Managing what we build: the role of asset management in achieving SDG 6

Water and sanitation infrastructure is usually framed as a public service or a climate-resilience necessity, but it can also be seen as something more: a vast portfolio of long-lived public assets that societies must steward over generations.

This article was originally published on The Water Diplomat website.

As the Global Water Bankruptcy report published this week makes clear, the world has moved beyond a temporary water crisis into a structural condition in which many water systems can no longer recover to historical baselines. This reality demands a fundamental shift in how water infrastructure is planned, financed, and managed. A 2024 joint report by ten Multilateral Development Banks reinforces this picture, showing that water security investments remain inadequate, fragmented, and too often fail to translate into long-lasting infrastructure performance.

At the heart of this problem lies what the Dutch Water Authorities and their partners describe as the Build–Neglect–Rebuild (BNR) cycle. Water systems are constructed, then gradually neglected due to inadequate operations and maintenance (O&M), leading to premature deterioration and eventually costly repairs or reconstruction.

The causes are well known: weak long-term asset management strategies, insufficient funding and human resources for O&M, limited data and technical capacity, and governance arrangements that do not prioritise lifecycle performance.

The consequences extend far beyond higher long-run costs. Service disruptions undermine progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6 and erode public trust in water institutions. At the macro level, the maintenance obligation alone can be significant: World Bank estimates suggest that maintaining existing infrastructure may require annual allocations of 2.5-3.7% of GDP, depending on income level – a scale that helps explain why maintenance is often deferred when budgets tighten.

Water and sanitation infrastructure – pumping stations, levees, reservoirs, treatment plants, networks, and coastal defences – embodies enormous economic, environmental, and social value. Together with the water resources they manage, these systems form a distinctive water asset class: capital intensive, long lived, and deeply intertwined with the natural water cycle. Managing them effectively therefore requires an approach that looks beyond construction to performance, maintenance, and lifecycle value.

This article sheds light on solutions in addressing these gaps, essential if investments in water infrastructure are to deliver resilient, equitable, and sustainable services over time, particularly as the international community looks toward the 2026 UN Water Conference as a moment to reset the global water agenda.

Blue Deal Mozambique

Building versus managing infrastructure

Over the past decades, countries have poured resources into building the physical backbone of water security. These assets are essential to economic development and public health. Yet the global challenge is no longer only about what we build – it is increasingly about what we manage. A persistent imbalance sits at the heart of water infrastructure economics: capital expenditure is visible, fundable, and politically attractive – while the ongoing work of operations, maintenance and renewal is often underprovided. An OECD study on financing water points out that tariffs are frequently set below what is needed to recover the costs of operations and maintenance (O&M), and that in water supply and sanitation, capital costs account for roughly half of total service provision costs – meaning that expenditure on Operations and Maintenance (O&M) is not a marginal add-on, but a major share of the lifecycle cost of reliable service.

The Blue Deal: towards effective asset management

In 2018, the Dutch Water Authorities (DWA), together with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Infrastructure and Water Management launched the Blue Deal, an international programme working with partners in 15 countries towards clean, safe and sufficient water.

The Blue Deal’s approach to asset management covers the entire lifecycle of infrastructure assets. This requires long-term strategic planning, sustained investment, and clear choices on priorities. Similarly, this lifecycle-based approach is also embedded in the Dutch drinking water companies (VEI), Partners for Water, and VNG International, which each play a distinct but complementary role in strengthening asset management, governance systems, and the financial and institutional foundations needed for long-term infrastructure performance.

Tackling build–neglect–repair in practice: aligned interventions in Mozambique

Breaking the BNR cycle requires more than isolated projects or single actors. In Mozambique, Dutch water – and municipal organisations are working in close alignment – not under one banner, but towards a shared objective: addressing the governance, financial, and asset-management weaknesses that cause water infrastructure to deteriorate long before the end of its design life. Rather than focusing on construction alone, these efforts concentrate on the systems that allow infrastructure to function, adapt, and endure.

From building assets to managing lifecycles

A first line of intervention focuses on operation, maintenance, and asset management, as is visible through the Blue Deal Mozambique partnership with the Municipality of Beira and the Beira Autonomous Sanitation Unit (SASB). Together, they are introducing structured maintenance planning for drainage canals and reservoirs, routine inspections, and systemwide assessments of urban drainage performance. In collaboration with VNG International (VNG International – the international cooperation agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities), dedicated O&M budgets and asset-specific maintenance plans aim to ensure that more than €150 million in flood and drainage investments continue to protect Beira’s residents over their full lifecycle – rather than slipping into disrepair after initial construction.

Making O&M financially viable

Another intervention addresses a core governance bottleneck: financial sustainability. Here, VNG International focuses on strengthening local revenue systems, including tariffs and municipal taxation. Partners for Water also plays a complementary role in this financial transition. Through the Beira Land Administration System phase 2 (BLAS2) project, Partners for Water supports the development of a sustainable land administration system that provides reliable property information – a foundation for improving the municipality’s own–source revenues, particularly in the area of property tax. BLAS2 is closely linked to the Sustainable Development through improved Local Governance (SDLG) programme of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which targets the broader strengthening of Beira’s tax system.

As a result of these combined efforts, property tax revenues have increased by more than €1.6 million, with a substantial share earmarked for the operation and maintenance of water-related infrastructure. This directly links improved land administration and fiscal reform to better-performing drainage, sanitation, and water systems.

Strengthening institutions, not just infrastructure

Technical improvements are reinforced through sustained institutional strengthening. Blue Deal experts support SASB in clarifying roles, building technical capacity, and estimating realistic long-term O&M funding needs across primary, secondary, and tertiary drainage systems.

In parallel, VNG International, in coordination with RVO/Partners for Water, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Embassy, and municipal and national partners, contributes to institutional reform and alignment across levels of government.

Since 2019, VNG International has also facilitated structured round-table dialogues with national institutions, the Municipality of Beira, and international partners such as the World Bank, Invest International, the EU Delegation, and German and French development banks. These sessions, organised under the SASB-PRO project, provide a platform to jointly analyse financial and institutional bottlenecks and to develop coordinated solutions for sustainable O&M of public drainage and sanitation infrastructure in Beira. By bringing national authorities, utilities, municipal actors and donors around the same table, these round-tables help to align mandates, strengthen accountability mechanisms, and anchor local improvements within a broader national system.

A major contribution from Partners for Water is the establishment of the Plataforma de Resiliência e Educação da Água de Beira (PREAB), established in 2025 by Beira’s cooperation partners, including the Municipality, SASB, FACE (NGO), Universidade Zambeze, Instituto Industrial e Comercial da Beira, and Young Africa.

PREAB is conceived as a long-term, locally anchored mechanism for technical capacity building, knowledge management, and institutional reinforcement. Rather than functioning as a short-term project, the platform acts as a collaborative technical hub where utilities, universities, training institutes, government bodies, private sector actors, and civil society can jointly analyse problems and co-develop solutions. This consolidates operational competence and ensures that the gains achieved through infrastructure investments and revenue reforms are institutionally sustained.

Data and digitalisation as enablers of stewardship

Reliable asset management depends on knowing what exists, where it is, and in what condition. In Mozambique, VEI supports AIAS (the national Administration for Water and Sanitation Infrastructure) in transitioning to mWater, a digital asset management platform. Due to the wide variety of operators, low levels of digitalisation, and limited GIS capacity, centralized insight into the assets, connections, and operational behaviour of the systems was largely absent until recently.

In 2025, a Proof of Concept was conducted with approximately 230 connections. All main assets and customer connections were registered using GPS, linked to existing data from the Eticadata billing system. Local operators can now collect data autonomously, even offline, while providing national authorities with a consolidated overview of assets, maintenance needs, and operational risks. This data backbone is essential for planning, prioritisation, and transparency. The next step is scaling up to other systems and establishing a small GIS/mWater support unit within AIAS to ensure this is structurally secured.

Engaging communities through locally led approaches

Finally, breaking the BNR cycle requires governance reform that is locally led and socially embedded. In Beira, community-based maintenance activities supported through the Blue Deal enable local residents to take an active role in cleaning and maintaining drainage canals. These efforts reduce flood risks while strengthening local ownership, awareness, and accountability, and providing employment opportunities. Crucially, such locally led interventions connect community action to formal municipal systems, reinforcing the idea that sustainable infrastructure performance depends not only on technical expertise, but on locally anchored stewardship.

Breaking the cycle requires systemic change and changing mindsets

Breaking the BNR cycle is ultimately less about building more infrastructure and more about governing better: securing sustainable finance, managing assets over their full lifetimes, strengthening institutions, and embedding learning and adaptation into everyday practice. This cannot be achieved by any single organisation. Progress emerges when municipalities, national authorities, utilities, communities, and international partners – including Dutch Water Authorities (Blue Deal), VNG International, Partners for Water, VEI and many others – work in alignment, each addressing part of the governance, financial, technical, and social systems that underpin water services.

To enable this shift at scale, the water sector needs systemic change. Politicians and decision-makers must rethink how they talk and act about infrastructure investments, valuing longevity, reliability, and lifecycle performance as much as – or more than – new construction. A functional system that operates reliably for 25 years is a success story.

Achieving this change in narrative requires commitments to securing sustainable financing, clarifying roles and responsibilities, strengthening governance and institutional capacity and embedding knowledge, monitoring, digitalisation, and community participation into daily practice.

When these elements come together, water infrastructure can deliver the long-term value it is designed for – supporting resilient, equitable and sustainable services for generations to come.