The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, D.C., announced a joint investment of $12.7 million in the Water and Development Alliance (WADA), the firm’s joint partnership. The new investment will support eight new three-year programs in Angola, Burundi, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

The WADA program works with local partners in each country to address local water challenges. Its program focuses on watershed management, water supply and sanitation, hygiene promotion and productive water use. The three-year initiatives represent a shift toward longer term efforts and exemplify each organization’s shared commitment to lasting, sustainable solutions to global water challenges, they said.

“We recognize that no single organization can solve the global water crisis, but by partnering with organizations like USAID we can make a positive difference in the lives of the people in need of safe water and sanitation,” said William Asiko, president of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, in a statement.

Since 2005, the alliance has helped more than 300,000 people gain access to sustainable sources of water, it reported. With this new investment, USAID and Coca-Cola will have committed a total of $28.1 million since 2005 to support 32 projects in 22 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. More than 1 billion people live without access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people have no access to basic sanitation, the companies said.