This week, rare cross‑party consensus was reached in Westminster - and it was one seeped in disappointment for Britain’s new aid strategy.

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In a new report on the future of UK aid, MPs warned that the government’s new approach has “significant gaps” and “lacks clarity”, as vital projects are shut down with no clear plan for what follows.

One of the first casualties was WASH4Health, a flagship clean water and health programme cut with only three months’ notice. This dismantled trusted partnerships that were strengthening systems across six low-income countries: the very kind of long-term, sustainable development models the Foreign Office is claiming to champion.

I therefore join MPs in questioning what evidence and tangible results are underpinning the UK’s new aid strategy? Made in the name of security, these rushed and reckless cuts are achieving the opposite - undermining safety at home and abroad.

In a turbulent world, access to clean water is one thing we need to be certain on. Everything starts with water: health, childbirth, education, climate resilience, and gender empowerment. And yet, more than one in four people worldwide still lack access to clean water, contributing to the deaths of over 1,000 children every day.

These are not abstract statistics; they represent daily tragedies that ripple through families and communities. The moral case is obvious - but so is the economic one.

Water scarcity already threatens a quarter of global GDP. Infections developed in healthcare settings cost the NHS at least £2.1 billion a year. Without action, these figures could worsen dramatically, with global GDP projected to fall by up to 8 per cent by 2050 due to water shortages.

The evidence is clear: water is foundational to economic growth. Around 1.7 billion jobs depend on water, and every £1 invested in climate-resilient water and public health systems generates multiple times that amount in economic benefits through improved healthcare, increased productivity, and stronger community resilience.

New polling shows the UK public consistently ranks clean water, sanitation and hygiene as the top priority for UK aid spending – finance that supports the local delivery and maintenance of water projects in schools and health centres, as well as flood resilience and drought management.

At a time when trust in international leadership is fragile, aligning policy with both public opinion and proven impact should be an obvious choice.

Yet, already cut to a mere 1 per cent of bilateral aid, UK government funding for water, sanitation and hygiene is sinking to a new low, precisely as the global water crisis intensifies due to climate change, rapid urbanisation, conflict and rising demand.

With the world increasingly aligned on prioritising water through new initiatives like the World Bank's Water Forward, the UK risks being left behind.

In this context, cutting this funding is not just short-sighted or a human tragedy; it is an economic failure, actively working against the UK’s own development goals and the values it seeks to project on the world stage.

If the UK is serious about value for money in aid, then backing water isn’t optional - it’s one of the smartest investments we can make.

Tim Wainwright is Chief Executive of WaterAid UK.

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