The cumulative impacts of population growth, urbanization, climate change, and industrialization are affecting the availability of the world’s water resources. Many countries are facing rising water stress and demand for freshwater—even as they confront increased discharges of contaminated water, impacting public health and the environment. Sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse is a reliable, local, and climate-positive way to efficiently manage water resources, generate clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and transform waste into value, while improving climate adaptation.
Scaling ReWater is a World Bank Group initiative to scale up the development of sustainable wastewater treatment and water reuse infrastructure in emerging economies. It is designed to unlock public and private finance through blended financing models.
Scaling ReWater’s programmatic approach helps our public and private clients overcome constraints in project preparation—including by funding the preliminary assessment of potential projects—, lower the transaction costs of individually negotiated contracts, and reduce the perceived investment and sector risks. It brings together transaction advice, standardized tender documents, balanced project agreements, and World Bank Group financial products to increase finance for project development. The approach enables rapid and cost-competitive project preparation, transaction implementation, and project financing to mobilize developers and operators.
