steven maseka 
EABL actively participated in sharing water conservation initiatives at the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) CEOs Forum. With the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos this week,
Comprising key global corporate leaders, the WRC is an industry-driven, CEO-led initiative of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). It aims to preserve the world’s freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins, alongside ambitious, quantifiable commitments on water.
The WRC has the ambition to achieve a positive water impact in over 100 water-stressed basins that support over 3 billion people globally. Diageo is currently prioritizing three basin champion project initiatives -Upper Tana in Kenya, Santiago Lerma in Mexico, and Godavari in India.
Group MD and CEO, Jane Karuku, shared EABL’s actions geared towards water conservation, covering investments in state-of-the-art water recovery plants in the East Africa region. EABL has invested USD 5.9 million and USD 3.3 million in Kenyan and Ugandan projects, respectively.
Her presentation also covered our investment in the WASH program, which focuses on providing safe drinking water. We have implemented close to 100 projects, providing over 2.5 million people with clean and safe water.
On collective action, Jane covered our leadership role in the Upper Tana watershed, where we have, since 2023, elevated the project to a basin champion, allocating more funding and leadership attention, with Jane becoming the project’s sponsor.
The Upper Tana watershed is among the most important in Kenya for water supplies, agricultural production, and biodiversity conservation. It is the main basin supplying 95% of Nairobi’s water, including our Tusker brewery.
It also supplies 65% of Kenya’s hydropower and touches 9 million lives, both in Nairobi and within the watershed regions covering central and eastern Kenya. Jane reiterated her passion and commitment to the initiative and is focused on expanding corporate membership of the Fund, as well as increasing funding for the project.
EABL’s commitments, well-received at the forum, are in line with the WRC’s roadmap of scaling proven solutions.
