Policy enablers, inspired from international best practices and OECD Principles on Water Governance,33 aim to boost utility efficiency, promote water conservation, implement effective water pricing and enhance the bankability of investments, ultimately attracting more private capital. Developing a clear, time-bound vision for water is the critical first step in setting and aligning a country’s water-related opportunities with climate, economic and social objectives. This vision should outline quantitative, time-bound targets and industry minimum performance indicators for water resilience, from wastewater reuse to leakage rates. The vision and related strategy should also include a pipeline of nationally significant water projects, guiding public spending and catalysing private investment.National or regional water vision and resilience strategy3.1 Policy CASE STUDY 12 The 2020 Brazilian new sanitation framework In 2020, Brazil introduced the New Sanitation Framework to shape a new, national vision for sanitation and address structural deficiencies in water and wastewater services. The reform liberalized the sector through competitive bidding, set binding universal water and sanitation coverage targets for 2033, strengthened the regulatory authority of the National Water Agency and promoted the formation of regional blocs of municipalities to reduce fragmentation. BNDES, Brazil’s national development bank, plays a major role in the implementation of the strategy by providing local councils with contractual frameworks for concession auctions, offering public guarantees to financial institutions and co-financing PPPs. Between 2020 and Q3 2025, Brazil mobilized close to $50 billion, of which more than $36 billion was private investment.34 During this period, the length of the drinking water and sanitation networks increased by 21% and 16%, respectively.35 By 2025, 23 of 26 federal entities had grouped their local concessions and roughly a third of the municipalities had awarded the service to a private actor. Drawing from success stories, effective water sector transformation can be guided by three complementary approaches: end-user policies, incentives and subsidies, and pricing mechanisms. End-user policies can encourage water users, ranging from households to industrial clusters, to adopt more sustainable practices. These may include water abstraction and discharge limits, water efficiency labelling for consumer products, corporate disclosure requirements on water use and adoption of circular practices. Incentives and subsidies can be adapted to promote sustainable water management, infrastructure upgrades and adoption of new technologies. Repurposing currently inefficient subsidies to promote sustainable water management, infrastructure upgrades and technological adoption can enhance service levels and operational efficiency – critical elements for increasing bankability and creditworthiness of water investments. Pricing instruments, such as tariffs, and abstraction and discharge fees, are essential to reflect the true value of water. The challenge is to design rate structures that reflect the true cost of service delivery, including infrastructure, environmental and consumption factors. While the specific design will vary by region and context, effective pricing strengthens conservation and efficiency efforts while ensuring cost recovery. Without adequate pricing, new water sources such as reuse or rainwater harvesting cannot compete with underpriced conventional supply, limiting their potential to scale sustainably.36Water resilience policies and pricing Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook 28

Bridging the %E2%82%AC6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap A Playbook 2025