World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, focuses on the importance of freshwater.

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

This year's theme World Water Day is about what water means to people, it's true value and how we can better protect this vital resource. The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment. If we overlook any of these values, we risk mismanaging this finite, irreplaceable resource.

UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. Below are a couple of examples of how UNCDF’s programmes have been supporting freshwater.

The “Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana – (GrEEn)” is a four-year action from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, UNCDF and SNV.

The project aims at creating greater economic and employment opportunities for youth, women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in selected regions (Ashanti and Western). GrEEn is implemented under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa.

UNCDF has provided the Sekyere Affram Plains District in the Ashanti region, through the borehole constructed by the GrEEn project with COVID-19 relief funds. The borehole means the community no longer has to trek to a stream miles away to fetch water for cooking and drinking. This water source was unreliable, drying up during the dry season; it was also unhealthy. Because it was also used for cattle, the water was usually muddy by day’s end.

The community’s chief notes that people used to have medical issues associated with skin rashes and stomach pains. Since using the potable water from the borehole over the past two months, he has not heard anyone complaining of such ailments anymore. The borehole serves a population of about 915 people.

Also, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); the Municipality of Freetown, Sierra Leone; and UNCDF's Freetown/Blue Peace Initiative, aims to construct reliable water, sanitation and hygiene facilities (WASH) as an extension of delivering safe, affordable, sustainable water to the residents of Freetown. While at the same time demonstrating a successful model for financing sustainable water production and consumption in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs).

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