ADB, Gates Foundation Partner to Tackle Asia's Huge Sanitation Needs
Sep 11, 2013
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have formed a new partnership agreement to expand and speed up access to safe sanitation in Asia and the Pacific.
"Hundreds of millions of people suffer from poor sanitation and ADB and the Gates Foundation share a common vision for improving the health and dignity of all people in the region," said Amy Leung, Director of the Urban Development and Water Division in ADB’s Southeast Asia department. "This partnership will allow us to support testing and pilot implementation of innovative solutions to deliver long lasting, quality sanitation services to Asia’s urban poor."
Creation of a new Sanitation Financing Partnership Trust Fund will be announced during World Water Week, held in Stockholm, Sweden until 6 September. An investment of $15 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation into the Trust Fund will leverage more than $28 million in investments from ADB by 2017 to expand non-sewered sanitation and septage management solutions across Asia.
The Trust Fund will pilot innovations in sanitation and septage management, provide grant funds for innovations in ADB’s sanitation projects, and support polices on septage management and sludge treatment to meet the needs of low-income urban communities who lack access to piped networks or safe wastewater disposal systems.
"Investing in solutions that help bring safe sanitation to the billions people who don’t already have it leads to healthier people and stronger communities,” said Brian Arbogast, Director of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We are confident that this new partnership with ADB will help spur government officials, city authorities, companies and civil society to apply innovative thinking to the ongoing sanitation challenges in Asia."
Currently, around 1.7 billion people in Asia and the Pacific have no access to safe sanitation, and about 780 million still practice open defecation, resulting in pollution and exposure to diarrheal diseases, the second leading cause of infant and child deaths worldwide.
Sanitation problems are becoming increasingly acute in urban areas, with tens of millions of people moving into Asian cities every year. Many end up living in slums with little or no sanitation facilities. The region needs investments estimated at $71 billion to deliver improved sanitation to all its citizens.
The Trust Fund will be part of ADB’s Water Financing Partnership Facility (WFPF), an instrument which pools finance and knowledge from development partners to support improvements in the sector. ADB has lent a total of $8.8 billion in water supply, sanitation, and wastewater management projects since 2006. Of that, $2.5 billion were investments that benefited from WFPF support.
More News and Articles
Apr 24, 2024
News
Sustainable drainage solutions: German Start-up transforms urban water management.
Germany boasts a well-established infrastructure for managing rainwater and wastewater, yet many developing countries lack such systems. Addressing this gap, …
Apr 22, 2024
News
HDD tooling that gets the job done
Horizontal directional drilling is a dynamic process that constantly changes and adapts to suit a range of applications across utilities and infrastructure. Operators looking to get the most from their equipment …
Apr 19, 2024
News
WATCH: Overnight with SAERTEX-LINER H20 in São Paulo
Available through Pipe Core, high-quality liner SAERTEX-LINER H20 performed under pressure in São Paulo, Brazil.
Maintaining aging potable water pipe infrastructure is a constant challenge …
Apr 17, 2024
News
Immersive media provides wastewater experience in Denmark
An immersive media experience (IMX) may not be what most people want when they think about industrial wastewater, but that is exactly what visitors can expect when they visit a new installation …
Apr 15, 2024
News
Spotlight on gender diversity at Pipe Core
Since founding in 2008, Pipe Core’s team has grown across all areas of the business and is now in a position where there are more females than males across the organisation. Research published in Harvard …
Apr 12, 2024
News
New Wave of Startups Scale Innovation to Solve Global Water Challenges
Innovators from Around the World Join Xylem’s 2024 Accelerator Program to Deploy Breakthrough Innovations for Utilities and Industrial Users of Water
A new group of startups …
Apr 08, 2024
News
Integrated sustainable electricity and clean drinking water systems
Altitude Water and New Use Energy Solutions have partnered to create integrated, mobile solar-plus-water generation systems that produce sustainable electricity and clean drinking …
Apr 05, 2024
News
How to Evaluate Hydraulic Fracture Risk in HDD Design
The design of horizontal directional drill (HDD) installations often requires an evaluation of the potential for hydraulic fracture of the soil layers through which an HDD passes. Evaluating …
Apr 02, 2024
News
Historic Project Linking Rome and Vatican City Uses Advanced Technology and Local Knowledge to Keep Water Flowing
Relocation of Major Sewer Infrastructure Enables Construction of Pedestrian Link for 35 Million Visitors to the 2025 Jubilee
Water …
Mar 27, 2024
News
USU Study Looks at Water Main Break Rates in the U.S. and Canada
Report Highlights Correlation Between Material and Diameter
Utah State University (USU) has published new research on water main breaks in the United States and Canada, examining …
Mar 26, 2024
News
Update BE-21: New Material in Course and Modules on Trenchless Pipe Installation
Online training on the topic of pipeline installation in civil engineering: Trenchless technology for underground drainage construction can be a resource-efficient, …
Mar 25, 2024
Article
Bacteria as a new weapon in wastewater treatment
In early November, San Diego based startup Aquacycl officially opened its first European office and test center at the Water Campus in Leeuwarden. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) …