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Résumé : Water infrastructure faces a global financing gap, yet the mechanisms through which water pricing influences investment mobilization remain undertheorized. Existing research treats water pricing as a cost-recovery tool rather than a policy signal capable of shaping investor expectations and fiscal behavior, leaving the transmission pathways from pricing adjustments to financing outcomes unexplored. This study proposes a “dual-pathway transmission mechanism” model that conceptualizes water price adjustments as investment signals operating through two parallel channels: the returns expectation pathway and the fiscal substitution pathway. Using data from the Shanxi Provincial Water Network Project (2006–2023), the model is tested empirically using system GMM estimation and Interpretive Structural Modeling. Results reveal that each 1 RMB/ton increase in water intake price stimulates a 16.3% increase in financing scale. ISM confirms a three-tier hierarchical structure of influencing factors — deep-rooted factors (water price level, regional economic scale, water supply-demand imbalance), mediating transmission factors (projected returns, fiscal pressure), and surface-level decision factors (social capital participation, financing costs) — and validates the two parallel transmission pathways. This study extends water pricing research beyond the traditional cost-recovery paradigm by theorizing price adjustments as policy signals, offering practical guidance for water-scarce regions confronting financing challenges. While the empirical analysis is based on the Chinese case, the dual-path transmission mechanism is theoretically generalizable to other water-scarce regions with similar institutional and market characteristics, subject to localized calibration based on each country’s regulatory independence, fiscal constraints, and capital market development.