ADB President Outlines Water Agenda for Asia-Pacific Region

Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda unveiled a seven-point agenda to prioritize water investments in the Asia-Pacific region in a speech held at the World Cities Summit in Singapore. Kuroda said that the ADB aims to help countries in the region boost new water investments to $20 billion to improve water security.

“In our recently approved long-term strategic framework, known as Strategy 2020, we highlight water as a key priority area of operations in the coming years”, Mr. Kuroda said.

The new agenda offered by Mr. Kuroda calls for:

1. increased investments in rural water services;
2. developing more bankable urban projects that improve water utility performance;
3. collaboration in integrated water resource management and significantly higher investments in comprehensive sanitation systems;
4. investment in measures to adapt to climate change;
5. investing water-related disaster mitigation;
6. improved water governance, performance and knowledge management;
7. investing in partnerships.

The call for the region to prioritize water investments comes at the mid-way point of ADB’s Water Financing Program (WFP) 2006-2010, for which the institution had committed to double its water program and catalyze substantial investment, reform, and capacity development in the three key areas of rural water, urban water, and basin water.

Read more: ADB, 25 Jun 2008