- At World Water Week 2025 in Stockholm, FEMSA Foundation reaffirms its commitment to safe, equitable, and sustainable access to water and sanitation in Latin America.
- Through various initiatives, FEMSA Foundation seeks to strengthen climate resilience and transform water management in the region.
- At this important forum, the Foundation will share projects that combine innovation, collective action, and nature-based solutions, such as water funds.
Stockholm, Sweden, August 25, 2025. – As part of World Water Week 2025, which takes place from today (August 24) to August 28 in Stockholm, FEMSA Foundation will reaffirm its commitment to safe, equitable, and sustainable access to water and sanitation in Latin America, under this year’s theme: “Water for Climate Action.”
In the Focus on the Americas program, a space coordinated by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) that brings together the voices of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in the global conversation on water security, FEMSA Foundation will share projects that combine innovation, collective action, and nature-based solutions to address the region’s most pressing water and climate challenges, in addition to announcing its goals.
“At FEMSA Foundation, we envision a Latin America where all people have safe, equitable, and sustainable access to water and sanitation, as a foundation for shared prosperity. We recognize the current challenges of the climate, political, and social environment, and we are aware that we need to redouble our efforts in a very precise and strategic manner. The region has no time to waste, and at FEMSA, we are willing to continue supporting and investing in ambitious and transformative projects in a fair and environmentally responsible manner,” said Carlos Hurtado, Water Security Manager at the FEMSA Foundation.
World Water Week is the most important global forum for discussing water. Since 1991, it has brought together experts, leaders, and representatives from different sectors and countries in Stockholm each year, with a common goal: to find solutions to the major challenges we face, such as poverty, the climate crisis, and biodiversity loss.
LAC faces growing climate vulnerability: more than 90% of natural disasters are climate- and water-related (IDB, 2024). Climate change has tripled the frequency of these events in the last 50 years. This vulnerability demands agile, adaptive, and contextualized responses, which can only be achieved through collective action and innovation. In this context, cross-sector alliances are essential, Hurtado stated.
“We need to significantly rethink most social, environmental, and economic models and institutions to adapt to social and environmental challenges; no one can solve the problem alone. We need to find agile and adaptive ways to collaborate to evolve in an accelerated, fair, and environmentally responsible manner.”
FEMSA Foundation has promoted collective action and innovation by joining projects such as the Latin American Water Funds Alliance, a regional multi-sector alliance also comprised of the Inter-American Development Bank (BID), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Climate Initiative (IKI). This alliance, which has brought together 26 water funds for 14 years, has carried out various field interventions to improve water security conditions on more than 565,000 hectares, directly benefiting more than 137,000 families.
Another example is Lazos de Agua (Water Ties), a multi-sector alliance that connects communities, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to facilitate access to sustainable and safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services through an innovative approach that places the community at the center of change. During its first six years of implementation, it has impacted more than 235,000 people in 412 rural and/or peri-urban communities in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Paraguay.
Focus on the Americas
This year’s Focus on the Americas program will focus on the link between climate change and water management in LAC, not only from the perspective of the challenges it poses to the region, but also from the perspective of the opportunities it creates and the lessons it can offer other regions.
Between 2000 and 2019, more than 150 million people in LAC were affected by 1,205 natural disasters, including 548 floods, 330 storms, 74 droughts, 66 landslides, and 50 extreme heat events. Furthermore, between 2020 and 2022, 88% of the 175 events that affected the region were climatic, atmospheric, or hydrological in nature.
Given this scenario, collaborative work, best practices, innovative mechanisms, and successful interventions are required for better adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability in the water sector in the face of climate change.
The first activity of the Focus on the Americas program will take place tomorrow (August 25). In a Live Talk Show format, Hurtado, along with BID representatives such as Marcello Basani, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist, and Carlos Estevez, Water Coordinator at the Chilean Ministry of Public Works, will discuss the challenges and opportunities in the LAC region.
See the full World Water Week program at this link: http://bit.ly/3UteiLp
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About FEMSA
FEMSA is a company that creates economic and social value through companies and institutions and strives to be the best employer and neighbor to the communities in which it operates. It participates in the retail industry through a Proximity Americas Division operating OXXO, a small-format store chain, and other related retail formats, and Proximity Europe which includes Valora, our European retail unit which operates convenience and foodvenience formats. In the retail industry it also participates though a Health Division, which includes drugstores and related activities; and Spin, which includes Spin by OXXO and Spin Premia, among other digital financial services initiatives. In the beverage industry, it participates through Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world by volume. FEMSA also participates in the logistics and distribution industry through its Strategic Business Unit, which additionally provides point-of-sale refrigeration and plastic solutions to its business units and third-party clients. Across its business units, FEMSA has more than 380,000 employees in 18 countries. FEMSA is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability MILA Pacific Alliance, the FTSE4Good Emerging Index and the Mexican Stock Exchange Sustainability Index: S&P/BMV Total México ESG, among other indexes that evaluate its sustainability performance.
About FEMSA Foundation
At FEMSA Foundation we cultivate prosperity for this and future generations, which is why we focus on four causes that we consider levers of change for our present and future: Early Childhood, Art and Culture, Circular Economy and Water Security.
For more information, visit: www.fundacionfemsa.org or follow us on our social networks FB, IG, TW (@FundacionFEMSA) and LI (/Fundación-FEMSA)
