TFTT Report
NAWC: P3s deliver solutions to municipal water challenges
In an opinion piece in American City & County, NAWC’s Executive Director Michael Deane discussed the current water challenges municipalities in America are experiencing. As a solution to these challenges, Michael suggests public-private partnerships as a way to share expertise, assets, risks and resources for the improvement and maintenance of water systems.
On July 30, 2014 in Los Angeles, a 93-year-old water main operating past more than three times its useful life burst and flooded the UCLA campus with 10 million gallons of drinking water. And this was not an isolated incident. Water main breaks occur all over the country in large and small communities alike with frightening frequency.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 240,000 water main failures each year. What’s more sobering, the agency has projected a $384 billion gap in funding that will be needed to maintain drinking water infrastructure through 2020. This is exacerbated by the fact that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates seven billion gallons of treated water never reach the tap due to leaks, at an estimated cost well over $2 billion annually.
Water main failures, leaks and lost revenue are increasingly having a negative impact on communities. It is clear that the nation’s drinking water infrastructure is as essential to life as the life-giving water it delivers. Combined with issues like record-breaking droughts and limited water supplies, the water challenges can be easily characterized as a matter of national security. No one entity can fix all the water challenges America’s municipalities face, but we can take steps together to deliver solutions.
The National Association of Water Companies are advocates for a holistic approach to the restoration of the nation’s infrastructure – an approach characterized by collaboration and constructive steps to expediently address the water challenges both the public and private water sectors face. One of the approaches that the association feels is working effectively throughout the country is public-private partnerships (P3s).
Read the rest of the opinion piece here.