Post by Catholic Relief Services

For Catholic Relief Services (CRS), water security is fundamentally about people—making it possible for families to keep healthy, earn a living and achieve shared prosperity. CRS welcomes The World Bank Group's new Water Forward Initiative, unveiled today at the #WBGMeetings. The goal is ambitious: delivering water security to 1 billion people around the world. Water security cuts across all five of CRS’ strategic goals, linking access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) with climate resilience, sustainable landscape management, public health and women’s and youth leadership. In 2025 alone, we delivered WASH services to 6.7 million people, including 2.5 million who gained access to safe drinking water, through 68 projects in 35 countries. CRS’ Water Security Strategy advances this work through three interconnected pillars: 💧Water in sustainable landscapes: CRS works from source to tap through watershed management, climate-resilient agriculture and nature‑based solutions. In Ghana, partners improved land and water management in the Tamale watershed—avoiding an estimated $1.1 million in annual water revenue losses and generating $2.10 in returns for every $1 invested.  💧WASH systems across humanitarian and development contexts: Over the past five years, CRS has supported more than 470 health facilities to strengthen WASH services. In one facility in Kenya, integrated WASH and infection prevention measures eliminated neonatal sepsis cases that had previously affected 15% of births.  💧Finance and governance for sustainable service delivery: Through the Azure Initiative, CRS pairs investment capital with technical assistance to help rural water providers become financially viable enterprises—deploying more than $15 million in loans through local financial institutions, with zero defaults. CRS’ Water Security Strategy aligns closely with the World Bank’s Water Forward approach by treating water security as a systemwide challenge—linking people, food systems and the planet through equity‑centered, climate‑resilient solutions and strong governance. CRS welcomes this initiative and recognizes the Bank’s leadership in setting global ambition, while encouraging each partner to play its part. We look forward to supporting civil society, governments and communities to help turn this global commitment into lasting, locally led water security solutions at scale.