Until we see significantly more funding flowing down to vulnerable communities, we will keep demanding more urgent action

on
4 December 2023
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Today at COP28’s finance day, we’ve seen a number of climate adaptation pledges from richer governments that no where near meet the shortfalls that adaptation finance requires. For example, so far only $155million raised for the Adaptation Fund this year - a huge shortfall to the resource mobilisation target of $300million the Fund had set itself. The Vice Chair of the Adaptation Fund is hoping for further commitments to come through throughout this COP.

Claire Seaward, Global Campaigns Director for WaterAid, responds to the new adaptation pledges made at COP28's finance day:

"The climate crisis is undeniably a water crisis. Yet shockingly, only 3% of all climate finance is water-related, and only 6% is targeted to any kind of adaptation measures.  

"At COP28, developing country governments have said loud and clear that current adaptation funding is far too little and trickling down far too slowly, leaving communities on the climate frontline without the bare essentials - like a lack of clean water and sanitation.

"We're hugely disappointed that by the end of the finance day, we've not seen rich countries respond with the urgent adaptation financing required. Rich governments must double the public adaptation commitments and until we see significantly more funding flowing down to vulnerable communities, we will keep demanding more urgent action."

ENDS   

 

Notes to Editors:  

 

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WaterAid is an international not-for-profit determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation.  We work alongside communities in 22 countries to secure these three essentials that transform people’s lives. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 28.5 million people with clean water and 29 million people with decent toilets. 

For more information, visit our website wateraid.org/uk, follow us on Twitter @WaterAidPress, @WaterAidUK, @WaterAid, or find us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. 

  • 703 million people in the world – almost one in ten – do not have clean water close to home. 
  • 1.5 billion people in the world – almost than one in five – do not have a decent toilet of their own. 
  • Over 300,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's more than 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes. 
  • Investing in safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene services provides up to 21 times more value than it costs. 

[1] WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation. 

[2] WHO/UNICEF (2021) Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020. Joint Monitoring Programme. Geneva: World Health Organisation. 

[3] WaterAid calculations based on: Prüss-Ustün A, et al. (2019). Burden of Disease from Inadequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Selected Adverse Health Outcomes: An Updated Analysis with a Focus on Low- and Middle-Income Countries. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. vol 222, no 5, pp 765-777. AND The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2020) Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Seattle, WA: University of Washington. 

[4] WaterAid. (2021) Mission-critical: Invest in water, sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green economic recovery. 

   

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