 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this press conference from the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum Here in snowy Davos welcome to everybody here in the room and also welcome to All of you on the live stream and of course a special welcome to everybody here on the panel For those of you here in the room if you made your way Through the snow It is probably hard to believe that water is a scarce resource. It is however and That's what we're Dedicating this press conference to today. The question is access to safe water And we have a wonderful a panel of experts and people who have dedicated their life to work on that issue of access to water Let me quickly introduce Our panelists to you to my immediate left Is Dominic Warry who's the head of public-private partnership at the World Economic Forum and it's also leading our work on climate change and water Further down the line. We are joined by by Gary White who's the co-founder and chief executive of Officer of water.org Right in the center of our panel. We're joined by Matt Damon who's also a co-founder of water.org On his immediate left. We're joined by Ricardo Tadeo who's the son president Africa of unhouser push in Beth And last but definitely not least We're joined by Usharao Monari who's the chief executive officer of the global water development partners and a long-time champion of water issues Also at the forum and on its platform. So thank you very much for being here today Dominic give us a sense of why water is an issue that the forum feels Deeply about and and why we're putting this at the center of attention here in Davos. Thank you York Welcome everyone We ran some analysis with our colleague Usharao Monari and some of you in the audience several years ago That when you look at an economy, it's a thirsty thing energy food Industrialization urbanization. These are thirsty businesses And in fact, it's so thirsty that by 2030 if we don't change the way that we use the water the fresh water That we have on this planet. There'll be a 40 percent gap for zero 40 percent gap between the water that is safely available to grow those economies and what we have So that's a choke point plain and simple We are profligret with water. We don't use it wisely Over 70% of the water we use is for agriculture. There are huge efficiency gains to be made Energy is a very thirsty business whether it's fossil fuel energy or others So if you add all this up together and we have a fast-growing global economy Particularly across emerging economies something needs to change That is why in our risk report for the past seven years and you'll see it in the global risk report for 2017 water Remains one of the top global risks at the World Economic Forum and its network of risk analysts identifies Now the trouble about water or the intriguing thing about water is it's all joined up So in fact that risk network is exacerbated by climate change Climate change might create more scarcity of water because it's warmer or it might change weather patterns It will dump water all at once So climate change and water become a double risk and Of course if you're a farmer or you're poor and you are susceptible to risk and there's no water And the climate is warming you might move Water climate and migration involuntary migration at the three top global risks of the World Economic Forum's risk report for 2017 All of that against a baseline of a world where there are over seven billion smartphones But 2.2 billion people don't have access to an adequate toilet Something is not right and something needs to change to improve the economic productivity And inclusive growth of our economy that is why the World Economic Forum is very interested in water as an issue Thank You Dominic Gary You've obviously realized the issue early on and founded water dot org What is at the heart of the foundation and and how do you see the risk? Are you optimistic are you pessimistic? Well, I am optimistic for a few different reasons. I think when we look at you know why water dot org It's it's a slice of this global water context and what we try to do is come at it from the perspective of people living in poverty So there are these macro issues and they need to be addressed from the top down And I think that there's things happening to make that make that work out But for us it's like what are those impediments to the poor getting access to to water and sanitation? And we want to have them have a level playing field so that when resources are developed when infrastructure is expanded from the top Down they have a level playing field and can come into Getting these water and sanitation solutions And I'm optimistic because if you some of the work that we've done on the global Agenda Council for water has focused on these coping costs The coping cost of people buying bottled water even very poor people Sometimes having to do that paying water vendors the health costs the direct health costs in terms of going to the doctor buying medicines But the lost time you add up all these coping costs, and it's it's it's about 670 billion dollars according to our preliminary results on this we need to do a little bit more refinement, but Those are all Funds that are in the system right now that could be redirected and what we've done is help people from the bottom up through Water credit get access to microfinance so that they can get away from some of these coping costs not pay loan sharks for funds And then use those microloans to get improved water and sanitation So I think that's really what we see we see that the problem Itself contains the problem contains its own solution in terms of the resources being there to make this happen And I think just in wrapping up one of the dominant themes. It's emerging here certainly is income inequality and I can't think of any greater manifestation of Income inequality than people not having the money to gain access to water and sanitation that juxtaposition of what we so too much take for granted at the turn of a tap that 663 million of us or two and a point two billion From the sanitation perspective don't have this basic commodity and that's how income inequality really hits home for the majority of the world's poor Thank You Gary Matt. Let's continue with you. You I imagine you have a pretty tight schedule normally So I hear from teaching pink this morning that you just came back from defending the Chinese wall. So So what's why did you throw your weight behind water? Was it beyond Gary's charm? So what was it that convinced you to to work in that water field and dedicate so much time to it? Well, I was just looking at issues of extreme poverty and I was just so impressed by how water and sanitation underpinned absolutely everything and And nobody was talking about it. It was something in the West that we have a really hard time relating to And so as I dug deeper and deeper I eventually came to the I'm trying to do this as fast as I can because I know we're on But I eventually came to the realization that I needed to partner with the the best expert I could find in the sector and and when they wouldn't take my calls. I ended up with Gary But but I should what I should do is just another minute on water credit Gary kind of breezed over it It's it's an innovation that that that came from Gary Through his time in these through his a whole adult life kind of interacting with these communities He basically realized that the extremely poor of the world were paying for water You know, they weren't they were oftentimes paying ten times more than the middle class of their country but the the concept of water credit was essentially applying the ideas of micro finance to the water sector and so the kind of thought leap that that required for these micro finance institutions was that Normally they give loans that are you know income-generating loans. You give me two hundred dollars You know and you loan me two hundred dollars I buy a sewing machine and start a sewing business and I pay back your two hundred dollars What Gary realized was that people were leaving jobs women primarily were leaving jobs to go stand in a line And collect water at a communal collection point and it was this terribly inefficient use of their time And so if you actually fronted them the money to connect to the existing infrastructure and say an urban slum in India Where where water is being piped right under their feet. They're just not connected to it What you could essentially do is buy their time back And so rather than wait at this communal collection point They now have water coming directly into their house and they can work more hours at their job and pay the Loan off with relative ease and so it was a really it seems like a simple thing But it was a pretty profound insight and so we we started piloting this and it's worked really better than we ever could have hoped I mean these loans pay back it over ninety nine percent ninety three percent of our borrowers are women and And it's something that that really can scale and is sustainable also because as these loans come back They go out again And so the philanthropic cost of capital per person just goes down every single time that loan gets recycled So right now we're down on our most mature loan programs to under five dollars per person To get them to get somebody clean water. So So it's it's been a really effective Tool of ours and we've been looking for these special Corporate partnerships to kind of turbocharge our work and that's one of the reasons we're here today to make an announcement Thank you. Thank you very much Matt. It's good to see you various Dominic pointed out that the risk are connected You're also saying there's also positive spillover effects into other areas. So that's that's great to hear Ricardo Matt mentioned the the corporate partnership And why don't you tell us a little bit about what what you're doing with water org and why you've chosen to do so It's very important to mention first that we believe that every brand needs a cause Right something really to stands for to stay behind it and For seller 12, which is one of the most iconic brands beer brands in the world where water is its most basic ingredient It was just natural that water became that cause and I think that our situation was more or less like Matt's situation I mean we start studied the problem we got into this situation when we saw that one out of ten people in the world don't have access to water and It actually was a surprise. I mean, I think awareness is something very important to drive awareness to that situation and then I think the idea was stellar to our codes Inspire people to help solve in that problem because the other important thing to mention is that this is a solvable problem It's not something that I mean will it's one of these world problems that will be there forever We can make a difference the companies can make a difference the consumers can make a difference and what stellar twice doing is trying to be a bridge for that happening and We are announcing here today the extension. We've been working together since 2015 So I mean we have helped stellar toa and its consumers has have helped More than 800,000 people have lifetime access to water and now we are expanding For more four years. We have this goal to get to 3.5 million people until 2020 so it's a very important day for us. We're here we thank a lot Mets for for the prep being being here today with us and We are very proud. I mean we are launching a new line of Chalices that can be purchased in the first year. We saw about 90,000 Chalices worldwide second year 35% this year. We're aiming for more than 300,000 Chalices every year a different set of Chalices We have Chalices that are made by artists from Brazil Cambodia Uganda very nice products So I mean we believe we're doing something big. We started In a relevant way, but still small. We are almost Three times now the size we were at the beginning and we can only think Where can we get if five years from now and we forget more companies more brands? Getting behind the same cause which is something that we are inviting everyone to take part of it Thank You Ricardo and Usha. I know you're modest, but Dominic He he snitched on you and he told me that you actually have been behind many partnerships And you have a lot of experience with these concepts of collaboration. Why don't you share with us? Kind of what's the impact and what makes that work? Thank you Absolutely, I think partnerships are what is needed in the water sector if you take a step back in water, right? And you look over the last century. It's a shocking statistic But water use increased three times faster almost than population growth That has resulted in the kind of statistic that Dominic quoted. We're looking forward by 2030 You're gonna have a 40% deficit between demand and supply That is a serious situation because water as Gary and Matt have have explained is important for life It's important for dignity but it's also important for economic growth and corporate operations and that's a fact that has escaped people that you know It water is necessary for the power sector. It's necessary for you Ricardo It's necessary for everybody, but somehow people have taken it for granted assume that it is infinite today We're unfortunately facing a situation where accessible water is not infinite And so we have to look at water as an economic good in addition to being a fundamental life-giving good I think partnerships are important in the water sector because they've never had them in the past the kind of stuff You guys are doing bringing the corporate sector in alongside possibly governments and Finance years like me is what is going to make that difference in the water sector and create the tipping point to avoid a 40% deficit future Thank You Usha We have some time for for questions So please we have a microphone on two sides of the room if I get a Show of hands to get a sense of who has questions We have a gentleman here in the front and the lady in the back So if you could state your name and organization for the sake of our online audience, please Yeah, hi, I'm Harry strail from the Swiss television You teach people. I'm sorry my questions to Matt. I'm surprised You teach people about your project also in a humor way and humoristic way Is it important for you not you know not to be showing the moral point in finger? Well, that's thank you for that question We've we've struggled with messaging in general. We've tried a lot of different things. We tried, you know Humor as you say, you know a few years ago. I went on a toilet strike for the entire year And you know, so we've really tried anything we can to get the message across one of the one of the kind of First hurdles we have to clear in the West is that it's it's just a very hard for people to relate to this If you grew up in Europe if you grew up in America, you you know You've never been thirsty in your entire life, and you've you've never been more than five meters away from a clean drink of water The water in our toilets is cleaner than the water that 663 million people have access to so it's really all it's a hard thing for us to Wrap our wrap our brains around whereas if you're fundraising for You know an AIDS awareness or cancer prevention or things like this, you know People can relate to that because they they have a family member or a friend who's been affected directly and Or they've been affected directly and so So we've really struggled I think with our messaging. It's one of the reasons we're really Grateful to have this partnership with Stella. They've they've they've done some really innovative things like for instance not beyond the chalice sales They've got this idea of in in the UK or in America if you walk into a bar and order a pint of Stella you are going to provide somebody in the developing world with clean water for a month Right now, so that's a very direct one-to-one correlation, and that's not something that we ever would have thought of so to be able to have their That apparatus and that relationship they have with their consumers and is really important to us And we have really high hopes for for where where that might go and then on the same side You know we've made this film that's gone up on the internet today and this digital Short Following this one woman going on a water collection and kind of just explaining her one specific story And how her life has changed by gaining access to clean water and it's they're just such good storytellers They're there and they've and they've done this Kind of film that's less than three minutes. That's a completely perfect kind of digestible story that really helps kind of Show the way this this issue directly affects affects the people that it affects so So our messaging I think is improving with the help of people and partnerships like this But we still have more to do and we're it's it's constantly a give-and-take as we come to forums like this and interact with the press and Talk to people You know, we're open to anybody's good ideas Thank you very much. Let's take the second question from the lady there in the back Thank you, Florencia Agiles for W radio Colombia Matt Damon. Thank you How can we explain all the interest in the in the topics like economy like sustainability like I don't know migration but the weather is not only in all this agenda of leadership How can you convince the leadership to is the to something to do something and also if you have a already The compromises of the application to your foundation. Thank you Thank you very much. Let's get the next question. Yes, please Well, I mean, I think I slightly disagree with your premise I mean, I think you know as as Dominic pointed out This has very much been on the agenda here for the last seven years And so I think there is a rising understanding of that and look the part partly that that's what we do We try to come to things like this and convene You know groups like this so that we can talk about it precisely so that we can raise awareness But I mean our work has been going better than we ever could have hoped in that in that Gary's hypothesis about these this microfinance play and how how How successful it could be was was absolutely correct And and and now we're just looking for ways to turbo charge that work and and and I think this partnership is a great Example of that. Let's hear from the other panelists. What what else is missing that we that we can add to do more to raise more awareness I Was just going to say that you know, I agree with Matt You know, there is a lot of awareness on the part of leaders I think Dominic mentioned the water resources group that the forum has backed And has sponsored over the last what? Four or five years that has really brought the issue up to leaders today We had a session earlier today where the prime ministers of various countries gathered to talk about how important water was as a Development agenda issue for them So I think it's getting up there alongside some of the other more popular issues. Yeah Excuse me. Could you use the microphone of your friends on the live stream? Well, otherwise, sorry When can we see the the results of the results when you see the results? Well, well the aim for this particular partnership is three and a half million people by 2020 But we've you know, hopefully you're gonna just see the results for in terms of water.org. It's it's ongoing I mean to date we've reached 5.3 million people with these solutions and so You know when we were in India a few years ago We asked our microfinance partners to identify the biggest bottlenecks from their perspective and what they all reported back to us Uniformly was affordable access to capital and so they felt like there was a massive demand And we could be doing much more. So for us it became waste. We started troubleshooting. How do we deploy more loans? How could how do we get? Get them the access that they need and we came up with this idea of water equity Which was to try to tap social impact investors and and and start to build a fund which we did We did the first fund which was 11 million dollars and we've deployed that and now we're doing a second fund at 50 And we're trying to bring in big banks We're trying to be going hide net worth individuals and and people and target a 3% return But but the but the real impact of the investment will be obviously the on the social side Can I add something I also think that leaders are attracted for things that work, right? People wants to see things that really work And I think that the fact that we started at 15 with a yearly contract reaching 800,000 people in two years and now we are moving for a long-term commitment. I think that shows that we are doing something that's Doing good for the brand It's doing good for lots of people and hopefully that example can be a model for many other brands many other leaders to follow And I think you know we share the vision with Stella that we can be the generation that solves this water crisis and We need to come up with with new ways of thinking about it This is really I think what the partnership has been built on is innovation of water org So being the organization that innovated water equity as a new as a new approach because we need to Bring water to people today and we're doing that through this Stella partnership But we also have to look over the horizon because we're we're you know Realistic enough to know that even water credit isn't the solution for you know the two and a half billion people Say without sanitation in the 663 million without water. We need new ways of thinking about this So we're always looking over the horizon with water org to figure out that next innovation And that is what's going to tie this back together with us being the generation that can end the water crisis Always looking at new partnerships new ways of doing this Social impact investing as Matt mentioned is coming on so strong now And we feel like we're positioned to drive a lot of investment capital to this because it's such a Basic solution to such a basic problem and it's bankable We're providing a financial return as well as a huge social return And then to your point also about how do we bring in more people into this? And how does we get more attention? We want to democratize that and create a platform this year That will allow anybody to come in and make a loan into water equity so that people can get Safe water in addition to the large-scale investors that have come in to this point for the first one You're you're talking just a second I think Dominic wants to add something just just to just to build on that I mean you are welcome in here at the World Economic Forum in in in Davos and you know that this is a platform for public Private cooperation, and it's not a better topic Water that illustrates the power of that collaboration as you just heard across the panel You know we have partnerships will get us to over 500 different partners across multiple countries You have government leaders who recognize the economic kind of weakness that poor water quality presents And you have wonderful innovative partnerships with water.org and companies and brands like stellar as well as many other Companies and brands who are working on those on those partnerships. So here at the forum This is exactly the kind of platform where you can bring together the public and the private and the civil society Organizations to drive that systemic change at scale. That's what we aim to do in these few days Thank you So the gentleman in the back and then the two ladies here in the front So my name is my name is Tobias Bossers from Swiss television You're talking about awareness which increases on the leader for all these problems, but now we have to change perhaps in in the States so Matt Damon what do you personally think about the presidency of Donald Trump and could it perhaps have some changes to environmental aspects and things like that because the awareness of that one is not so high with him I can imagine there's a big interest to hear that it's a bit of an off-topic question So Matt if I don't know no, it's fine We don't know really what his relationship to foreign aid is there was a slightly alarming article in the New York Times a couple days ago that Laid out kind of the the type of questions that came from his transition team to the State Department in terms of aid to Africa That was a little worrisome But I don't know. I mean, I don't know him. I've never met him personally. I don't I Don't know what his relationship is with the developing world. I don't know if he's been to the developing world No, I'm serious. I mean his interest is in high-end hotels and golf courses and that's his business interest takes him to First world places I think and so I don't know how much interest or Time he's really spent in the developing world engaging with these issues And so I think you have to give him the benefit of the doubt and and you know You know at a certain point our work isn't dependent on the political kind of you know wins and and and we just have to keep Doing the work that we're doing and you know president Clinton said to us a few years ago, you know as it was clear that our method was very successful He said just keep running your numbers up keep running your numbers up because he was just pointing out that we just gained Credibility with the more people that we're reaching and so that's what we're here today to talk about really with this this great partnership with Stella and in terms of what President-elect Trump's relationship is to foreign aid. I think we're gonna have to wait and see So a time for two more questions Gunilla, please Hi, my name is Gunilla phone. I am a Swedish journalist once got uploaded my question is to miss the dammel I'd like you to explain to me what access to things like clean water and toilets will make for the economic and social Development in poor countries and can you give me some concrete examples of? Changes concrete changes that your work has led to in these countries so the very first person that I ever went on a water collection with this is ten years ago, I was in rural Zambia and This girl was about 14 years old and we walked together I was waiting for her when she came home from school and We walked about a mile to this well that was about a mile from her home and we collected water together and I talked to her about Well everything we had quite a bit of time to talk and And when I got to the topic of what she was gonna do with her life You know and would she continue to live in her village She she smiled and said no no no. I'm not gonna live here. I'm gonna move to the big city I'm going to Lusaka and I'm gonna become a nurse And I just really connected with her because I remembered being 14 and saying to Ben Affleck We're gonna move to the big city of New York and become actors And I remember what that feeling was and and and what that age was like in that kind of world of possibility That's out laid out in front of you and and as I drove away I was struck by the fact that had someone not had the foresight to sink this borewell a mile from her home This girl would not be in school. She would be spending her entire day scavenging for water for her family and She wouldn't be dreaming about moving to the big city and someday contributing to the economic engine of Zambia In fact, she'd just be in this death spiral of poverty where she was scavenging for water and trying to survive from one day to the next And so leaving aside the really horrible You know, you know a horrifying Death, you know every 90 seconds of child dies because they lack access to clean water or sanitation leaving that giant issue aside There's this whole other issue of what kind of life somebody can expect if they don't have access to water versus what kind of life They can expect if they do have access to clean water and sanitation. So So I think when we think of you know 3.5 million people that we want to reach together Those are 3.5 million of those very stories because that's a story you see repeated over and over again I remember we were in Haiti together probably five or six years ago and a little girl I asked her, you know, how this water system that we've been put in her village was gonna change her life She had been spending four hours a day collecting water And I said is this gonna give you more time to study and she looked at me She was 13 years old and she looked at me and said, you know, I don't need more time to study I'm the smartest girl in my class and the way she said it I knew she was telling me the truth, you know And so I said well, well, then what are you gonna do hot shot with all this extra time? And she looked me right in the eyes and she said I'm gonna play And it just it didn't really Got to me because I had a 13 year old at the time and just this idea that she hadn't been afforded the The childhood right to play because she'd been so busy scavenging for water and now this was gonna give her that opportunity So there's you know, so hopefully, you know, we're by 20 20 will create Through Stella three and a half more million of those stories and that's that's a big deal for us Thank you. Okay, let's take the last please a short question because we're already running over time Sure, my name is Farah Bouchouac. I work for France 24 Just a really quick question and observation really when I saw Stella Ottawa with what is a dot org? I thought it's greenwashing. I was wondering why a company like yours who uses so much water There's so much waste to make beer. So Why did you get involved in how far actually are you planning to be involved? I'm sorry if you think it's please don't suggest that company should stop making beer. Just selfishly, please don't ever I think it's a great question and thanks for Actually water is a great part in terms of our our footprint. We take very good care of water We have some very important global commitments We've been decreasing the usage of water by 50% in the last five years And we are in this process of exactly defining the new goals for the following years Especially I mean I'm in Africa We used to 3.4 liters of water for each layer of beer We want to reduce by next year to 3.2 which is already a very good progress I think this part of Some other points are being discussed here about all the companies trying to reduce their water footprint And I would say that it's not only in our facilities, but also in our clients Educating the people who work with with beverages and beer to in restaurants and bars to make sure that they treat Water very well. I mean there's lots of learnings and and education panels and efforts that we do in that effort So this is something big for us. I mean as you said Every time we build a new brewery. We have to make sure that we have access to to excellent water So that's exactly why we're here and that's exactly why Stellar twice is here. I think that's We have the power to dream right so We are pretty confident that we are going to reach to this 3.5 million of these great stories that we've we've heard Here today, I think they're quite inspiring and I'm really very happy for being part of this for representing a company that is part of this and I mean We talked about 600 million we are aiming for 3.5 million in three to four years Perhaps we could double this if we could get more 50 Companies a hundred companies doing the same things for definitely we know that there are in many different categories Brands that could be part of that effort to join forces with us. We could solve this problem Right and and that's what you're here for. We're not here just to To be a drop in an ocean, but really a constant force and drive for for changing this for good Thank you Ricardo and thank you to all the panelists here today. Thank you for joining us Go and write stories about this because it is important and there is still awareness to be raised There's still not more to be done. Thank you for being here and thank you for watching