Capital expenditure on crucial water infrastructure projects in the U.S. has been cut back by 12.9% over the past few months due to restraints on borrowing, shrinking tax bases and a drop in capital contributions from property developers, according to the recently released Water Market USA report by the editors at the British monthly publication Global Water Intelligence (GWI).
The long-term market for water infrastructure upgrade and rehabilitation remains strong, the report noted, with capital expenditure expected to grow from $25.2 billion in 2009 to $49.7 billion in 2016. According to GWI, the largest area of investment will be in sewer network rehabilitation, which will attract a total of $46 billion over the next eight years. The fastest-growing market will be seawater desalination, which represented a comparatively small capital expenditure of $130 million in 2008 but, driven by major water shortages, will grow to more than $1 billion by 2015.
Source: Environmental Business Journal, GWI
