Many cities in the United States are facing challenges in funding their infrastructure. A significant population decline has reduced utility revenues due to fewer ratepayers.
As a result, the remaining residents will have to bear the costs of maintaining and operating the infrastructure.
A 2016 study by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows the locations of mid-size cities with populations of 50,000 to 99,999 and large US cities with populations of 100,000 or greater that have experienced population decline from the 1980s to 2010, facing economic distress with higher poverty and unemployment rates than cities with growing populations.
The ten midsize and large cities GAO studied reflected what other cities across the states need: major infrastructure repairs, improvements, and replacements in their wastewater and sewer infrastructure. These infrastructure repairs and improvements have implications for the sanitation and health of the residents and the environment.
However, the utilities that GAO reviewed experienced a decline in revenues. To address affordability concerns, these utilities developed strategies to help customers pay their bills, such as payment plans agreed between customers and the utilities, and also implemented a rightsizing system to ensure infrastructure fits current demand.
This includes reducing treatment capacity or decommissioning water or sewer lines in vacant areas, and considering the use of green infrastructure to enhance onsite infiltration and control stormwater that can lead to sewer overflows.
Overall, the report shows that significant population decline in many midsize and large cities across the United States reduces utility revenues, making it hard to address their water infrastructure needs.
The 2016 report showed that water and wastewater utilities across the United States will need approximately $655 billion over the next 20 years to maintain, upgrade, or replace aging and deteriorating infrastructure.
Three examples of US cities facing shrinking populations and how this has adversely impacted their water infrastructure are Flint, Detroit, and Jackson.
Flint’s automobile industry bust has shrunk its population from nearly 200,000 in 1960 to just more than 80,000 in 2020. The majority of the remaining population was Black, and 33% are in poverty.
The city’s deteriorating water infrastructure, already weakened by the economic collapse, was further strained when it switched its drinking water source from treated Lake Michigan water to the Flint River and decided to treat the water at its own treatment plant.
However, the water from the Flint River was more corrosive, causing lead from aging service lines and plumbing to dissolve into the drinking water.
Soon, residents complained about discolored, foul-smelling water coming from their taps. Elevated lead levels were found in many homes, with children particularly vulnerable because lead exposure can affect brain development, learning, and behavior.
The city also had a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak linked to its water supply. The disease killed 12 people and sickened at least 87 people between June 2014 and October 2015.
The Flint water crisis is often used as an example of how population decline, economic downturn, aging infrastructure, and regulatory failures interact, making infrastructure management and maintenance difficult and resulting in catastrophic outcomes.
The cities of Detroit and Jackson also share some common infrastructure challenges with Flint. Both have aging water systems, declining revenues, and a history of deferred maintenance.
Detroit maintains extensive infrastructure built when its population was nearly three times what it is today. Jackson operates aging treatment plants, pumps, and distribution networks that have suffered from years of underinvestment.
In Detroit, maintaining its large asset base- roads, water pipes, sewers, and streetlights that were built for a much larger city is expensive with its current and smaller population.
Jackson experienced recurring water outages and treatment plant failures, leading to a major crisis in 2022 when more than 150,000 residents were left without reliable access to safe drinking water.
New Zealand’s Infrastructure Challenges
How are the infrastructure challenges of US cities cited above related to New Zealand’s, a small country in the southern hemisphere?
An article, “The Infrastructure NZ Can’t Afford to Keep”, compares New Zealand’s large network of assets – roads, water pipes, utilities, and public assets- which is challenging for its small population and economy to pay for and maintain.
It suggests that the country needs to reassess its infrastructure, identifying what is essential and what is not, especially those elements that no longer fulfill their original purpose and might need to be decommissioned now.
“We’ve got massive challenges with infrastructure. Our assets are old and deteriorating, so there’s a significant need for replacement, especially in the water sector.
There’s also massive demand growth, which is, for the size of our economy, quite a big challenge”, says Dr. Theuns Henning, an associate professor in engineering and design at the University of Auckland and team leader at Climate Adaptation Platform.
Talking about the current state and challenges of New Zealand’s infrastructure, Dr Henning points out that New Zealand’s challenges are similar to Flint’s: its small population and low city density make it costly to maintain infrastructure, especially amid aging assets and growing climate risks.
New Zealand’s infrastructure has expanded over the decades, and in rural areas, infrastructure is often much larger than communities can sustainably maintain and renew.
Another problem is that politicians are often incentivized to build new infrastructure – they receive publicity, while maintaining existing infrastructure is less noticeable. This results in deferred maintenance that persists over time.
As New Zealand cities and communities face the growing risks of extreme events that make infrastructure and exposed populations vulnerable, Henning highlights four ways to address these risks.
- First, by avoiding it through the relocation of homes and infrastructure.
- Second, by accepting risk, particularly when it is low, people can learn to live with it.
- Third, by controlling risk through engineering solutions such as sea walls, flood controls, and stronger infrastructure; and
- Fourth, by transferring risk to insurance companies. However, he notes that insurance may become unavailable or unaffordable in high-risk areas, making this option less reliable in the future.
Henning also gives some insight into how to make decisions in the face of deep uncertainty, and his answer is somewhat surprising yet makes a lot of sense.
He said that delaying actions can sometimes be the best decision. Uncertainty and waiting may yield better information, reduce uncertainty, prevent costly mistakes, and enable more targeted investments later.
Sources
Water Infrastructure: Information on Selected Midsize and Large Cities with Declining Populations. (2016, September 15). GAO. Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-785?utm
White, R. (2026, April 6). The infrastructure NZ can’t afford to keep. Newsroom. Retrieved from https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/06/the-infrastructure-nz-cant-afford-to-keep/
Sadler, R., Koo, H., Allamy, B., & McElmurry, S. (2025, April 2). Assessing the impact of rightsizing drinking water infrastructure system in Flint, Michigan. PLOS Water. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pwat.0000277&utm
Jackson’s Water Crisis Offers Lessons for Cities With Aging Infrastructure. (2026). Yale School of the Environment. Retrieved from https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/jacksons-water-crisis-offers-lessons-cities-aging-infrastructure
Segregation and White Flight in Detroit. (2024, May 8). Story Maps. Retrieved from https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/12b84ab10e734e72b59beac8df64c903
Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know. (2025, July 1). NRDC. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know
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