ABSTRACT
The water sector is receiving heightened priority as the huge health, social, and economic costs of bad water are more widely recognized. In 1993, according to UNICEF, nearly 4 million children under the age of 5 in the developing world died from diseases caused by impure water. For growth to continue in developing countries, industry will need more clean water. Drinking water is available to a sizable segment of the population in many countries, especially in urban areas, and increasingly in rural areas as well. Treatment of wastewater that is collected lags even farther behind, sometimes dramatically so. International finance organizations, recognizing the large demands, conscious of their own limited funds, increasingly are promoting the mobilization of private capital to invest in infrastructure. The fund will invest in water treatment and purification facilities, collection systems, industrial treatment projects, and companies serving the water sector that manufacture pipes, meters, valves, pumps, and the like.
