Industry Task Force

The Resilient Water Accelerator

As part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative, The former Prince of Wales has launched the Resilient Water Accelerator, which aims to reach 50 million people in water-stressed areas with reliable and sustainable water sources by 2030. This will mean people having access to essential and dependable water services that will protect them in the face of future threats such as disease or the impact of climate change.

The launch of this initiative follows a pledge at the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Roundtable on Water in London, at WaterAid’s Water & Climate Summit, to work towards boosting available finance for climate-resilient water programmes. Over the last year, the Sustainable Markets Initiatives’ Water & Climate Task Force has been working to turn this pledge into a reality.

    Loop: Water taskforce poster

    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 is launching today, which will work to provide reliable and sustainable water sources in countries that are battling the devastating effects of the climate crisis.

    I look forward to seeing further cross-sector collaboration and I hope that the Task Force continues to foster a diverse range of strategic partners and proposals to find the ambitious solutions that are all too vital.

    The former Prince of Wales
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    HRH portrait by Chris Jackson at Highgrove 2019

    As the world hopes to emerge from the dark cloud of Covid 19, we have a real chance to seize the even bigger challenge of climate change. Without a reliable source of safe water, people cannot protect themselves, not just against disease but also the devastating vagaries of changing weather patterns.

    Climate change means more floods, more droughts and more severe storms and dramatically increases the risks to communities that already do not know from one day to the next whether they will get enough clean water for their basic needs. This initiative aims to reach 50 million people, in some of the world’s most marginalised communities, with reliable and sustainable water services.

    As we head into the crucial climate negotiations at COP in Glasgow later this year, this work will show that practical solutions to the water and climate crisis exist.

    Tim Wainwright, WaterAid’s Chief Executive
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    Tim Wainwright portrait

    New research presented during COP27 found that African countries are dangerously overlooked when it comes to boosting climate-resilient access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene. There is a huge potential for the private sector to invest in water-projects at scale.

    You can find more information here

    Further information

    For roundtable and Task Force enquiries please contact:

    Email: info@sustainable-markets.org