Funding A Water Secure Future

The World Bank's groundbreaking new report, "Funding a Water-Secure Future: An Assessment of Public Spending," quantifies for the first time how much governments spend on water and the size of the financing and funding gaps that must close to meet people's needs.

Full Report  I  Executive Summary

* Translations coming soon

Annual spending on water is $164.6 billion in developing countries, which amounts to roughly 0.5 percent of their GDP. While roughly 91 percent of the annual spending on water above comes from the public sector, including public spending by the government and the SOEs; only less than 2 percent comes from the private sector. Countries need to increase their spending in the WSS subsector by US$131.4 to US$140.8 billion annually—almost tripling current expenditure levels.

This global average, however, masks the stark heterogeneity across different regions and country groups. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia face the largest spending gaps. The report identifies critical weaknesses in the sector, such as low budget execution rates and inefficiencies. To bridge these gaps and attract private investment, the report emphasizes the necessity for governments to enhance spending efficiency, catalyzing long term financing, and reforming the water sector towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals for water access by 2030.

To overcome all these deficits, Funding a Water-Secure Future underscores the importance of governments spending more and better. These and other measures outlined in the report will go a long way toward achieving a more water-secure future that the world needs. Key recommendations include:

Increase budget execution rates through enhancing the sector’s absorptive capacity by reforming public investment management and public financial management.

Raise the productivity of public spending in the sector by improving efficiency at various levels.

Reduce the inefficiencies of water service providers by prioritizing cost-effective utility operations and improving investment planning for infrastructure development and technology upgrades.

Minimize disparities in access to water services by targeting investments and water subsidies to poorer and rural communities.

Catalyze the flow of long-term private and international finance by using risk-pooling arrangements, public sector guarantees, and catalytic capital to invest more, and more often, in water resources.

Implement reforms including improving cost recovery and demand management; developing government capacity and human capital; and strengthening data access, transparency, and communications.

Interactive Story  I  Blog  

Welcome to our new dashboard on water sector spending, an interactive tool designed to visualize the key findings from the groundbreaking World Bank report, "Funding a Water-Secure Future: An Assessment of Global Public Spending."

This dashboard provides policymakers, development practitioners, and stakeholders with a comprehensive view of global public spending in the water sector to support better-informed decision making to tackle water security challenges. It is the first publicly available database documenting global public spending on water, spanning subsectors such as water supply and sanitation (WSS), irrigation, water transportation, and hydropower, where data is available.

Key data—including annual spending, funding requirements, financing gaps, budget execution rates, and total factor productivity highlights the current funding landscape in the water sector, revealing significant weaknesses that demand attention. The dashboard’s interactive features enable users to examine government expenditure on water while tracking progress towards Sustainable Development Goals 6.1 and 6.2. Additionally, it allows for comparisons between public spending on water and sanitation services (WSS) and allocations for health, education, and military sectors.

We invite you to explore the data, leverage the insights, and join us in working towards a future where water security is a reality for all.

Dashboard on Water Sector Spending