Water finance pipe is full of recycled pledges

Xylem

28/03/2023 04:56

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Antony Currie
       MELBOURNE, March 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Attendees
left the UN’s first H20 confab in 46 years pledging to invest
$300 bln. To hit that target, governments and companies like
Veolia and Xylem mostly repackaged old commitments or dressed up
ordinary outlays as new spending. Global water policy needs more
pressure.
    
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    CONTEXT NEWS    
    The UN Water Conference, the first held since 1977, closed
on March 24 with more than 700 pledges from member states,
companies, non-governmental organisations and other outfits to
increase efforts to improve water security. The promises
included investment and spending worth some $300 billion.
    On March 22 Xylem led a 17-member coalition of companies,
investment firms and non-government organisations in pledging to
spend $11 billion over the next five years on water innovation.
The entities involved are Acciona, Autodesk, BlueTech Research,
Burnt Island Ventures, The Coca-Cola Foundation, Evoqua,
Grundfos, Hansgrohe, Hydraloop, Idexx, UGSI Solutions, Veolia,
Water Foundry Ventures, Wavin, Westly Group, XPV Partners and
Xylem.
    Also on March 22, the U.S. government said it was committing
$49 billion to “equitable access and climate-resilient water and
sanitation infrastructure”.

 (Editing by Pete Sweeney and Thomas Shum)
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