The globe, with a still-growing population in many regions but aging waterworks in others, needs seemingly unlimited investments in water-related infrastructure in the next five years, well beyond the capacity of the public sector to raise and properly manage.

By 2030, international financiers and managers need to raise and outlay at least $7 trillion to bring drinking water to the world’s citizens, or reuse relatively clean water for agriculture and other commercial purposes, according to the World Bank at its World Water Week convention held last year.

Despite its heritage as a nonprofit lender owned by world governments, the World Bank was notably reticent regarding the ability of the public sector to raise, spend and then operationally manage such large waterworks.

Nearly “91 percent of annual spending on water comes from the public sector, including governments and state-owned enterprises, with less than 2 percent contributed by the private sector,” a