Public banks, public water: exploring the links in Europe

Public banks have played an important role in financing public water and sanitation services in Europe for over a century, but these activities have been largely ignored in the academic literature. This special issue is an initial corrective to this research gap, providing conceptual insights and empirical information on eight countries and regions in Europe, covering a wide range of public banks working with public water operators. This introductory article provides background rationale for the research, outlines our methodologies, frames the theoretical potentials of public banks in the water sector, highlights key findings and points to future possible research directions. Our main conclusion is that public banks have an important role to play in funding sustainable and equitable WSS in the European region, but that there is considerable scope for expansion and significant room for improvement. We begin this introduction with a summary of our theoretical understanding of what constitutes a ‘public bank’, to situate where we stand on the topic and to introduce Water International readers to what may be an unfamiliar subject matter.