The State Water Implementation Fund for Texas: Expanding water supplies and increasing drought resilience

The State Water Implementation Fund for Texas: Expanding water supplies and increasing drought resilience Posted on September 18, 2025

The Texas Legislature created the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to ensure a secure water future for Texas, and a key part of fulfilling that mission is funding water supply projects across our drought-prone state. The intent of the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT)program and the state water plan is to identify and fund projects that produce additional water supply during drought conditions.

Bryan McMath,Executive Administrator of the TWDB, says that the SWIFT program is meant "to link long-term planning with incentivized financing, enabling Texas communities to implement projects before they're needed."The SWIFT program achieves this goal by providing communities with low-interest financing, extended repayment terms, deferred repayments, and incremental repurchase terms. Over the summer, the TWDB approved more than $2.7 billion dollars in new SWIFT financial assistance commitments.

Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2013 that created the SWIFT program, resulting in an initial, one-time investment of $2 billion from the Texas Rainy Day Fund. The SWIFT program primarilyoperates through the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) and the State Water Implementation Revenue Fund for Texas (SWIRFT)-the revenue bonds that fund the program on an ongoing basis are issued through SWIRFT. Also, the program may include the issuance of general obligation bonds through the Water Development Fund.

The TWDB started providing SWIFT financial assistance in 2015, and the total amount committed to SWIFT projects is $17.2 billion, of which approximately $11.5 billion has been provided to recipients. The program is estimated to have generated an additional 2.1 million acre-feet of new water supplies and saved $1.7 billion in debt service for communities across Texas.

Who is eligible for SWIFT funding?

Financial assistance through the SWIFT program is available to any political subdivision or nonprofit water supply corporation, if its project is included in the most recently adopted state water plan. Because the program is intended to create new water supplies, projects that rehabilitate, replace, or provide for maintenance of existing water supply infrastructure are not eligible for SWIFT funding-though the TWDB has other financial assistance programsdesigned to meet those needs. Additionally, because the TWDB finances SWIFT projects through bonds, applicants receiving low-interest or deferred financing must be able to issue bonds to participate in the program.

The reason that every project receiving SWIFT funding must be a recommended strategy in the state water plan is because those projects have been vetted at the regional and state levels to ensure feasibility. Additionally, this requirement incentivizes communities to assess their long-term water supply needs and work with their regional water supply planning group to include projects as recommended strategies in the next plan.

What are SWIFT funds used for?

SWIFT program funds are used for various types of projects, including long-distance water pipelines, reservoirs, agricultural canal-lining, aquifer storage and recovery, and desalination. There's a wide range of eligible projects from smaller, six-figure projects to those that require multiple years to implement and could cost billions-and funds can be used to finance every project stage, from planning and design to land acquisition and construction.

Graham Moore is the Executive Director of the Alliance Regional Water Authority (ARWA), which serves about 200,000 people in Central Texas-including the cities of Kyle, San Marcos, and Buda. This past July, ARWA received SWIFT fundingfor a second set of projects related to its Carrizo water supply program. Over the past 10 years, these Carrizo water projects have included drilling wells, constructing a water treatment plant, a pump station, two elevated storage tanks, and 95 miles of pipelines.

According to Moore, obtaining financial assistance through the SWIFT program has been a huge benefit to the communities ARWA serves. "The lending rates through the SWIFT program are much more favorable than what we can get in any other market," says Moore, "and being able to borrow at the state's credit rating and getting subsidies below that is key to keeping utility rates as low as possible for our customers."

Charles Ortiz, District Engineer for the Laguna Madre Water District (LMWD), has had a similar experience. LMWD serves South Padre Island, Port Isabel, Laguna Heights, and Laguna Vista, and the Rio Grande is its only source of water. That's why LMWD plans to add 25,000 acre-feet of water to its portfolio via seawater desalination, and financial assistance through the SWIFT programhas been instrumental in keeping costs down for both the planning and construction of the desalination plant. "We're a relatively small district," says Ortiz, "and having cost-effective means at a state level to implement funding for such a big project has been incredibly helpful."

The communities served by ARWA and LMWD are just a few of the many beneficiaries of the SWIFT program, which is generating new water supplies and increasing drought resiliency across the state. To learn more about the SWIFT program, check out the TWDB website.

This article is posted in Water Planning/ State Project/ Financial Assistance/ Drought.