Bottled water is a big and growing business. Global consumers are expected to buy over 550 billion liters of packaged water annually by 2020 with a value of over USD 200 billion. At the same time, more than 800 million people do not have basic access to clean drinking water, and more than 2 billion lack proper toilets. Bottled water sales also bring environmental challenges, especially how to minimize ensuing plastic waste.

In response, Water Unite is building a collaborative platform for the bottled water sector and concerned stakeholders to join in actions to end water poverty for hundreds of millions of people and to substantially reduce plastic pollution by 2030.

The heart of the project is to capture a micro-contribution from bottled water revenues – 1 cent per liter of water sold – to mobilize a long-term and sustainable revenue stream to invest in solutions to these twin problems. ​Such a levy has the potential to raise hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars annually. As a new, and flexible source of development finance, Water Unite can play a catalytic role in the existing financing landscape, leveraging investments to target the most underserved people.

Generous support from The Rockefeller, Osprey, Stone Family and Vitol Foundations enabled the feasibility and initial set up phase of Water Unite. Based on a catalytic financing approach, early grants have been identified for three initial programs:

  • Sanitation for millions (S4M)
  • Mobilizing blended finance for water security in Cape Town
  • Strengthening the plastic value chain in Mozambique

Read the full article about Water Unite by Paul Greener at The Rockefeller Foundation.