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Matt Damon: 'Heavy hitters' should invest in water
Max Zahn with Andy Serwer
Mon, March 22, 2021, 8:18 AM

United Nations General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said last week that the lack of safe drinking water for 2.2 billion people worldwide is a "moral failure," in a stark warning days before World Water Day on Monday.

In a new interview, Oscar-winning actor and water equity philanthropist Matt Damon said the solution requires a wave of private sector investment to scale up the model of micro-finance, which has already delivered both water access for tens of millions and reliable returns for investors.

He called on major investors to help put an end to the water crisis before climate change makes the task even more difficult.

"All we're trying to do is get the attention of the heavy hitters to come into this space," says Damon, who co-founded the nonprofit organization Water.org in 2009. "There is so much low-hanging fruit here — and this model really, really works."

Water.org has disbursed 7.2 million loans totaling $2.6 billion, which have improved water access for 33 million people, according to its website.

'The problem contains its own solution'

Since 2002, worldwide micro-finance has grown dramatically. That year, 68 million borrowers benefitted from such loans; in 2013 that figure had risen to 211 million, according to a report released in 2015 by the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

Gary White, the CEO and co-founder of Water.org, pointed to the example of a Kenyan farmer named Alice who was paying $60 per month to a water vendor in order to nourish her crops. Instead, she took out a $20 per month loan from a Water.org partner, which will allow her to build a water tank in a well.

"Now she can pocket $40 a month and if you look at that multiplied by millions, this actually becomes an investment opportunity," says White, who noted that the rate of repayment on such loans is 99%. "If we can connect the capital markets to people like Alice, they still get immense value."

"In many ways, this problem contains its own solution if we can draw in the finance," he adds

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/matt-damon-heavy-hitters-should-invest-in-water-151805319.html