Here we underscore some of the overlooked headlines in regions worldwide that show the strong spending momentum in water-related projects. Funding flows are substantial in scope involving multi-decade, multi-billion investments spent on solutions across the water value chain.
Italy – Storms and wastewater driving investments
Severe rainfall and floods are becoming chronic for regions throughout Italy. The city of Bologna and the province of Ravenna in its Emilia-Romagna region were the latest hit with extensive flood damage because of severe storms. In response to a series of storms the last striking in September 2024, regional authorities are investing EUR 1.2 billion for over 100 projects that will repair networks as well as build storm water infrastructure to prevent future floods and damage. Projects include raising river embankments, enlarging overflow tanks and canals and installing bulkheads in rivers. 1
Figure 1 – Construction sites in Emilia-Romagna
Source: Il Post, February 2025. Il nuovo piano dell’Emilia-Romagna contro le alluvioni.
In other regions, heatwaves and droughts are exacerbating another of Italy’s chronic problems – water scarcity. To help alleviate supply strains, the national government has allocated EUR 600 million to modernize sanitation systems which should allow more wastewater to be used to satisfy industrial water demand.2
The township of Calvisano in the northern region of Brescia illustrates how communities are putting those funds to work. They are nearing completion of an EUR 81 million wastewater treatment plant to purify and reuse water for crop irrigation and industry.3 In addition to adding more wastewater plants, over the next five years, another EUR 321 million will be used to add more distribution mains as well as install smart metering systems to reduce water loss.
Switzerland – Preparing for climate extremes
The city of Zurich, Switzerland’s most populous city, is investing EUR 186 million to redirect storm water from the Sihl River which flows through its center to Lake Zurich on its eastern edge. The project, which includes the construction of a 2 km long tunnel, is designed to minimize catastrophic flash flooding, the economic toll of which could extend well beyond EUR 7 billion.4,5
Figure 2 – Under the Sihl
Computer modeling (left) and building site (right) of an underground tunnel that will channel storm waters from the Sihl River to Lake Zurich. Source: City of Zurich, Water Projects. February 2025.
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Zurich’s city officials deemed the investments necessary despite the relatively low risk for a flood of this magnitude (estimated at once every 500 years). However, IPCC scientists warn that climate change is wreaking havoc on weather systems, making once rare events more frequent and intense.
Germany – H₂0 meets AI
The city of Dresden in eastern Germany is investing EUR 630 million to secure water supplies for Europe’s largest semiconductor cluster through 2038.6 The Silicon Saxony region is expected to double (and possibly triple) its water demand in the coming decades with consumption increases from market-leading chip makers such as Infineon, GlobalFoundries, Bosch and X-Fab. The region’s wastewater volumes are expected to rise 240% with the addition of a multi-billion euro wafer fab from the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), a joint venture between Taiwan’s TSMC and several other European-based chip manufacturers.7
Investments will go toward capturing, cleaning and channeling surface waters from the nearby River Elbe for use by industrial users. It will also involve intensive wastewater treatment so that the majority (80-90%) of water withdrawn can be safely returned to the Elbe.8 Those include an 11km long discharge canal, new aeration basins, a blower station for biological waste treatment as well as new digestors and clarifiers for sludge treatment.9
Figure 3 – The complexity of wastewater treatment
Examples of wastewater aeration tanks, with and without wastewater. Wastewater treatment involves multiple steps involving many types of technical infrastructure. Source: Wastewater Digest, SA Five Engineering, Veolia, February 2025.
France – In the avant-garde against PFAS
The Île-de-France region in north-central France is going on the offensive against micropollutants. SEDIF (Syndicat des Eaux d’Île-de-France), the standard-setting water utility for the Paris region, is investing EUR 1 billion on advanced purification systems that remove micropollutants such as PFAS from tap water supplies. The new technique will combine nano-filtration and low-pressure reverse osmosis and will be capable of catching particles that are 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.10
Figure 4 – Conventional to sophisticated water treatment
Conventional water treatment (micro-filtration membranes, left) can capture larger macro particles from water supplies. More sophisticated filtration is needed to remove increasingly complex industrial pollutants (nano-filtration, right). Source: Lubron UK. March 2025.
PFAS levels have been a contentious issue worldwide after decades of research have shown them to be toxic to humans and the environment. For Parisians, the problem hit close to home when unusually high concentration levels were found in tap water samples. 11 The new purification technology will be installed in two water treatment plants in Val-de-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis, with upgrades made to a third in Mery-sur-Oise all of which serve Paris and surrounding regions. All facilities should be fully operational by 2032.12
PFAS are a family of chemicals still widely used across industries. However, rising concentrations in waterways and soils are concerning scientists, regulators and citizens. SEDIF will use the results from these plants to later deploy advanced techniques to remove PFAS at utility scales among its industrial manufacturers. 13
England and Wales – Addressing water woes with investment flows
England’s swelling water problems have pushed Ofwat, the national water regulator, to allow record levels of spending to improve water infrastructure. The Asset Management Plan 8 (AMP8), published in December 2024, enables utilities to invest a combined EUR 126 billion (GBP 104 billion) in water projects over the next five years. That’s a 76% increase over AMP7, its predecessor covering 2020-2025.14
Figure 5 – Ofwat’s unprecedented investment plans
Regions of planned water infrastructure investments. Source: Ofwat, Price Determinations Report, 2024.
1 GBP = 1.21EUR, Bank of England exchange rate as of 31 December 2024
Chronic underinvestment in infrastructure and maintenance has resulted in a system that leaks up to 1 trillion liters of water each year (about a fifth of treated water supplies). 15 Moreover, extended summer heatwaves in 2022 and 2023 drained half of England’s reservoirs to exceptionally low levels and left London with just three and half weeks of water storage. 16,17 The plan enables new reservoirs, which can store rainwater and runoff in wet periods to alleviate water shortages in dry ones, to be built, something that hasn’t happened in three decades. 18
Conclusion
Regional investments not only demonstrate the geographic but also the sectoral diversity captured by Robeco’s Sustainable Water strategy. It enjoys strong exposure to the vast universe of companies furnishing industrial-scale infrastructure and also benefits from the growth of chips and data centers that undergird the digital economy of the future. New structural drivers are also emerging that provide new areas of growth, such as mitigating the risks of climate change and reducing the threats of emerging contaminants in water supplies.
Such breadth and depth make the strategy a nearly ‘water-tight’ investment opportunity for the long-term.
Important note: The companies cited in this article are for illustrative purposes only to demonstrate the investment strategy as of 28 February 2025. The companies are not necessarily held by the strategy. Moreover, no inference can be made on the future development of the company.
Footnotes
1 Il Post, February 2025. Il nuovo piano dell'Emilia-Romagna contro le alluvioni.
2 Italian Government, Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Investments in sewerage and sanitation.
3 La Repubblica, March 2025. A2A inaugura il depuratore di Calvisano: pilastro di un maxi-piano da 81 milioni per l’acqua.
4 175 mm CHF, converted using Swiss National Bank exchange rate of EUR = 0.94 CHF 4 March 2025.
5 Canton of Zurich, Relief Tunnel. Accessed February 2025. Entlastungsstollen Sihl-Zürichsee | Kanton Zürich.
6 Zeitung für kommunale Wirtschaft, October 2023. Neues Abwasserbeseitigungskonzept für Dresden bis 2038.
7 Global Construction Review, August 2024. ESMC represents a joint venture between Taiwan’s TSMC (which has a 70% stake), German firms Bosch and Infineon, and the Netherland’s NXP Semiconductors, each with 10% ownership. The plant will also receive EUR 5 billion in state aid.
8 Silicon Saxony website, September 2023. New river waterworks on the Elbe decouples water supply for industry and population.
9 Ibid.
10 Les Echos, December 2024. Le puissant Syndicat des eaux d'Ile-de-France investit un milliard dans ses usines.
11 RFI, January 2025. Tap water in French cities contaminated by toxic forever chemicals.
12 L’Eau, L’Industrie, Les Nuisances, February 2025. Le Sedif met en service des pilotes de filtration membranaire haute performance - La Revue EIN.
13 Ibid.
14 Ofwat, Final Price Review Report, December 2024.
15 Financial Times, August 2023. Parts of England at risk of running out of water…
16 Ibid.
17 Financial Times, September 2023. The UK is at risk of running low on water. Why?
18 Ibid.
Important information
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