Fountain, City of London
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Today's New York Times has a good op ed piece by its regular columnist Bob Herbert concerning the pressing need for investment in urban water supply facilities. While urban uses account for less than 10 per cent of total water use, it is a crucial percentage, supplying the basic needs of millions of US citizens and residents. Saving some or most of the 10-20 per cent of water in urban systems currently lost to leakage would itself justify a large investment in new and renewed facilities, especially in cities where some of the water (and waste removal) infrastructure is over a century old. It would in most circumstances be far cheaper than expanding the supply system to bring in that much more water. Herbert further justifies the investment because it would create jobs and new opportunities for private enterprises.
Whether the latter points are correct or not, huge investment is going to be essential in the next decade merely to maintain current standards of safety and reliability. Otherwise we are going to see many more events like those that have plagued the Maryland water utilities serving the Washington, DC slurbs. The WSSC in Maryland, in comparison to many urban and slurban water utilities elsewhere, runs a relatively new and up-to-date system. Despite that, it has suffered several major crises over the past couple of years. In those systems which are rapidly aging, it is only a matter of time before a colossal fire in one and in another one an epidemic of water borne disease happens because the water systems are beyond the breaking point, broken and dilapidated.
