FAB backs water finance drive

First Abu Dhabi Bank has entered a strategic partnership with Water. org and WaterEquity, placing capital behind an impact fund aimed at expanding access to safe water and sanitation across emerging markets.

The Abu Dhabi lender has invested in the WaterEquity Everspring Fund, an open-ended vehicle designed to channel private capital into financial institutions and enterprises that serve low-income households and small businesses needing affordable water and sanitation finance. The partnership makes FAB the first commercial financial institution in the Middle East and North Africa to work with both Water. org and WaterEquity through a direct investment vehicle.

The arrangement was announced ahead of World Environment Day and comes as water security becomes a larger focus for banks, development finance institutions and policy makers preparing for the UN Water Conference, which the UAE and Senegal are due to co-host in Abu Dhabi from December 8 to 10, 2026. The conference is intended to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6, which calls for clean water and sanitation for all.

FAB said the partnership would establish a platform for continued collaboration with Water. org and WaterEquity, using market-based financing tools rather than grant funding alone. The bank has also committed to direct any gains from its investment towards furthering Water. org’s mission, reinforcing the philanthropic element of a transaction structured around investable capital.

Hana Al Rostamani, Group Chief Executive Officer at FAB, said water is central to economic resilience, sustainable growth and long-term stability. She said the partnership brings together capital and expertise to support scalable solutions that advance water security and create value for communities and economies.

Water. org, co-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, has built its model around small, affordable loans that enable families to pay for household water connections, toilets, storage systems and other basic infrastructure. The organisation says more than 88 million people have gained access to safe water or sanitation through its work, with $7.7bn in capital mobilised through partners and 19.5 million loans disbursed.

WaterEquity, created by Water. org to mobilise private investment, directs capital into financial institutions, enterprises and infrastructure linked to water and sanitation in emerging and frontier markets. Since 2016, it has raised more than $485m in committed investment capital and helped improve access to safe water or sanitation for more than 9.7 million people.

The Everspring Fund is structured as a perpetual source of capital for borrowers in the sector, rather than a fixed-term fund that winds down after a defined investment period. Its design reflects a wider shift in impact investing, where institutional and corporate investors are seeking vehicles that can combine measurable social outcomes with financial return expectations.

The need for new financing remains acute. About 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, while 3.4 billion are without safely managed sanitation. Global coverage has improved over the past decade, but progress remains uneven, particularly across rural communities, fragile states and low-income urban settlements where basic infrastructure has failed to keep pace with population growth.

FAB’s move broadens its sustainable finance agenda beyond energy transition and carbon reduction into nature-linked and social infrastructure finance. The bank has committed to lend, invest and facilitate more than AED500bn in sustainable and transition finance by 2030, after increasing an earlier AED275.4bn target. Its sustainability profile also includes a blue bond issuance and disclosure work linked to nature-related financial risks.

For the UAE, the deal sits alongside a wider national focus on water resilience, including the Mohammed bin Zayed Water Initiative and preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference. Abu Dhabi has positioned itself as a centre for climate and sustainability finance, seeking to use public policy, sovereign capital and private-sector balance sheets to support projects beyond the Gulf region.

The partnership also points to growing competition among banks to demonstrate credible impact beyond conventional green financing. Water and sanitation projects often sit at the intersection of climate adaptation, public health, gender equality and economic productivity, but they have historically attracted less private investment than renewable energy or transport infrastructure.