Growing Momentum for Collective Actions in India
In a time when the world faces unprecedented water challenges, businesses are partnering to drive meaningful impact through collective action. The Water Resilience Coalition (WRC’s) ambition to build water resilience in 100 priority basins around the globe harnesses the power of such collective action. To see how this work is progressing in water stressed regions,, I recently visited India and learned about the possibilities to increase collective action across four of WRC’s priority basins in the country – the Ganga, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri.
My itinerary was filled with captivating events. The week kicked off in Mumbai with a Supplier and Partner Water Forum hosted by GSK, co-Basin Champion for the Godavari Basin, and joined by their co-champion Diageo. The next day, I attended a launch workshop celebrating the Women + Water Collaborative. My following three afternoons were occupied in group meetings exploring collective action opportunities with over one hundred corporate and NGO leaders across three cities, facilitated by WRC and IIT-IIT.
The Supplier and Partner Water Forum hosted by GSK’s Chief Procurement Officer Lisa Martin allowed peer businesses, GSK suppliers, and NGO partners in Mumbai to share learnings, be inspired by progress already underway, and explore opportunities to scale up action.
For companies like GSK with operations and key suppliers in water-stressed basins, protecting water is vital for business resilience. For many companies, this action comes in the form of reducing usage and improving water quality, engaging with local suppliers to improve water security, and investing in replenishment projects in the basin. In Mumbai, we focused on the important role of suppliers – who can account for a significant percentage of water footprints – by enabling them with feasible ways to align with best practice water stewardship approaches.
The importance of working with local partners was also a key area of discussion. This event was an opportunity to bring together partners who are doing just that through initiatives like the Women + Water Collaborative, one of 21 WRC collective action projects currently underway in 15 basins around the world.
The Women + Water Collaborative launched in 2023 by the Water Resilience Coalition and WaterAid in partnership with founding partners GSK, Gap Inc., and Cargill. This Collaborative focuses on improving access to clean water and sanitation in India.
The Supplier and Partner Water Forum’s themes and momentum were carried forward into events of the next day when Women + Water Collaborative team members from WaterAid India, donors, stakeholders, and prospective partners gathered to spotlight the Collaborative’s powerful impact.This inception workshop for the Collaborative shared key program updates and presented the initiative’s strategy and road map for climate-resilient water and sanitation services in water-stressed districts across basins including the Godavari and Krishna.
The remainder of my week turned to focus on group meetings across three hub cities, centered on advancing collective action for water security across specific priority basins in the region: the Godavari and Krishna Basins in Mumbai, hosted by Hinduja Foundation; the Kavari Basin in Bangalore, hosted by AB InBev, and the Ganga Basin in NCR – Gurgaon (Delhi), hosted by Varun Beverages Limited.
The key insights from these meetings were clear: there is a great interest in collective actions from the public, private, and NGO sectors, acknowledging that multi-stakeholder efforts yield the most profound impact.
To harness the potential of collaborative actions, we propose two tracks to continue our work: short-term wins and longer-term goals. Short-term objectives involve defining priority water challenges and building momentum for collective action solutions in key basins. Longer-term goals include setting shared water targets, understanding policy-based plans, and co-investing in high-impact solutions.
The level of motivation to build a water resilient future that I discovered during this trip was exceptional. As we successfully capitalize on the strong foundation for collective action, we are moving forward with the WRC’s ambitious goal of achieving net positive water impact in 100 priority basins that support over 3 billion people. The United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the WRC will be hosting a series of events, will be a new opportunity.
