Aqua for All (of which VIA Water is part) is excited to announce the continued collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a new 5-year programme: ‘Making Water Count’. This programme will facilitate and finance access to clean water, good sanitation & hygiene for all.

We believe that change is needed to reach Sustainable Development Goal 6 and to solve the current service and finance gap in water and sanitation (WASH). To accelerate this, innovations with a business-wise approach are needed to tap into new sources of finance. This will create a water and sanitation economy that can thrive on its own.

“We are very glad we can work with Aqua for All again. To reach the SDGs in 2030 and the climate agreements made in Paris, we need partners such as Aqua for All, who connect promising water innovations in development countries with public and private investments”. Carola van Rijnsoever, Director Inclusive Green Growth, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands

Approach
Aqua for All uses grant money to mobilize public and private capital in order to increase investments in WASH. We do this by providing support to innovations, solidifying business cases, removing barriers for funding and connecting water solutions to finance. Aqua for All supports initiatives from initial idea to full implementation. By linking businesses, financiers, governments, knowledge institutes and civil society, we aim to scale the next generation of innovative WASH solutions. Therefore we created  two windows of opportunities:

• VIA Water (€10 million): supports early stage water and sanitation innovations
• SCALE (€20 million): supports proven solutions and develops financial models to unlock private capital and reach scale

Activities in both windows are supported by an incubation programme, including an extensive training, learning and development trajectory. 

Themes
The new programme concentrates on 3 themes:
• Drinking Water: safe water enterprises, safe water at point of use, operation and maintenance
• Sanitation Economy: service and value chain development, circular economy
• Water Resources Management: 3R (Recharge, Retention, Re-use), water efficiency

Regions
‘Making Water Count’ targets both urban and rural areas in West Africa, East Africa, the Horn of Africa and South Asia (with a focus on Bangladesh). We aim to improve access to safe water and sanitation services for at least 4 million people across these 4 focus regions.

Starting soon
Do you want to be involved? From October 2019 onwards, we will intensify our search for innovative and scalable WASH solutions.

Please reach out to us with your ideas!
More information about the new programme can be found in our new brochure (pdf)

Check our website for updates: www.aquaforall.org and www.viawater.nl

For more information contact: info@aquaforall.org or info@viawater.nl tel. +31(0)70-7200870