Between December 2023 and January 2026, the European Investment Bank signed four loans to German water bodies worth EUR 1,357.5 million in total. They back programmes in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and the Emscher-Lippe region whose published total costs come to about EUR 2,989 million. The EIB says it has lent more than EUR 3.3 billion for water investment in Germany over the past ten years.
Who borrowed
Berliner Wasserbetriebe signed EUR 400 million on 18 December 2023 for a 2023–2027 programme costed at about EUR 978 million. Hamburger Stadtentwässerung followed with EUR 300 million on 11 July 2024, against about EUR 696 million of sewer, pumping and treatment works. Cologne's wastewater utility took EUR 157.5 million on 31 July 2024. The Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband signed EUR 500 million in tranches in November 2025 and January 2026 for river restoration, dykes and pumping stations. A fifth loan, EUR 215 million proposed for the OOWV association in Lower Saxony, was approved by the EIB on 29 September 2026 but not yet signed.
Why utilities borrow
German water is paid for mainly through customer charges. A study for the municipal utilities association VKU puts the need at about EUR 40 billion a year to 2044, against about EUR 10 billion invested now. Water and wastewater are not among the nine federal investment areas of the EUR 500 billion infrastructure fund.
Money is not the only limit
Hamburg's wastewater company invested EUR 142.6 million in 2025 against a plan of EUR 193 million, citing construction-market capacity. Costs are moving too: Hessenwasser's new Ried trunk main has doubled from EUR 100 million to about EUR 200 million, and Lake Constance's EUR 4.6 billion Zukunftsquelle includes EUR 2.4 billion of price escalation and financing costs.
Which projects are funded, at what stage, who owns them and what will decide the next wave of contracts are set out in the full brief. The full report, Water Infrastructure Investment and Project Pipeline in Germany, is available for USD 249. For a free overview, see Germany Country Snapshot.