Developing Framework for Alternative Funding Options in Water Infrastructure Projects

Matt Nafziger,Dan Koo

doi:10.4236/jbcpr.2015.31004

Abstract

The United States is facing a crisis in which less financial resources are available to maintain the quality and to meet increasing demand of our water infrastructure system. Water utility owners across the nation are faced with the incredible challenge of finding ways to invest because of limited government funding, from local to federal levels. The funding gap between available and necessary funds has been increasing and expected to increase in the future. With government unable to provide adequate funding, water utility owners should consider alternative funding sources such as private partnerships and investment. There are many key aspects of an effective funding strategy for water utility owners to achieve successful water infrastructure planning and development. This paper presents various funding alternatives and provides a framework for utilizing alternative funding in water infrastructure planning and development to help alleviate funding gaps while simultaneously encouraging future sustainability in public water infrastructure.

Highlights

The crisis of declining infrastructure is prevalent throughout numerous types of infrastructure, and emphasis usually gets placed on those in the public’s view on a daily basis, and water infrastructure is often overlooked.How to cite this paper: Nafziger, M. and Koo, D. (2015) Developing Framework for Alternative Funding Options in Water Infrastructure Projects
The survey asked utilities how they interpreted their customer’s views on water rates. They found that 68.5% of ratepayers likely have little understanding of the water infrastructure funding gap, and that almost half (48.3%) of customers would “probably” be willing to pay increased rates to support the capital spending needed for improvement
This paper presents various funding alternatives and provides a framework for utilizing alternative funding in water infrastructure planning and development to help alleviate funding gaps while simultaneously encouraging future sustainability in public water infrastructure

Summary

Introduction

The crisis of declining infrastructure is prevalent throughout numerous types of infrastructure, and emphasis usually gets placed on those in the public’s view on a daily basis, and water infrastructure is often overlooked. The survey asked utilities how they interpreted their customer’s views on water rates They found that 68.5% of ratepayers likely have little understanding of the water infrastructure funding gap, and that almost half (48.3%) of customers would “probably” be willing to pay increased rates to support the capital spending needed for improvement. This paper presents various funding alternatives and provides a framework for utilizing alternative funding in water infrastructure planning and development to help alleviate funding gaps while simultaneously encouraging future sustainability in public water infrastructure This can be done by looking at sources of funding currently being most utilized and exploring the benefits of private funding, while showing the different ways it can be implemented

Current Funding Sources

Public Private Partnerships

Framework of PPP Models

Findings

Conclusion