By Lilia Burunciuc
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sun. Mar. 22, 2026: It is International Water Day today, March 22nd. Across the Caribbean, tourism, agriculture, and fisheries shape the rhythm of economic life. They support millions of livelihoods in the region. Tourism alone sustains more than 2.75 million jobs. Agriculture and fisheries provide employment for roughly 3 percent of the population and remain critical for food security, rural incomes, and coastal economies. All of this economic activity depends on a fundamental resource: water. Hotels need it to serve guests, farmers rely on it for irrigation and livestock, and fisheries depend on clean coastal waters.
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Regional Integration
Second, countries should prioritize stronger regional integration. In an archipelago of small states, technical silos lead to inefficiencies. The goal is to ensure that a breakthrough in one island becomes a shared blueprint for its neighbors. By pooling resources and expertise, the region can implement standardized solutions for leak detection and disaster recovery that would be too costly for any single island to develop alone.
Third, modernizing the water sector requires investing in people. As utilities adopt more advanced technologies and data-driven systems, the workforce must evolve as well. Strengthening education and training in environmental engineering, water resource management, and digital technologies can help prepare Caribbean workers for the skilled jobs emerging in a modern water sector.
Finally, mobilizing investment will be essential. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, achieving universal and climate-resilient water services will require an annual investment of around 3 percent of GDP through 2030, far above current spending levels. Public resources alone will not be enough to close this gap. Strengthening utility governance, improving financial sustainability, and preparing investment-ready projects can help attract greater private investment into the sector.
Transformation
The World Bank is committed to supporting this transformation. We are already supporting promising examples led by national governments, such as Barbados adopting a program-for-results financial instrument to shift the focus from infrastructure delivery to efficient service delivery, and Saint Lucia and Grenada’s commitment to water and sanitation policy reforms, which strengthen the sector’s financing, sustainability, and efficiency.
Building on these national efforts and leveraging Caribbean regional synergies, the World Bank is preparing a new regional water security program which will support countries in improving utility performance and strengthening cooperation across the region.
With governments, utilities, and regional partners already advancing practical solutions, the Caribbean is well-positioned to build stronger water and sanitation systems that support businesses, protect coastal resources, and create and secure jobs across sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and water services.
As the world marks International Water Day today, March 22, the importance of strengthening water systems that sustain Caribbean jobs and industries has never been clearer.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lilia Burunciuc is the World Bank Director for Caribbean countries. Ms. Burunciuc, a Moldovan national, is
responsible for maintaining the partnership with the countries to address their development challenges. She has extensive experience on leading policy dialogue with governments on various aspects of development.
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