $15 million Ridge to Reef Program focuses on reducing the impact of contamination from agricultural run-off and nutrient-rich sewage flowing from informal settlements in the watershed and along rivers. This is accomplished through interventions for improved agricultural practices and watershed management, education and enforcement. The project has resulted in the strengthened capacity of Jamaica’s National Water Commission to effectively create public partnerships for wastewater treatment and involve the tourism industry in Environmental Management Systems.

• The Geographic Information for Sustainable Development Initiative (GISD), a USAID-U.S. State Department-led international alliance announced at WSSD applies a new generation of geographic information systems technologies to watershed management and other sustainable development issues in the developing world. Through a recent investment of $2.2 million, $150,000 of which was obligated since WSSD, the United States has leveraged more than $60 million from the private sector and governmental donors, including at least $50 million in research and development from data imagery producers.

• The Philippines Integrated Water Resources Alliance was formed in September to help cities implement a model, basin-wide approach to urban water resources management. This public-private sector alliance will work to replicate efforts of selected cities in other local governments and their watersheds.

Increasing the Productivity of Water
The United States is investing $60 million over the next three years to ensure that agricultural and industrial water use is as productive as possible. For example: