Articles by Bhavika Vyas

This article paints a fairly disconcerting picture about the future of water issues around the world and the implications on local politics, health, food supplies, economic development and the environment – all issues that tend to have a disproportionate effect on those at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The World Bank, in an attempt to prevent some of these issues before they arise, is trying to use its grant funding more effectively, introducing the concept of Output Based Aid, and leveraging private financial resources. As this article makes clear, the current availability of funds will not be able to solve this problem alone and so governments, aid agencies and others working in this space will need to be creative in addressing the water issue. Among individuals from all disciplines at the World Bank’s Water Week from February 27-March 2, there was widespread agreement on this.

In Uganda, Acumen Fund is in conversations with the World Bank to help support an Output Based Aid pilot that will help bring water supply to ten rural growth centers and small joint effort between forward-thinking departments within the Ugandan government and the World Bank, to support private operators in the water space and to bring local financial institutions into financing the water sector. Acumen is hoping to help facilitate the appropriate sharing of risk between all parties by offering a loan guarantee product to participating financial institutions. We believe that the success of this project has implications for water provision in both Uganda and East Africa more broadly, and has great potential for replication. And we believe that approaches like this and collaboration between many non-traditional players will be needed to stem the broader water crisis.

The recent Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City was of a grand scale, with more than 10,000 participants from around the world, ranging from NGO’s and government agencies to large corporations and academics. Some common themes around the sustainability of water solutions were apparent. There was an increased focus on the need for complete and reliable management of water and sanitation projects, including both education and marketing to end consumers and ongoing maintenance and water quality testing. Many of the sessions and Acumen Fund’s own discussions revolved around the current shortfalls in these areas that result from the current “build and move on” model that many governments and NGOs have adopted.