Closing the €6.5 trillion global water infrastructure investment gap by 2040 would generate profound socio-economic benefits. Insights from a socio- economic impact model developed for this paper indicate that such an effort could enable €17.4 trillion in additional economic output, €8.4 trillion in gross value added (GVA), a proxy for GDP , and support the creation of more than 206 million full-time jobs worldwide by 2040. Annually, these figures translate into the creation of about 14 million new jobs, equal to an additional 1% to the global workforce. 1.2 Socio-economic impact assessment Socio-economic impacts of the global water infrastructure gap FIGURE 2 €6.5 trillion Investment gap compared to current spending Direct impacts Indirect impacts through supply chains Induced impacts from households’ additional spending€17.4 trillion Output value generated€8.4 trillion GVA generated206 million FTE* Employment activated 2.7x Output per € invested1.3x GVA per € invested31.8x Jobs per million € investedAnnual GDP generated €757 billion/year Annual jobs activated €13.7 million FTE*/year6.5 (37%) 3.0 (35%)88 (34%)6.9 (40%)3.3 (39%)73 (35%)4.0 (23%) 2.2 (26%)45 (22%) Source: Acea Research & Studies analysis on OECD’s ICIO tables. *Full-time equivalent The results highlight the scale of the multiplier effects that can be gained from investment in water infrastructure. Globally, the socio-economic multiplier of considered investments is estimated at 2.7 in terms of output, of which 1.3 is captured as GDP. In practical terms, this means that every euro invested in closing the water infrastructure gap generates €2.70 of economic activity, including €1.30 of GDP . The employment effect is equally significant: for every €1 billion invested in water infrastructure, approximately 32,000 full-time jobs are created. These high multipliers can be explained by considering the pervasive nature of the sector’s supply chains. Water infrastructure projects draw on, and benefit, a wide range of industries, from construction and engineering to manufacturing, digital technologies and professional services, creating extensive indirect and induced effects across the economy. Even as a stand-alone sector, thus including operational expenditure (opex) as well as capital expenditure (capex), the water infrastructure investment multipliers can deliver superior socio- economic returns in comparison to those of other infrastructure sectors. In fact, water tops the rankings of economic and GDP multipliers, respectively equal to 2.3 and 1.2 per dollar invested, above energy (2.2x), transport (2.2x) and telecommunications (2.07x). In terms of employment generation per million euro of capital expenditure, water (24.7x) is second only to transport (25.2x), and superior to telecommunications (16.7x) and energy (11.7x).Socio- economic returns Stand- alone sectors1Economic multiplier (output/€)GDP multiplier (gross value added/€)Employment multiplier (jobs/€ million) Water Energy ICT2 Transport2.2x 2.1x 2.2x1.0x 1.1x 1.1x2.3x 1.2x 24.7x 11.7x 16.7x 25.2x Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook 10

Bridging the 6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap A Playbook 2025