- 2.1 billion people around the world still lack access to safe water and sanitation
- Reckitt appointed Co-Chair of the Water Resilience Coalition’s Water Investment Pathway aiming to mobilise a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio for water resilience by 2030
- Businesses and financial institutions encouraged to invest to fund more initiatives to provide access to clean water and sanitation
Slough, UK – 21 Jan 2026: Reckitt, the company behind some of the world’s most trusted health and hygiene brands, has invested $10million into WaterEquity’s Everspring Fund. The Fund aims to provide ongoing financing to financial institutions that offer water and sanitation loans to low-income communities to build or improve safe water and sanitation facilities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Access to safe water and sanitation is a human right and vital for health, equity, economic development, and climate resilience. Around $165billion is spent each year to improve water access for developing countries by NGOs as well as public and private sector organisations, yet 2.1 billion people around the world still lack access to safe water and sanitation. According to the World Bank, bridging this gap by 2030 will require an additional investment of $114billion annually.
The Everspring Fund is designed to facilitate an ever-increasing number of water, sanitation and hygiene related microloans via local financial institutions, enabling low-income households to finance taps, toilets, filters and other water, sanitation and hygiene solutions.
Providing access to safe water and sanitation will require increasing investment from more businesses and institutions. As such, the fund is structured to attract a broad spectrum of investors including corporates, foundations, development finance institutions, and large institutional investors who are interested in the possibility of good returns from philanthropic investment opportunities.
Today’s $10million commitment to the WaterEquity Everspring Fund is Reckitt’s third water impact investment and more than doubles the company’s investments in the space since 2023, bringing the total to $17.4million.
Reckitt has also been appointed as Co-Chair of the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) Investment Pathway, an initiative of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate and is focused on driving a collective effort to mobilise a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio for water resilience by 2030.
As Co-Chair of the WRC, alongside Ecolab, Reckitt will help advance innovative blended finance solutions to pool private and public capital for greater impact - accelerating water resilience where it is needed most.
Kris Licht, Reckitt Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Our investment into the WaterEquity Everspring Fund is another important step towards our aspiration to improve health, resilience and livelihoods by addressing the urgent need to improve access to safe water, a challenge we have been working on for many years. Despite the urgency, basic water provision remains profoundly underfunded but can’t be solved through philanthropy alone and increased funding is needed now. If more businesses and institutions invest in initiatives like the Everspring Fund, we have a real opportunity to deliver the meaningful change that many communities urgently need”.
The $10million investment builds on a long-standing partnership between Reckitt, Water.org, and WaterEquity. Since 2019, this collaboration has transformed how initiatives to provide access to safe water and sanitation are funded. To date, the partnership has impacted 2.7 million people across India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Kenya. The partnership uses innovative finance tools like Microfinance and Impact Investing to accelerate access to safe water and sanitation in low-income communities.
Paul O'Connell, President and CEO of WaterEquity, said:
"This investment comes at a particularly important moment as we scale the WaterEquity Everspring Fund, our evergreen investment vehicle designed to offer a reliable source of capital to financial institutions funding water and sanitation access. Through the Everspring Fund, we aim to amplify the impact of Reckitt's commitment and accelerate access to safe water and sanitation today while sustaining impact over the long term. We're grateful to the entire team at Reckitt for their vision and foresight in making this catalytic investment."
CONTACT DETAILS:
Will Hill, Reckitt
will.hill@reckitt.com
About Water.org:
Water.org is a global nonprofit organisation that pioneers market-driven solutions like WaterCredit to bring safe water and sanitation to families in need.
About WaterEquity:
WaterEquity is an asset manager dedicated to mobilizing private investment into the water and sanitation sector in emerging and frontier markets. They invest in financial institutions, enterprises and infrastructure that help deliver safe water and sanitation solutions to low-income communities, while seeking financial returns for investors.
Disclaimer: All investment has a risk of loss. There can be no assurance of any level of social or environmental impact. There is always the risk that impact investments will have a net negative impact, despite best efforts to achieve net positive impact.
About the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC):
The WRC, an initiative of the CEO Water Mandate under the UN Global Compact, unites companies to advance water stewardship and resilience through collective action and finance.
Editor’s note: Impact figures include total fund and programme outcomes; Reckitt claims a proportionate share where applicable. Projections are estimates and subject to change.
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