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not only good faith, but good management. For instance, use public funding to put a project on firm ground during initial development. Public funding might help pay for lining up all environmental clear- ances beforehand or for initial plans and permits. In the long run, this distributed approach helps create stronger relationships with investors. Spread ROI Across Asset Life Cycle: More and more, owners consider the total life cycle of their assets to create a more sustainable approach to return on investment (ROI) over time. This helps make the case that responsibly investing more up front can provide better long-term value for the project. Resilience Matters: After learning the importance of flood resilience the hard way, cities hit by Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and others made sure that rebuilding specs included designs that anticipate future storms and floods. For example, ARCADIS helped the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant in Nassau County, NY, secure $810 million in funding from FEMA and the State of New York for repair and improvement. As a result of these improvements, Nassau County will be able to pay for restoring the wastewater treatment facility damaged by Hurricane Sandy. But more importantly, since the county's new state-of-the-art flood mitigation is designed to a 500-year storm level, its improved storm-resiliency aspects can engender a perception with private inves- tors that their investments will be comparatively safer than those in competing projects that are yet to achieve similar resiliency protection. If the facility needs any work in the future, investment in resiliency would help put the project to the top of investors' lists. For many municipalities, bringing in private investment or creating public-private partnerships may be new, unknown territory. But look at it this way: Just as utilities are asking investors to see the promise of a project, public leaders need to have faith that the time invested in learning to tap new funding sources will pay off. Similarly, making the case to ratepayers and taxpayers isn't that different. As stakeholders, they need to be con- vinced that they are getting return on their investment. Putting together the pitch with investment in mind will go a long way to creating a more sustainable program for financing water infrastructure. wateronline.com ■ Water Innovations INFRASTRUCTUREFUNDING 9 Manju Chandrasekhar is a vice president at ARCADIS in New York, where his responsibilities include leading business development and client-relationship management activities of the firm's financial institution clients across the Americas. Manju leads ARCADIS' efforts to establish itself in an advisory capacity at the executive level, with a focus on financiers, developers, owners, and operators of infrastructure and real estate assets. About The Author