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After the Grant Ends: Why Rural Water Utilities Fail — And What We Learned from Building One
For decades, rural water projects in low- and middle-income countries have followed a familiar pattern: Infrastructure is built, communities are trained, a ribbon is cut — and within a few years, the system stops working. After leading the early operations of Max TapWater, a social enterprise providing piped water in rural Bangladesh, Saif Islam identified a fundamental reason for these failures: Investment continues to prioritize capital infrastructure over the operational and maintenance budget needed to sustain it. He explores this challenge, and shares other lessons he has learned about how rural water facilities can sustain operations beyond the grant period.
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Duke-Nus Awarded €2 Million EU Grant to Help Asia Detect Outbreaks Earlier Through Wastewater Surveillance
The three-year project, ADWANCE-Asia or Advancing Wastewater & Environmental Surveillance for Public Health Impact in Asia, will be led by the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness and will support countries in the region, particularly low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- Categories
- Environment
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Analysis: India Is Drowning in Its Own Wastewater. These Two Engineers Decided to Turn It Back Into a Resource.
India generates 72,000 million litres of wastewater every day. It treats 28 percent of it. The other 72 percent flows, untreated, into rivers, lakes, and land. Amrit Nayak and Krunal Patel think the problem is not the water — it is the architecture of how treatment gets built.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Global
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UN Report Warns AI’s Water, Land and Climate Costs Are Rising Faster Than Governance
AI-related water consumption could equal the basic annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people by the end of the decade.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: IFC and Banco de Bogotá Announce Financing Package to Create Jobs and Boost Sustainable Growth in Colombia
The investment aims to mobilize private capital into key sectors such as construction, transport, energy, and manufacturing—critical drivers of productivity, competitiveness, and job creation in the country.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Latin America
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The Keys to Successful Blue Bonds: How Peru’s Strong Local Lending Systems Are Expanding Water and Sanitation Access
For millions of Peruvian families, one barrier stands between them and safe water and sanitation at home: access to affordable financing. Yet as Rocio Cavazos at Water.org explains, the financial institutions serving these communities face their own barrier: limited access to lower-cost capital. She discusses Water.org's efforts to support Peru’s two successful blue bond issuances, exploring how these bonds can allow lenders to offer more affordable loans for water and sanitation solutions — and sharing lessons from Peru's experience that can be applied by blue bonds in other markets.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance, Investing, WASH
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Press Release: Pope Leo XIV Makes $100,000 Donation to CRS Safe Water Project in El Salvador
The project, promoted by the Apostolic Nunciature in El Salvador and His Excellency, Apostolic Nuncio Luigi Roberto Cona, addresses the crisis of diseases transmitted by contaminated water in rural communities across the country.
- Categories
- Health Care, WASH
- Region
- Latin America
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World Bank Group Launches Initiative to Improve Water Security for 1 Billion People
The platform will align policy reforms, financing, and partnerships to expand reliable water services and strengthen systems against droughts and floods—essential conditions for job creation.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Global
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