Myanmar and Zambia, like many other countries, urgently need to increase investment in sustainable projects to improve water security, enhance the health of their river basins, and support economic growth. But they both face a major stumbling block: a lack of viable, sustainable and bankable water projects for companies and financial institutions to invest in.
Our new agreement with the Dutch Development Bank sets out to tackle this head-on by providing us with seed funding to develop wastewater treatment projects in both countries.
In Myanmar, the funding will promote green technologies for industrial wastewater treatment − and identify innovative investment options to improve wastewater treatment and reduce pollutant discharges into the Irrawaddy river basin.
In Zambia, the bank will invest in similar efforts in the Kafue river basin, which provides most of the water for Zambia’s capital Lusaka, much of the country’s electricity and sustains the livelihoods of huge numbers of people in rural and urban communities.