The founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, pledged $100 million to fund a new foundation that will help provide fresh water to the world's poorest countries.

Laliberte unveiled the new One Drop Foundation in Montreal on Monday, saying it will improve access to water, ensure food security and promote gender equality in communities around the world.

"No one can remain indifferent when we know that at least every eight seconds, a child dies from a disease caused by drinking contaminated water," Laliberte said in a statement.

With Laliberte at the announcement was Prince Albert of Monaco. His environmental group joined with One Drop after he befriended Laliberte after meeting him at a show in Monaco.

"Water issues transcend the boundaries of countries and affect the whole of humanity," Prince Albert stated. "This is a major challenge of this century and it is essential that organizations throughout the world come together in a global movement of solidarity to ensure the preservation and better management of a resource that is both irreplaceable and fundamental to life."

Gord Nixon, Royal Bank of Canada's chief executive and Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, are also part of the foundation.

The Royal Bank of Canada has pledged $10 million towards the project, whose first order of business was to provide Oxfam with $4.5 million to fund filtration systems and family farms in Nicaragua.

Laliberte will give $4 million for 25 years to the One Drop Foundation to fund projects to rebuild water wells and provide drinking water in poor countries.

"At Cirque we like to be inspired. The symbolic of water -- source of life -- is very inspirational when you want to think about a humanitarian cause," he told CTV News.

The founder of the Montreal-based circus said over a billion people do not have access to water in sufficient quantity or adequate quality and that almost half of the world's population drinks untreated water.

With a report from CTV Montreal's Christine Long