Agency for International Development (USAID), along with the Department of State, launched the 2022-2027 U.S. Global Water Strategy(link is external). The Strategy will help guide U.S. government efforts over the next five years to advance health, prosperity, stability, and resilience through improved water resources management and increased access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.

The revised Global Water Strategy comes at a time when the world is grappling with multiple crises linked to water – from the drought crippling the Horn of Africa, to the floods that left one-third of Pakistan underwater, to the women and girls that continue to be left out of school and the workforce due to bearing the burden of nearly two billion people still lacking access to drinking water and sanitation.

During the five-year implementation of the first Strategy (2017-2022), USAID exceeded its targets to provide 15 million people with access to safe drinking water and eight million people with access to sanitation services. Under the 2022-2027 Strategy, USAID has expanded its ambition and committed to reach an additional 22 million people with access to safe drinking water and 22 million people with access to sanitation over the five-year implementation period. For the first time, USAID’s sanitation target is equal to the water target to signal the Agency’s commitment to elevating an often-forgotten issue of critical importance to protecting public health, dignity, equity, and our environment. Half of those people reached with services will be those who have never before had basic water or sanitation access. Other targets focus on accelerating global progress on water and sanitation through capacity strengthening for the many players and institutions that are responsible for delivering high-quality, climate-resilient services that leave no one behind, and on leveraging $1 billion in financing to enable national governments and local partners to lead on solutions that last. Since 2008, USAID has reached nearly 60 million people with access to safe drinking water, and nearly 45 million people with access to improved sanitation.