Securing Water for People, Food, and the Planet
2025 marked the conclusion of a strategic plan for 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG), focused on responding to the growing impact of environmental risks to water security, economies, and development outcomes. The 2025 Annual Report presents results and activities from the year, highlighting progress across country engagements, accelerator programs, and efforts to strengthen how water sector investments are planned, financed, and delivered.
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The report also closes out the 2023-2025 strategic plan, bringing together outcomes and lessons from actions to translate growing water risk into practical, investable solutions. These lessons now inform the next strategic phase, as WRG prepares to deepen and scale its work under the 2026-2030 strategy.
Looking ahead, WRG remains committed to supporting countries to advance water security by mobilizing private-sector innovation and investment across three thematic priorities: Water for People, Water for Food, and Water for Planet—where the need, and the opportunity to scale, are greatest.
Key Achievements
In 2025, India verified large-scale adoption of micro-irrigation across 180,000 hectares in Uttar Pradesh for 145,000 farmers, alongside 122,000 hectares of direct-seeded rice, improving water efficiency, reducing emissions, and strengthening productivity.
Bangladesh progressed a blended-finance PPP for wastewater treatment in Gazipur, securing $40 million in public funding and identifying around $45 million in potential private investment to serve fast-growing industrial zones.
Kenya and South Africa advanced innovative, results-based approaches—moving performance-based NRW contracts toward procurement in Kenya and progressing the region’s first water-focused outcome bond for invasive species clearing in South Africa.
Kazakhstan launched its $26.3 billion Water Sector Modernization Reform, supported by WRG and the World Bank through a national roadmap to strengthen service delivery, accelerate digitalization, and scale water-sector financing.
Ethiopia advanced the Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) through the adoption of Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) Implementation Guidelines, supported by pilot tools and private-sector-readiness workshops to enable replication and scale.
Across 2023-2025, WRG supported up to $370 million in water-related investment, contributing to $1.6 billion mobilized since inception, while embedding six scalable models with governments that align policy, institutions, digital systems, and finance to support national programs.