Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to integrate water, sanitation and hygiene into the UK’s international (a) climate adaptation and (b) resilience programmes.

The Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office's (FCDO) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) portfolio contributes to building climate resilient systems and supporting adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Since 2020 we have supported governments to establish climate resilient and sustainable WASH services, providing technical assistance and other support to low-income countries.

Through our WASH Systems for Health programme we are working with UNICEF, NGOs such as WaterAid and countries including Bangladesh, Malawi, Madagascar, Pakistan and Nepal to make systems more climate-resilient.

We also support the World Bank to accelerate the Water Security and Climate Adaptation Global Challenge Programme, driving reform and attracting private finance to strengthen climate adaptation and resilience, and we are supporting the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation and other development organisations to embed water into national climate plans through the Water Resilience Tracker.