Water Resilience Coalition: Wilo calls for the implementation of “a real water revolution”
Multinational water technology group signs public appeal
Dortmund/New York. The Wilo Group is calling for water resilience measures to be implemented more rapidly. Together with numerous other global market leaders, the water technology group has signed the “Business Leaders’ Open Call to Accelerate Action on Water”. The public appeal was initiated by the Water Resilience Coalition of the CEO Water Mandate, an initiative founded by the UN Secretary-General and the UN Global Compact.
“Now is the time for a real water revolution!” says Oliver Hermes. The President & Global CEO of the Wilo Group has long been calling for a new approach to the water crisis; in 2024, for example, he wrote an essay published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Hermes continues to explain that the challenges have been known for a long time, but now it is finally time to act. “With this appeal, however, we don’t just want to make demands – we want to renew our commitment. Working in partnership, we will do everything we can to increase water resilience worldwide. We are consistently working towards this through our overarching sustainability strategy: our goal to provide better access to clean water for 200 million people by 2030.”
With WATER AI – another key element of Wilo’s strategy – the Group is bringing this vision into the digital & AI age. “With our sustainable water technology, we are enabling the AI value chain,” says Oliver Hermes. Wilo is also embedding AI in its products, systems and solutions and integrating AI into daily work, all without losing sight of the value of people. “This people-centred approach makes technology a driver of corporate sustainability, especially when it comes to dealing with the worsening water crisis.”
The Water Resilience Coalition of the CEO Water Mandate is an industry-led initiative to tackle the global water crisis. The “Business Leaders’ Open Call to Accelerate Action on Water” calls on companies, governments and civil society to rethink how this is done. By signing the appeal, various companies in addition to Wilo, such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft, are committing to partnership-based cooperation and sustainable water management, among other things.
The global water crisis is becoming increasingly acute. Today, more than 2 billion people already have no access to a safe drinking water supply and around 4 billion experience acute water shortages for at least one month a year. The consequences of this are more far-reaching than just the water supply: poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions are responsible for around 80 per cent of all diseases in developing countries. Every day, over 1,000 children under the age of five worldwide will die from diseases that have been caused by contaminated water, poor hygiene and a lack of sanitation.
