The European Investment Bank in the water sector: financing water supply, sanitation and flood protection

The EIB has been the largest source of loan financing to the global water sector to date as compared with other international financing institutions. In the five-year period 2007 to 2011, EIB direct lending to water-related projects, excluding hydropower and irrigation, reached EUR 16.1bn, of which 88% was for schemes in the Member States of the European Union. A total of 158 major water supply, sanitation and flood protection projects were financed during this period, most of which were located within EU 27 countries.