White House Releases Water Security Action Plan

Last week, the White House announced an Action Plan to address global water security. The Plan announces actions to improve water security both domestically and internationally. In the recent announcement, the White House highlights the use of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase drought resilience, noting that the Drought Resilience Interagency Working Group, co-led by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, has worked to coordinate Drought Resilience funding across the Federal family to provide targeted support to drought-stricken communities and build American communities’ resilience to worsening drought conditions caused by climate change, outlined further in the one-year summary report. 

Some highlights from the Action Plan include:

• Build capacity for local water management institutions, service providers, and local communities;
• Strengthen water, sanitation, and hygiene service providers’ technical abilities to plan for climate change and implement measures such as delivery efficiency, leak detection, water and energy conservation, customer engagement, and demand forecasting;
• Using data to identify at-risk areas for water security (flooding, drought, etc.); and
• Providing technical assistance to develop water plans at the local and national level.