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The water and wastewater pipes between the public network and the home — the connection assets inside new developments, precincts and growing cities. Not a big-RAB network but a connections business (a NAV): build and adopt the network, then earn a regulated charge on every connection, for decades. Pick a real operator below and follow it through the development, the model and a working returns model.
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Drag the sliders to see what earns the money — the count of connections, the regulated charge on each, and how fully the development has filled, not the water volume.
Last-mile water is the connection layer — the mains, sewers and connection assets between the public water and wastewater network and the home. The business is unusual and attractive: the developer typically funds most of the build (through connection charges or a contribution), so the operator's net capital per connection is small. In return it earns a recurring, regulated per-connection charge on every plot — often capped at the incumbent's level and indexed to inflation — for the life of the asset. The engine is therefore the count of connections and how fast they fill, not how much water flows. It scales: every new development, precinct or district adopted adds another long, indexed annuity at very little net capital.
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See also Water & wastewater — the regulated network the last mile connects to — and the Cash-flow & DCF model.