One of the biggest problems that organizations and utilities face in the water infrastructure face is making people aware that they even exist.
One organization, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor – a partnership of water sector companies, is trying to “make universal water access sexy.”
Water Online reports:
“Neil Jeffrey, the chief executive at WSUP, is familiar with the struggles in promoting scaled-up infrastructure.
“We recognize that all this talk of capacity building isn’t very sexy… but it really changes people’s lives for the better: in achieving universal access, let’s begin with what works!” he wrote.
Raising awareness about water infrastructure is a constant challenge to utilities and a barrier to raising rates and obtaining public funding. Writer Charles Fishman, author of a book focused on the water industry called The Big Thirst, explained why it takes so long for aging water mains in the U.S to be replaced, per an interview with NPR.
“Los Angeles Water will tell you they are on a 300-year water main replacement cycle. Washington, [D.C.], used to be on a 300-year water main replacement cycle; now we’re on a 200-year water main replacement cycle. We’re not actually planning to replace most of the water mains any time in our lifetime or the lifetime of our kids or their kids,” he said.
According to Fishman, it’s not because the water mains are so sturdy they can last that long.
“The reason is because we don’t pay attention to the water system,” he said.”
These observations are interesting and make an important point: people need to be aware of just how important water infrastructure is, for everyone in all areas of society.
Often this awareness of water infrastructure only rises when there are major nationally discussed issues, such as the Flint Water Crisis.
Infrastructure management planning demonstrates that the most cost-effective long-term management strategy is careful management of risks, sustained delivery of services, and well planned and targeted water network replacement or rehabilitation.
This approach, in the long run, is almost always a third less expensive than crisis management and can be up to ten times less expensive.
Keeping community awareness of water infrastructure is an ongoing challenge for water utility infrastructure management people.
Infrastructure asset management plans, with a range of well-developed and supported scenarios, assists with the ongoing communication with utility governance, decision-makers and the community being served.
PHOTO CREDIT: By Nserrano – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4019955
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