CASE STUDY 19 World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) WRG is a leading accelerator of water finance, mobilizing investment by bringing together governments, private sector actors and civil society for defined programmes and projects at the national, sub-national and city levels. Its own operations are supported by bilateral donors, foundations and corporate partners, with WRG playing a catalytic role in unlocking much larger financing flows from public budgets, DFIs and private capital. It does so by fostering conditions to enable private sector innovation, expertise and capital mobilization in the water sector, ranging from the creation of fit-for-purpose policies, regulations and standards, to supporting the design of public-private partnerships and innovative financing mechanisms. For example, in the Ganga basin in India, WRG co-developed a hybrid annuity PPP model for municipal wastewater plants, which has already mobilized $1.5 billion in contracts with private sector participation. In Mongolia, WRG’s development of a new water pollution fee regulation, coupled with wastewater reuse standards, unlocked $98 million for a water recycling plant in Ulaanbaatar.49 CASE STUDY 20 European Investment Bank (EIB) Water Resilience Programme To operationalize the EU Water Resilience Strategy, EIB has launched a Water Resilience Programme with more than €40 billion planned for 2025-27. The initiative combines a wide range of instruments: loans (framework loans for governments, intermediated loans for small and medium- sized enterprises and utilities), equity (venture debt for early- stage water-tech and infrastructure/environmental funds), and guarantees (credit enhancement for project finance and portfolio guarantees for SMEs and mid-caps). Alongside finance, EIB provides advisory services for project preparation, capacity building and regulatory reforms. Co-financing can reach 75% of project costs for high-priority climate projects. By blending direct lending with de-risking tools and equity support, the programme seeks to crowd in private capital and scale investment in desalination, wastewater reuse, pollution control and nature-based solutions.50Public funds should back private capital and be used strategically to unlock it and bolster investment demand. Governments and national and multilateral development banks can close the viability gap through targeted financial instruments that lower risk and improve bankability. For early- stage solutions, such as nature-based solutions, concessional loans or first-loss guarantees can help validate financial feasibility and attract co-investors. More mature and proven technologies, such as wastewater reuse or desalination, often benefit from sovereign guarantees or blended finance structures. Meanwhile, tax credits and consumer rebates can stimulate adoption of water- efficient technologies, such as leakage detection or decentralized water reuse, helping build financing demand.Strategic public capital Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook 33

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