U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Pledges U.S. Government Support to End Water Poverty in Developing Countries

World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Secretary Clinton sign a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding and commit to collaborate to bring more water and sanitation to more people; Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company pledge to accelerate momentum.

In her first public appearance since returning from Paris, Egypt and Tunisia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was clear and compelling in her remarks Tuesday commemorating World Water Day 2011. Joining with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and key philanthropic and corporate leaders, the Secretary called for a comprehensive response to the global water and sanitation crisis.

“We’re always juggling the urgent and the important. Often, the urgent can swallow up everything else. We need to keep our eye on the long-term and the important, as well,” the Secretary said. “We know that for hundreds of millions of people today, water represents a deadly threat. The risks they face in finding water, hauling it, drinking it, cooking and bathing with it, add up to the defining challenge of  their lives. There is nothing more urgent and important than that.”

Convening at the “Water for the Future” event at the World Bank Headquarters, dozens of U.S. Government and World Bank leaders joined to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Government and World Bank, as well as new commitments to solve the global safe drinking water and sanitation crisis made by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company. The MOU enables the World Bank to work with 17 different U.S. Government agencies to solve the world’s water and sanitation crisis, which the Secretary described as “a critical issue that cuts across every single part of development that one can imagine.”

“The water crisis can bring people together. In fact, on water issues, cooperation, not conflict, is and can be the rule,” said the Secretary. “So let’s get about the business of working together — creatively, collaboratively and quickly — to make a difference, to make our contribution to solving the water crisis and to bring greater health and stability to more of the world’s people.”