Water and sanitation infrastructure is chronically underfunded because the revenue models are broken. Water utilities in developing countries charge far below cost recovery rates — partly because water is culturally viewed as a human right with no price, partly because political systems cannot withstand the demand shocks of cost-reflective pricing.

Meanwhile, capital for infrastructure renewal comes from government budgets perpetually squeezed by competing demands. The result: systems deteriorate, health outcomes worsen, and the problem compounds. A child dies every minute from preventable water/sanitation disease in a world with more than enough capital and technology to prevent it.