Current trends in private financing of water and sanitation in Asia and the Pacific

The present paper shows the current trends in private sector investment in the water and sanitation sector. After peaking in 2007, private investment in the water and sanitation sector has been volatile. The decline in private investment has also been accompanied by a shift in the type and size of investments taking place. Post-2007, private investment is increasingly concentrated in a few large and wealthy countries and municipalities; and are bankrolled and developed by smaller, regional-based investors. This is especially worrying for low-income countries, which stand to benefit the most from private investment, but have been receiving less than 1 per cent of the total project allocations in the sector. The huge financing gap requires more innovative financing that can only come by attracting private sector capital to improve water and sanitation services in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for the least developed and low-income emerging economies.