Providing safe water and sanitation to the 2 billion people currently without access requires an estimated $600 billion annually in new investment over the next 10 years. Current spending is approximately $300 billion per year.

The gap persists not because the technologies are unproven or expensive — piped water and modern sanitation are 19th-century technology — but because the political economy of water utilities in LMICs makes cost recovery impossible without pricing people out of access.

Water is treated as an infinite free public good by users and an orphaned infrastructure item by governments, leaving utilities unable to invest in maintenance, let alone expansion.