How to Build Strong Water Infrastructure Cases

In the water sector, funding is redefining how major infrastructure decisions are made.

Because water corporations are institutionalised, the experience of the people at the helm are often relied upon too much to make complex decisions. Pursuing funding for infrastructure forces water corporations to justify their underlying case for investment more thoroughly so it holds up to greater scrutiny. Funding decisions must pass by boards, often regulators, central agencies, communities, and Traditional Owners. That scrutiny is intensifying, not easing.

This is the focus of discussion that Grantus will be contributing to at AWA Connected by Water 2026, where our founder Simon, is presenting on funding water infrastructure in ways that empower communities, respect Country, and enable long-term growth.

Funding is not the decision

Funding is often treated as the decision moment. It’s not, it is a consequence.

Before funding bodies engage, the same questions should already be occurring internally:

• What problem are we actually solving?
• Why does it matter now?
• What public value will change; for communities, for Country, and for the system as a whole?
• What trade-offs are being made, and are they explicit?
• Can this be delivered under real constraints?
• Is this a prudent investment?

If these questions are weakly answered, you will simply not receive funding, the consequence for a poorly justified investment for greater public outcomes.

Where cases unravel under scrutiny

Across water infrastructure portfolios, the same failure points recur:

• Public value is asserted but not evidenced, particularly for non-financial outcomes.
• Community and Country considerations are acknowledged late, rather than shaping the logic from the start.
• Options are narrowed too early, limiting defensibility when challenged.
• Project governance is assumed rather than demonstrated.

By the time these issues surface formally, momentum is already built and rework becomes costly, slow, and reputationally risky.

Decision discipline creates speed

There is a persistent myth that stronger decision discipline slows projects down. In practice, the opposite is true.

When the decision logic is clear early; including value, trade offs, risk, and deliverability, downstream work accelerates. Teams spend less time revisiting fundamentals and more time executing with confidence.

Speed comes from removing or understanding risks, before scrutiny begins.