Water is something that obeys no man-made boundaries or expectations. Many utilities in the USA have faced less-than-adequate reports on their infrastructure over the past couple of years.
The water infrastructure is aging quickly. It needs constant repair and upkeep and innovations to meet climate change requirements and changing populations.
But yet, in the United States, in most cases, water infrastructure has not been managed at a national level nor a state level.
Sarah Fecht, of the Earth Institute at Colombia University, mentioned in her article, “America’s water infrastructure is failing—but here’s how we could start to fix it” the following:
“Water is very good at ignoring municipal boundaries, so one town’s water use or pollutant dumping can affect other cities or states that rely on the same water supply. That’s why many countries—including, the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Mexico—have a national water authority or commission that oversees water management across the country. Not so for the U.S.
“In the U.S., we’re exactly the opposite,” said Hubert Fleming, head of Global Water Management at Anglo Saxon. Instead, he said, the nation’s water is managed by “58,000 municipalities, every single one of them doing their own thing.” That makes it difficult to initiate and complete more ambitious, regional projects.
“We have a Department of Energy at the federal cabinet position—what’s wrong with a Department of Water?” asks Fleming. “I would argue that water is as significant is as significant in this country as energy is. “
A good point is being made here. If water infrastructure were considered at a national level and systems were put in place. Hence, neighboring municipalities worked together and knew what was happening within their area, things could be more easily coordinated and managed.
This type of water infrastructure management is worth considering going forward in this growing era of instant communication and connectivity.
PHOTO CREDIT: The California Aqueduct by The original uploader was Triddle at English Wikipedia. – Transferred from en.Wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3972453
[…] However, even though the climate is a major contributing factor to the constant state of drought in the Western US, it is by no means the only contributing factor and potentially not the one that should be in focus when it comes to infrastructure management. […]