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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.