tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/water-infrastructure-27794/articlesWater infrastructure – The Conversation2023-12-21T19:26:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173522023-12-21T19:26:32Z2023-12-21T19:26:32ZIndia’s new manual for water supply will replicate past failures<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/indias-new-manual-for-water-supply-will-replicate-past-failures" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Water utilities in India supply residents with water for an average of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100062">only four hours per day</a>. Within cities, some neighbourhoods receive water almost all the time, while some receive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164393">less than half an hour per week</a>. </p>
<p>Intermittent supply of water <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019702">inconveniences everyone</a> and often disproportionately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2011.01111.x">burdens the poorest and most vulnerable</a>. Yet intermittent water supply has been the norm <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=e8AIAAAAQAAJ&pg=230">in India since at least 1873</a>. </p>
<p>Our research at the University of Toronto studies <a href="https://www.geography.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/nidhi-subramanyam">the social</a> <a href="https://civmin.utoronto.ca/home/about-us/directory/professors/david-meyer/">and technical</a> causes and effects of intermittent supply in India.</p>
<h2>Perpetuating past problems</h2>
<p>Over the last few years, the Indian government <a href="https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1811880">has launched several</a> <a href="https://jaljeevanmission.gov.in/">initiatives to improve water supply systems</a> and reduce intermittent supply. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b03973">Continuous water supply</a> keeps contaminants out of the pipes and lets users drink from the tap at any time.</p>
<p>In support of these new initiatives, India’s Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation <a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1933379">issued a new draft of the Manual on Water Supply and Treatment</a>, its first update since 1999. </p>
<p>This manual was prepared in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.giz.de/en/html/about_giz.html">German Development Agency (GIZ</a>), and workshopped over the summer at a national conference organized by the national Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The conference was attended by water supply engineers, experts, and consultants from cities across India. </p>
<p>As in the <a href="https://www.mdws.gov.in/sites/default/files/Manual_on_Water_Supply_and_Treatment_CPHEEO_MoUD_1999.pdf">previous version</a>, the 2023 manual boldly aims to establish continuous piped water supply — a goal that still has not been achieved, nearly 25 years later. This piped water is intended primarily for indoor residential use. </p>
<p>We believe that this new continuous supply target is also unlikely to be reached due to two fatal flaws that are baked into the plan from the start. While continuous supply requires both a realistic projection of water demand and a realistic plan to ensure supply exceeds demand, the government of India’s new initiatives are unrealistic on both fronts. </p>
<h2>Underestimated demand</h2>
<p>First, the manual dramatically underestimates demand, the volume of water people will try to withdraw; true demand is more than double the projections <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024124">in some locations</a>. For a system to operate continuously, the water withdrawn from the system must remain well below the maximum amount that can be conveyed from its source — if not, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024124">the system will become intermittent</a>. </p>
<p>The new manual estimates the amount of water demand based on the projected number of users multiplied by the estimated amount that each person will withdraw in a day. However, these estimates are based upon 1999 figures for the minimum requirements for drinking, cooking, and bathing: <a href="https://www.mdws.gov.in/sites/default/files/Manual_on_Water_Supply_and_Treatment_CPHEEO_MoUD_1999.pdf">135 litres per person in most cities (150 in the country’s biggest cities</a>). </p>
<p>These estimates are reasonable projections of the minimum amount of water urbanites <em>need</em> but they grossly underestimate how much water urbanites <em>want</em>. Most users attempt to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024124">withdraw the water they want</a>, rather than what they need. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-why-collecting-water-turns-millions-of-women-into-second-class-citizens-104698">India: why collecting water turns millions of women into second-class citizens</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The manual could and should be informed by data about user withdrawals from the last 24 years. The manual’s prescriptions for <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/aqua.2022.149">calculating water demand should also consider the water wants of low-income populations in informal settlements and seasonal, interstate migrant workers</a>.</p>
<p>Second, the manual’s authors assume that water tariffs will be set high enough to limit users to withdrawing only the water they need. But demand-limiting tariffs have never been realized in India. </p>
<p>Sustaining high tariffs is particularly challenging as Indian politicians like Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may use <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/24x7-water-supply-for-all-of-delhi-soon/articleshow/103878291.cms">free-water services</a> or lower tariffs as tools to earn voters’ approval.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, water tariffs in Bengaluru, which are higher than many cities. A family of four consuming the guideline-anticipated 150 litres per person per day will be billed Rupees <a href="https://bwssb.karnataka.gov.in/new-page/Prorata%20and%20Water%20Tariff/en">8.6 per day</a> (CAD$0.14/day); if they consume 30 per cent more than expected, their water tariffs increase by only Rupees 2.7 per day (less than $0.05/day). </p>
<p>Bengaluru’s elite will not limit their consumption for Rs 3 (five cents) — which is less than the price of a cup of tea! </p>
<p>If the manual’s anticipated high tariffs strategy for limiting demand fails, then users will withdraw more water than expected. When these higher-than-expected withdrawals exceed the system capacity, the system will become intermittent again. </p>
<p>Tragically, the drawbacks of intermittent supply will be magnified in these systems since the manual recommends they be designed as if continuous operation was guaranteed. </p>
<h2>Supply and demand</h2>
<p>Water system engineers in India are faced with two irreconcilable options: design water systems that meet only users’ minimum needs and accept intermittent operations, or design systems to sustain continuous supply by providing as much water as users want. </p>
<p>The long history of intermittent supply in India suggests that water systems designed using need-based demands are fragile and almost always revert to intermittent operations. </p>
<p>If India’s future systems are built according to the new manual — focused on providing users’ minimum needs — these new systems will never operate continuously. When these systems inevitably become intermittent, they will operate less fairly, less efficiently and less safely than if they had been designed to operate intermittently from the outset.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indias-civil-society-can-shape-the-countrys-water-policy-144860">How India's civil society can shape the country's water policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The new manual’s aim for continuous supply replicates the failures of its predecessor and perpetuates decades of self-defeating water supply projects. </p>
<p>It’s a missed opportunity to design water systems that will operate well under both continuous and intermittent modes which are resilient to problematic demand projections, ineffective demand management, and water supply scarcity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Meyer receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and has previously received in-kind support from several public and private water utilities in India.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nidhi Subramanyam has previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa. She has also been involved in projects supporting a private water utility in India.</span></em></p>Achieving continuous supply requires both a realistic assessment of the situation and a realistic plan to meet the goal. The Government of India’s new initiatives have neither.David Meyer, Assistant Professor in Civil and Global Engineering, University of TorontoNidhi Subramanyam, Assistant Professor of Geography and Planning, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146152023-10-25T12:33:00Z2023-10-25T12:33:00ZWhen communities face drinking-water crises, bottled water is a ‘temporary’ solution that often lasts years − and worsens inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554629/original/file-20231018-19-7yfh1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C3985%2C2711&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An emergency bottled-water distribution site in Flint, Mich., in early 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pallets-of-bottled-water-are-seen-ready-for-distribution-in-news-photo/506109422">Sarah Rice/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/01/us/new-orleans-saltwater-future-climate/index.html">A massive intrusion of salt water</a> into the Mississippi River has left the tap water in several Louisiana communities <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/20/louisiana-drinking-water-saltwater-wedge-plaquemines-parish">unsafe to drink</a> and could threaten the <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/environment/new-saltwater-forecast-means-good-news-for-new-orleans-area/article_2624ced4-6e90-11ee-8a93-0747faff9b9b.html">New Orleans metropolitan area</a>. The most visible emergency response is the provision of bottled water, with authorities distributing huge quantities of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/23/us/freshwater-new-orleans-saltwater-mississippi-river/index.html">single-serving plastic water bottles</a> to residents.</p>
<p>These pallets of water are an increasingly familiar sight in the U.S. They have become the default response not only to natural disasters but to a series of human-made emergencies – from the crises of unsafe tap water in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1420">Flint, Michigan</a>, and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16325">Jackson, Mississippi</a>, to contaminated groundwater in towns in <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/984273kz">California’s Central Valley</a>. What these places also have in common is that their residents are disproportionately low-income and nonwhite.</p>
<p>In such communities, <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/01/21/whitmer-flint-needs-bottled-water-pipes-replaced/2638902002/">public officials</a> and <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/nonprofits-and-foundations-rush-to-bring-drinking-water-to-jackson-miss-but-cash-donations-are-slow">charitable donors</a> often present bottled water as a stopgap solution, to be used only until the immediate crisis is resolved. But in practice, bottled water often becomes a long-term substitute for compromised tap-water supplies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pdx.edu/profile/daniel-jaffee">As a sociologist</a>, I study the social and environmental effects of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/237832/volume-of-bottled-water-in-the-us/">the rapid growth of bottled-water consumption in the U.S.</a> and beyond, and how it is linked to distrust of public tap water. In <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520306622/unbottled">my new book, “Unbottled,”</a> one chapter examines how these dynamics played out in Flint. As its example shows, communities can end up relying on bottled water – often at great expense – for years after a crisis.</p>
<h2>Seven years of bottled water</h2>
<p>In Flint, after the toxic lead and bacterial contamination of the city’s water system was revealed in 2015, residents <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262536868/flint-fights-back/">demanded – and received – access to free bottled water</a> as an emergency measure. Over the next seven years, they wound up consuming <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q4/flint,-michigan-lead-crisis-should-have-buried-the-city-in-water-bottles.-so,-why-didnt-it.html">hundreds of millions of bottles</a>.</p>
<p>While local activists and Michigan’s governor sought a federal disaster declaration that would have facilitated bulk tanker deliveries of safe water, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-water-idUSKCN0W52AK">that request was denied</a>, and bottled water remained the sole alternative water source on offer until <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/flint-residents-urged-filter-water-bottled-water-donations/story?id=96531880">free distribution ended in December 2022</a>.</p>
<p>Although most lead service lines in Flint <a href="https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/flint-5-months-finish-lead-pipe-replacement/">have been replaced</a> and officials claim <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2018/04/governor_flint_water_pods.html">the water is safe to drink</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2021/flint-clean-water-crisis-photos">damaged pipes and appliances</a> remain in some homes. Many residents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486221101459">continue to distrust</a> their tap water, and many of them rely on purchased bottled water <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2018/03/survey_says_flint_residents_us.html">for their drinking, cooking and other needs</a>.</p>
<p>They are not alone. Studies and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/207536/water-pollution-worries-highest-2001.aspx">opinion polls</a> show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-020-0523-6">low-income</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022186">Black</a> and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/9/2999">Latino households</a> distrust their tap water more – and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980017004050">consume more bottled water</a> – than white and middle- or upper-income households. These differences have <a href="http://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980021002603">continued to widen</a> since the Flint disaster.</p>
<p>This isn’t a coincidence. While the vast majority of tap water in the U.S. meets all safety standards – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115">only 7% to 8% of U.S. water systems</a> experience any health-related violations of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sdwa">Safe Drinking Water Act</a> in an average year – these problems <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2022.2096148">disproportionately affect</a> low-income communities, particularly those with high proportions of <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/watered-down-justice">Black and Latino residents</a>. Towns from <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/university-park-il-aqua-illinois-lead-in-water-drinking/13403622/">Illinois</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/28/california-east-orosi-toxic-america-water">California</a>, and schools in <a href="https://newark.chalkbeat.org/2021/11/23/22799347/newark-school-water-fountains-lead-covid">Newark</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/baltimore-schools-face-nearly-3-billion-maintenance-backlog/2018/09/29/beb7d9d6-c2ae-11e8-a1f0-a4051b6ad114_story.html">Baltimore</a> and other cities, have been dependent on bottled water for years.</p>
<h2>Bottling up water problems won’t fix them</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of water-quality crises, it’s fair to ask: What’s wrong with just replacing tap water with bottled water?</p>
<p>For one thing, buying enough packaged water to meet a family’s full drinking and cooking needs costs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022186">thousands of dollars a year</a>. That’s to say nothing of bottled water’s far greater <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change">waste</a>, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/1/014009">energy</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148884">overall environmental footprints</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, in economically stressed communities with drinking-water problems, the ready availability of bottled water can reduce the pressure on local or state officials to make <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=F9euDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA113&dq=Human+Right+to+Water+and+Bottled+Water+Consumption:+Governing+at+the+Intersection+of+Water+Justice,+Rights+and+Ethics&ots=JoBF8F8dKl&sig=ay02s5domcyUPsZX2BtuIYxmHa4">hard political decisions</a>, such as raising taxes to pay for system repairs. It is easier to let individuals assume the burden.</p>
<p>Yet this isn’t a real solution. One Flint resident I interviewed described bottled water’s role in the disaster as “a triage kind of thing. … It’s just something to hold us captive, basically, until we figure this out. But there was nothing to figure out – fix the damn pipes and the infrastructure, and we won’t need this bottled water.”</p>
<p>In these settings, long-term dependence on bottled water is not just a sign of water insecurity – it also worsens economic and racial inequality. Bottled water’s far higher costs are being borne by those least able to afford them, on top of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169488">water bills that are rising fast</a>.</p>
<h2>Ending a five-decade funding drought</h2>
<p>All of these local water crises are less surprising when you consider that federal spending on public water infrastructure fell by <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54539">77% in real terms between 1977 and 2017</a>. This nearly five-decade disinvestment trend has forced cities and states to shoulder most of the costs of maintenance and capital improvements.</p>
<p>Many have delayed making repairs. The unfunded water infrastructure investment gap is <a href="https://uswateralliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Economic-Impact-of-Investing-in-Water-Infrastructure_VOW_FINAL_pages_0.pdf">estimated at $109 billion per year</a>. As a result, the average age of U.S. water pipes <a href="https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/water/us-water-supply-and-distribution-factsheet">rose from 25 years in 1970 to 45 years in 2020</a>. The bottled-water industry <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=80p9EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=the+profits+of+distrust&ots=_GAdcb5LYF&sig=KvAGP93oyVXT_-wlspCy7-Vt_QE#v=onepage&q=primo&f=false">sees crumbling U.S. water infrastructure</a> and growing distrust in tap water as a <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/epa/should-we-break-our-bottled-water-habit-a5667672175/">major market opportunity</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that the only way to truly solve these connected problems – deteriorating public water systems, growing distrust of tap water, and long-term dependence on bottled water – is for the federal government to reinvest in water infrastructure in a big way.</p>
<p>Recently, lawmakers have begun taking steps in the right direction. In 2021, Congress passed major investments in public water systems – both <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/551014-senate-passes-bipartisan-35-billion-water-infrastructure-bill/">a $35 billion water infrastructure funding bill</a> and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which allocated <a href="https://www.epa.gov/infrastructure/fact-sheet-epa-bipartisan-infrastructure-law">$55 billion for water systems</a>. While that alone isn’t nearly enough to resolve the nation’s drinking-water problems, it does show that reinvestment in public water infrastructure is politically possible.</p>
<p>One such proposal in the current Congress is <a href="https://watsoncoleman.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rep-watson-coleman-sen-sanders-introduce-water-act-to-improve-water-safety-affordability-access">the WATER Act</a>, which would allocate $35 billion annually to a permanent federal trust fund to improve water systems across the country – prioritizing disadvantaged communities – and address the crisis of water affordability.</p>
<p>While $35 billion is not a small sum, it’s less than the <a href="https://www.packworld.com/news/business-intelligence/article/22869391/bottled-waters-total-volume-grows-in-2022">$46 billion</a> Americans spent in 2022 to buy bottled water.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Jaffee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dependence on bottled water weakens pressure to fix tap-water problems. Who pays the price?Daniel Jaffee, Associate Professor of Sociology, Portland State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092932023-07-19T12:22:24Z2023-07-19T12:22:24ZSolving water challenges is complex – learn how law, health, climate and Indigenous rights all intersect in developing solutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536663/original/file-20230710-27-7kilk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C64%2C2038%2C1293&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Americans have come to expect abundant clean water, but there are many stressors on water quality and availability.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clio1789/7578005278/in/photolist-cxDfXq-R8BLgr-PMPgBA-9cyTMV-QR4skU-6eyUbx-PRjrwu-QX7EYr-yT5M74-PMQ3KS-R5bmiK-iWdCxv-QTHQyn-2iJ2Rvv-21eLgQ-NCejiD-83hhrv-BMx5YX-c1AFu3-Bmjh8e-BMsbiK-EGz72e-2mhVwqZ-7TjMYT-6jgSAw-RTLtfw-cC3YHG-iVP9v-LksTds-MaEoR2-MhQpPr-Bmi8Ar-75tTCe-75tTDi-7SsCVE-cC4SQj-MqUfig-cChXK5-9AFPby-2kCF4ZL-2kCAWZH-MaErPB-QEQnju-5RaYCg-MaEnjV-9NyiQ7-2gjmCZn-2kCF6dN-86XPZU-21a1dr">Jessica/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the U.S., most consumers take clean and available fresh water for granted, and water usually becomes front-page news only when there’s a crisis. And the past year has seen its share of water-related crises, whether it’s the <a href="https://theconversation.com/colorado-river-states-bought-time-with-a-3-year-water-conservation-deal-now-they-need-to-think-bigger-206386">effects of a prolonged drought in the U.S. Southwest</a> or floods that covered more <a href="https://theconversation.com/2022s-us-climate-disasters-from-storms-and-floods-to-heat-waves-and-droughts-196713">than one third of Pakistan</a> last year.</em></p>
<p><em>But seeing water problems as only environmental disasters does not capture the deeply interconnected nature of water in our society. To mark the release of the book “<a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/33266/conversation-water">The Conversation on Water</a>,” a collection of previously published articles on water, The Conversation hosted a webinar with experts with a range of expertise and different perspectives on water issues and potential solutions.</em></p>
<p><em>The edited text and video clips below convey one or two of the key points each speaker made. The full <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhEyZC0xNOw&t=4s">webinar is available on YouTube</a>.</em></p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gBWj2gdF5b4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous scholar Rosalyn LaPier explains Native Americans’ efforts to gain legal personhood status for natural entities to protect waterways.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rosalyn LaPier, Professor of History, University of Illinois</h2>
<p>Native American tribes in the United States think of particular waterways – whether it’s a river, a lake, or an underground aquifer – as a part of the supernatural realm. Tribal communities make an effort to protect certain waterways because <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-native-americans-a-river-is-more-than-a-person-it-is-also-a-sacred-place-85302">it is a sacred place to them</a>, which benefits other people as well. The Taos Pueblo, for example, spent almost an entire century fighting for the Blue Lake in New Mexico because it was a sacred site. They wanted to protect not just the lake but also the watershed of the lake, which they succeeded in doing. </p>
<p>Today, tribes are using different approaches both within the federal legal system and tribal systems. One approach is to set aside water systems that they view as sacred and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d42L4hVJmrA">apply personhood status to them</a>. This has been done in other parts of the world and is beginning to be done in the United States as well, mostly now only within tribal communities. </p>
<p>There are different ways that <a href="https://theconversation.com/native-americans-decadeslong-struggle-for-control-over-sacred-lands-is-making-progress-189620">tribes are thinking more creatively</a>, but it’s connected back to their own religious expression. The reason they’re doing this is not necessarily to protect water from environmental degradation – it often is because of religion and religious practice. We have to distinguish between how we use water in America versus how we revere water in America. Tribes are addressing how to work within the system, because the United States does not protect sacred sites, especially Native American sacred places such as rivers, lakes or other water systems. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-native-americans-a-river-is-more-than-a-person-it-is-also-a-sacred-place-85302">For Native Americans, a river is more than a 'person,' it is also a sacred place</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA9Hp5XJmrI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Water law expert Burke Griggs explains how policy around agriculture encourages overuse rather than conservation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Burke Griggs, Professor of Law, Washburn University</h2>
<p>We’re pumping so much groundwater out of the planet right now that it has changed the way the Earth is rotating. It is a massive problem that is not very visible but is extremely worrisome. Agriculture uses anywhere between <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2006/november/agriculture-dominates-freshwater-use-in-the-us/">80% and 95% of the water</a> that exists in the West. Rivers are just the icing on the cake of groundwater supplies, winter snowpack and reservoir storage. </p>
<p>Farmers are not breaking the law. They have property rights to pump this water. The fundamental problem is, since the 1850s, and especially since the 1950s, we’ve granted more water rights to pump and to divert than the water systems can support. That’s a bureaucratic problem. It’s called overappropriation.</p>
<p>There’s also a problem in farm policy. Ever since the 1970s, when the agricultural secretary famously said, <a href="https://www.agweek.com/opinion/considering-the-lessons-of-earl-butz">“Get big or get out”</a> and win the cold war for agriculture, we’ve seen the size of farms increase and get bigger and bigger. In order to make money and keep property, farmers have to continually borrow to add acreage, either as owners or as tenants. That in turn encourages them to pump more water to meet their bank loans and their other financial commitments.</p>
<p>So if people are not breaking the law, farmers are not stealing water – and if these subsidy systems promote overproduction and overpumping – what can the U.S. do?</p>
<p>The first thing to do is reform the subsidy system. Instead of rewarding overproduction and making a fetish out of grain yields, we should focus on conservation. We should pay farmers to not irrigate in sensitive areas and during years they don’t need to. </p>
<p>The state law system is critical, because most water rights are state rights. Here, I think it makes sense to make water rights more flexible. Farmers will be willing to trade less water use over the long term for more flexible water use year to year. Most water rights have an annual limit, and if you allow more variability there, then I think that gets us a long way.</p>
<p>Water conservation can happen, but you’ve got to understand water reform within the context of property rights. Property is a very creative tool, and markets can be very creative tools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/farmers-are-depleting-the-ogallala-aquifer-because-the-government-pays-them-to-do-it-145501">Farmers are depleting the Ogallala Aquifer because the government pays them to do it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UL57tFeKiYI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Gabriel Filippelli of Indiana University explains how climate change is making it more challenging to build resilient water infrastructure.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gabriel Filippelli, Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute</h2>
<p>In 2014, Toledo, Ohio, suffered a <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-threatens-drinking-water-quality-across-the-great-lakes-131883">massive harmful algal bloom</a>, likely triggered by climate change and related runoff in that area. It occurred right over the only water intake line for the Toledo water system. That meant that they had to issue a rare warning – not only “do not drink the water,” but “do not boil the water,” because these harmful algal blooms produce a toxin that gets even worse if they’re boiled. It showed that a lot of our water systems are not particularly resilient because we built them for 1920 and not for today or tomorrow. </p>
<p>I and a lot of scholars are thinking through the challenges in water security in a lot of parts of the U.S. Around the Great Lakes in the Midwest there are these prolonged episodes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-a-flooded-midwest-climate-forecasts-offer-little-comfort-114140">flooding</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-flash-drought-an-earth-scientist-explains-194141">drought</a>. Flooding causes the redistribution of harmful algal blooms and pathogens like <em>E. coli</em> in waterways, which are very harmful. Of course, drought also causes its own stress on water supplies. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, a lot of water infrastructure is not built based on our understanding of water today. These massive sewer stormwater upgrades in a lot of cities are only built to hold the capacity of rainfall today, while in the Midwest extreme precipitation events are coming in fast and furious. </p>
<p>The US$2 billion <a href="https://www.in.gov/governorhistory/mitchdaniels/2980.htm">upgrade to Indianapolis’ water infrastructure</a> was built for the extreme rainfall events that we had in the year 2000. Here we are in 2023, and we already have about 15% more extreme rainfall events, and we’ll have another 15% more by 2050. </p>
<p>So rather than only relying on gray infrastructure consisting of tubes, tunnels and pipes to protect and secure our water systems and our safety, we have to also think about the role that <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-20-foot-sea-wall-wont-save-miami-how-living-structures-can-help-protect-the-coast-and-keep-the-paradise-vibe-165076">green infrastructure – nature-based solutions</a> – can play in augmenting some of those solutions. </p>
<p>We also should not be building new infrastructure based on the capacity we have today but based on the capacity we will have in the year 2050 and beyond. A lot of these very large infrastructure projects will and should last until then. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-threatens-drinking-water-quality-across-the-great-lakes-131883">Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ChM12WxIWZ0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Andrea K. Gerlak, water policy expert at the University of Arizona, talks about the progress cities around the world are making in water availability and equity.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Andrea Gerlak, Director at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and Professor in the School of Geography, Development, and Environment at the University of Arizona</h2>
<p>I’ve studied cities around the world and in the U.S., and at the end of the day, there is no perfect city that is doing everything right. But there are little examples. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-quality-in-south-africa-reports-show-what-needs-to-be-fixed-and-at-what-cost-207538">South Africa make a large investment</a> at the city scale around water access and sanitation. Singapore has been focusing on <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_singapore-turns-sewage-clean-drinkable-water-meeting-40-demand/6209374.html">reusing a lot of their water supply</a>. It’s been imperfect, but we’ve seen some pretty good developments made by Australia’s First Nations to achieve <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/returning-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people">their appropriate water allocations</a> through a legal process. </p>
<p>In the U.S., Tucson has won awards for its green infrastructure and, along with Los Angeles, views stormwater as a resource. Los Angeles recently announced that in the coming decade, the majority of their drinking water will come <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-21/progress-on-l-a-stormwater-capture-program-is-slowing">from capturing stormwater</a>, treating it and using it for potable water supply. </p>
<p>Other cities have been good at recognizing equity concerns, like <a href="https://water.phila.gov/green-city/">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="https://thechisholmlegacyproject.org/policy/baltimores-water-accountability-and-equity-act/">Baltimore</a>. Municipal ordinances have been changed to make water available to people who cannot afford to pay their water bills and whose homes would have historically been repossessed as a result. </p>
<p>There are shining moments here and there, but there’s not any perfect package or perfect city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea K. Gerlak has received funding from NOAA, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, Lloyd's Register Foundation, and Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Burke Griggs receives funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Commerce, Commercial Law Development Program; U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Commission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Filippelli receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Geological Survey, the Honda Foundation, the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, The American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund, and DLA Piper.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A webinar hosted by The Conversation brings together experts in law, health, policy and Indigenous affairs to explain some of the most pressing problems related to water in the US.Andrea K. Gerlak, Professor, School of Geography, Development and Environment, University of ArizonaBurke Griggs, Associate Professor of Law, Washburn UniversityGabriel Filippelli, Chancellor's Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, Indiana UniversityRosalyn R. LaPier, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072672023-06-09T13:16:47Z2023-06-09T13:16:47ZSouth Africa’s drinking water quality has dropped because of defective infrastructure and neglect – new report<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531085/original/file-20230609-15-h066xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The report shows decline in the status of the country's water supply.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A report <a href="https://ws.dws.gov.za/IRIS/latestresults.aspx">released</a> by the South African government paints a grim picture of the country’s water resources and water infrastructure as well as the overall quality of its drinking water.</p>
<p>The Blue Drop Watch Report – an interim report because it only assessed a sample of the facilities across the country – focused on the condition of the drinking water infrastructure and treatment processes from a technical standpoint. It also reported on water quality. </p>
<p>The issues of <a href="https://ws.dws.gov.za/IRIS/releases/GDWR.pdf">biggest concern</a> that it identified included a collapse of the country’s wastewater treatment works and a sharp rise in the number of local authorities that are failing to meet minimum compliance standards.</p>
<p>The report records continued overall decline in the status of the country’s water supply services. The findings point to a culture of neglect, non-compliance and systemic collapse. The current cholera outbreak in the country should, therefore, come as no surprise. The interim report shows dysfunctional local municipalities and non-compliant wastewater treatment works.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cholera-in-south-africa-a-symptom-of-two-decades-of-continued-sewage-pollution-and-neglect-206141">Cholera in South Africa: a symptom of two decades of continued sewage pollution and neglect</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The systemic collapse has been attributed to poor operation, defective infrastructure, the absence of disinfection chemicals, lack of monitoring and an overall lack of operating and chemistry knowledge.</p>
<p>The report shows that the Department of Water and Sanitation issued non-compliance letters to 244 wastewater treatment works in 2022. But only 50% had responded almost a year later.</p>
<p>The report shows a clear and rapid decline in the performance of local government. But only 43 out of <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/government-system/local-government#:%7E:text=supporting%20service%20delivery.-,Municipalities,and%20providing%20infrastructure%20and%20service.">205</a> local municipalities have asked for assistance from the department. They are able to ask for financial support and assistance to help with capacity building and skills development. </p>
<h2>Drinking water quality</h2>
<p>Only a test sample of some of the country’s facilities was conducted. Assessments were made of 151 water supply systems – <a href="https://ws.dws.gov.za/IRIS/releases/2021_BD_PAT_report_final-28Mar22_MN_web.pdf">out of the total 1,186</a> – managed by 140 local municipalities. In addition, 26 water boards and bulk water service providers were assessed. The assessments were done between November 2022 to February 2023. </p>
<p>Most of the treatment plants in the sample were found to be failing to produce acceptable drinking water according to the <a href="https://vinlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SANS-241-2015-1.pdf">SANS 241:2015</a> drinking water standards.</p>
<p>Over 60 systems (41%) of the sample had bad water quality. Another 13 systems (9%) had poor water quality. This meant that it didn’t meet clean water <a href="https://alabbott.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/abbott_sans_241_test_requirements.pdf">standards</a> because of high levels of contaminants such as wastewater and excrement. </p>
<p>Contaminated water poses acute health risks. It is responsible for water-related illnesses such as cholera. </p>
<p>Only 50% of the assessed treatment plants produced drinking water of a suitable quality not contaminated by sewage or other pathogens or chemicals.</p>
<p>A number of water supply systems were flagged as being in a critical condition, requiring urgent intervention. </p>
<p>The report also noted that 11 of the 140 municipalities that were assessed had no water quality monitoring systems in place or no evidence of any water testing. </p>
<h2>Wastewater treatment works</h2>
<p>Wastewater treatment works are assessed in accordance with the set <a href="http://www.salga.org.za/Documents/Municipalities/Guidelines%20for%20Municipalities/Hints_and_Tips.pdf">Green Drop audit standards</a>. Of the total 850 wastewater treatment works assessed, 334 (39%) received scores below 31% and were placed under regulatory surveillance. Overall, the country’s wastewater treatment works are in a poor to critical state, posing significant risks to public health and to the environment.</p>
<p>South Africa’s Wastewater Treatment Works Preliminary Report Card:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>208 are at critical risk (24%) – indicating dysfunctional and unsatisfactory performance, with major corrections required. </p></li>
<li><p>250 are at high risk (29%) – indicating partial functionality and unsatisfactory performance, with major corrections required. </p></li>
<li><p>Half are in poor to bad condition. This is up from 10% in the 2014/2015 auditing period.</p></li>
<li><p>The North West province recorded the highest proportion of wastewater treatment works at critical risk (60%), followed by the Northern Cape (59%) and the Free State (44%). Limpopo has 38% of its plants at critical risk and 48% as high-risk plants, placing the bulk of its treatment facilities in a vulnerable state.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Other major issues reflected in the report were: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Only 25 systems (17%) achieved excellent water quality and 20 systems (13%) good water quality, while 106 systems (70%) failed to achieve chemical compliance. A worrying 83 systems (55%) have bad water quality compliance and 23 systems (15%) have poor water quality compliance. </p></li>
<li><p>Under 40% of systems were compliant on microbiological parameters (pathogens and bacteria such as faecal coliform, E. coli and cholera). Just over 10% were partially compliant. </p></li>
<li><p>Only 5% of plants were in a state of high compliance. The rest were in a poor or critical condition (64%) or had some degree of compliance (31%).</p></li>
<li><p>Water losses within municipal water reticulation systems had <a href="https://ws.dws.gov.za/IRIS/releases/NDWR.pdf#page=56">increased from 35% in 2015 to 50% in 2023</a>. This means that 50% of water is lost within the system before reaching consumers. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>The findings of the report come as no surprise. Recent <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/cholera-outbreak-death-toll-rises-to-31-with-all-but-2-fatalities-in-gauteng-20230608">cholera outbreaks</a> in Gauteng and Free State provinces have been a warning sign that the country’s water is contaminated.</p>
<p>The current state of affairs was predicted two decades
ago by numerous researchers and experts, consistently having highlighted the deterioration of South Africa’s already scarce water resources, dilapidated infrastructure, poor water governance and management, lack of service delivery and the overall threat to the country’s water security, calling for urgent action.</p>
<p>The Department of Water and Sanitation has recently proposed the development of a <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-06-06-south-africa-seeks-water-investment-with-new-procurement-office/">Water Partnership Office</a>, a new procurement office, in an attempt to address the continued water issues. The initiative is still in its developmental phase, but the government hopes it will facilitate private investment in the water industry. </p>
<p>But government will have to regain the trust of private institutions before they will be willing to invest in water infrastructure projects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anja du Plessis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The primary reasons for the systemic collapse include poor operation, defective infrastructure, the absence of disinfection chemicals, and lack of monitoring.Anja du Plessis, Associate Professor and Water Management Expert, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987362023-01-29T00:34:52Z2023-01-29T00:34:52ZAuckland floods: even stormwater reform won’t be enough – we need a ‘sponge city’ to avoid future disasters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506930/original/file-20230128-22524-drk2yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3997%2C2666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve built our cities to be vulnerable to – and exacerbate – major weather events such as the one we saw in Auckland on Friday. While almost no city in the world could fully escape the effects of four months’ worth of rain in 24 hours, there are many things that could have been done to avoid some of the worst impacts.</p>
<p>Buildings, streets and car parks are all impermeable surfaces. When it rains, the water rushes off these surfaces and into gutters. From the gutters, the water drains into a stormwater catch basin, through the stormwater network, and into streams and the sea.</p>
<p>Herein lies the problem. The more we build, the more stormwater we need to drain. Every new building or road replaces the planet’s natural stormwater system: plants and soil, and channels for runoff. </p>
<p>The network of pipes can only hold so much water before it is fully inundated and begins to flood. While every block typically has a catch basin or two, they can easily clog with leaves and other debris even before a storm hits. Add an abnormal amount of rainfall, and neighbourhood flooding is nearly guaranteed.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1619231238056976385"}"></div></p>
<h2>Flooding and contamination</h2>
<p>Even if the way we’ve built our cities and the stormwater system could keep up with big storm events – to be clear, they cannot – the network of basins and pipes is aging. With age, the system’s capacity to capture stormwater significantly declines. </p>
<p>Modernising all the stormwater infrastructure will take decades and billions of dollars. This is what the contested <a href="https://www.threewaters.govt.nz/">Three Waters</a> project is really all about, and we need to quickly get past the <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300444760/what-is-three-waters-and-why-is-everyone-so-angry">political sideshows</a> it has inspired.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-auckland-floods-are-a-sign-of-things-to-come-the-city-needs-stormwater-systems-fit-for-climate-change-198723">The Auckland floods are a sign of things to come – the city needs stormwater systems fit for climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While the system ages and suffers from reduced capacity, it is also more prone to failure. It’s not uncommon to see news that stormwater has <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dirty-water-sewage-overflows-blight-auckland-beaches-every-time-it-rains/DAUZDRP5L4CNHBXUIUMC6TVJR4/">mixed with raw sewage</a>. This is gross just to think about, but it gets worse. </p>
<p>Because stormwater is not treated, when it gets contaminated that dirty mixture drains into the water around our beaches. It’s why, after a storm, the <a href="https://www.safeswim.org.nz/">SafeSwim map</a> is covered in red “high risk” markers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506927/original/file-20230128-19630-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dangerous driving: cars abandoned and floating after the deluge of January 27.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Roads become rivers</h2>
<p>From Friday’s rain event, some of the most shocking images were of cars and buses trying to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131089348/in-pictures-auckland-flooding-leaves-residents-homeless-and-city-swamped">wade through flooded roads and busways</a>. The irony is that the roads themselves are a significant contributor to the flooding.</p>
<p>With thousands of miles of sealed roads around Auckland, there was simply nowhere for the water to go. Roads act like channels, funnelling stormwater. With a huge rain event, streets quickly turn into rivers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/floods-are-natural-but-human-decisions-make-disasters-we-need-to-reflect-on-the-endless-cycles-of-blame-192930">Floods are natural, but human decisions make disasters. We need to reflect on the endless cycles of blame</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Setting aside the concoction of stormwater and raw sewage flowing down streets (which we more politely call a “combined sewer overflow”), and the impact on homes, businesses and beaches, flood waters also present a massive risk to people in cars. </p>
<p>It’s nearly impossible to tell how deep or fast surface flooding is, so people get into danger.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506928/original/file-20230128-29149-m85ib6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sponge cities: in Qian'an in China’s Hebei province, a natural rainwater reservoir is preserved amid the development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘sponge city’</h2>
<p>There is a better way to design our built environment. In the early 2000s, Chinese architect Kongjian Yu created the concept of the “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666916121000153">sponge city</a>”. It’s a relatively simple idea, but a big departure from the way we typically build infrastructure. </p>
<p>The concept incorporates green roofs, rain gardens and permeable pavements to absorb and filter water. Better catch systems hold rainwater where possible and reuse it. More green space and trees are also incorporated into street and neighbourhood designs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-sponge-cities-aim-to-re-use-70-of-rainwater-heres-how-83327">China’s 'sponge cities' aim to re-use 70% of rainwater – here's how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Within the sponge city concept is a way to mitigate flooding using “water sensitive urban design”. With this approach, we create spaces that better manage flooding through systems that mimic the natural water cycle. </p>
<p>This can also include floodable infrastructure and parks to take the pressure off more vulnerable parts of the city. There are already <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220823-how-auckland-worlds-most-spongy-city-tackles-floods">examples of these design principles</a> in Auckland, but they are far too limited to eliminate the impact of major storms.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-a-state-of-sandbagging-what-can-we-learn-from-all-the-floods-here-and-overseas-193011">Beyond a state of sandbagging: what can we learn from all the floods, here and overseas?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Building smarter</h2>
<p>The sponge city concept, and ideas about letting nature handle stormwater, don’t have to be extravagant or expensive. They can be as simple as planting more trees and greenery, using less pavement for driveways or more porous cement for car parks. </p>
<p>In a way, we should do less building and let nature do what it was meant to do.</p>
<p>The stark reality is the flooding we experienced this week, and arguably the storm itself, are of our own making. We’ve built a supercity covered in impervious surfaces, expanded the built environment across sensitive (and flood-prone) areas, and created massive greenhouse gas emissions destabilising the climate. </p>
<p>Climate change will make future storms <a href="https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/our-expert-advice/all-expert-advice-papers/climate-change-implications-for-new-zealand/">more intense and more frequent</a>. Do we cross our fingers and hope the rain goes away? Do we invest billions in bigger pipes that will inevitably fail to control flooding and still pollute sensitive waters? Or do we get smarter and more proactive about designing our cities?</p>
<p>If we don’t want to repeat the week’s events, there’s only one real option.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Welch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The more hard surfaces we build, the more stormwater we need to drain. Auckland must future-proof its urban design as climate change bites.Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1929332022-11-03T00:00:19Z2022-11-03T00:00:19ZWith the Three Waters reforms under fire, let’s not forget that safe and affordable water is a human right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492912/original/file-20221102-26714-rfbi3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C17%2C5708%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While ostensibly about improving New Zealand’s water infrastructure, the government’s proposed <a href="https://www.dia.govt.nz/three-waters-reform-programme-about-the-reform-programme">Three Waters</a> reforms have instead become a lightning rod for political division and distrust. </p>
<p>Critics cite concerns about local democracy, de facto privatisation and co-governance with Māori as reasons to oppose the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2022/0136/latest/LMS534587.html">Water Services Entities Bill</a> currently before parliament. With the mayors of Auckland and Christchurch now proposing an <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/477761/two-mayors-seek-support-for-alternate-three-waters-plan">alternative plan</a>, the reforms may be far from a done deal.</p>
<p>But behind the debate lies an undeniable truth: clean water is a necessity of life. In fact, 20 years ago this month the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights first affirmed that <a href="https://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/water/docs/CESCR_GC_15.pdf">water is a human right</a>. The anniversary is a timely reminder of what Aotearoa’s proposed water reforms are essentially about.</p>
<p>Covering drinking water, wastewater and stormwater (hence the “three waters” label), the reforms would have a wider remit than the human right to water. They fold in environmental and cultural considerations alongside public health concerns.</p>
<p>But the human right to water, as well as lessons learned from implementing that right, have important implications for the Three Waters debate, not least around water quality and affordability.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1586935200684339200"}"></div></p>
<h2>A fragile right</h2>
<p>By acknowledging it to be a human right in 2002, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights argued water is indispensable for leading a dignified life and essential for other human rights. </p>
<p>Since then, the human right to water has been repeatedly declared, including by the <a href="https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml">UN General Assembly</a> and the <a href="https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/water-and-sanitation-are-human-right-water-public-good-not-commodity_en">European Union</a>. This right is included in the constitutions and laws of numerous countries. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-water-industry-is-broken-heres-how-to-fix-it-190700">The UK's water industry is broken – here's how to fix it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite this, 1 billion people still <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/">lack access to safe drinking water</a>, and six out of ten people <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/">live with inadequate sanitation</a>. More than 2 billion people <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water">live in areas of water scarcity</a>, likely to become an even bigger issue due to <a href="https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-climate-change">climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The human right to water covers five essential factors: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>access to enough water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing clothes, preparing food, personal and household hygiene</p></li>
<li><p>water that is clean and won’t cause harm</p></li>
<li><p>the look and smell of water should be acceptable</p></li>
<li><p>water sources should be within easy reach and accessible without danger</p></li>
<li><p>the cost should be low enough to ensure everyone can buy enough water to meet their needs.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492911/original/file-20221102-26796-4go2v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The anti-government protest movement Voices for Freedom has added Three Waters to its list of grievances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Access and affordability</h2>
<p>Internationally, there is evidence the adoption of a human right to water has made a difference. In South Africa, where access to sufficient water is a constitutional right, the courts have <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-37812021000100057">repeatedly referred</a> to the human right to water when determining government obligations around water services.</p>
<p>In 2014, the first <a href="https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/water-and-sanitation-are-human-right-water-public-good-not-commodity_en">European Citizens’ Initiative</a> pushed the European Union to exclude water supply and water resources management from the rules governing the European internal market. This means EU citizens have a stronger voice in water governance decisions.</p>
<p>In 2016, Slovenia became the first EU country to make access to drinkable water a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/18/slovenia-adds-water-to-constitution-as-fundamental-right-for-all">fundamental right</a> in its constitution.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/11-000-litres-of-water-to-make-one-litre-of-milk-new-questions-about-the-freshwater-impact-of-nz-dairy-farming-183806">11,000 litres of water to make one litre of milk? New questions about the freshwater impact of NZ dairy farming</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>New Zealand’s Three Waters reforms are not unrelated to these basic issues of safety, accessibility and affordability. They aim to <a href="https://www.dia.govt.nz/three-waters-reform-programme-about-the-reform-programme">address significant problems</a> with the country’s existing water services model, including ageing infrastructure, historical under-investment, the need for climate change resilience, and rising consumer demand. </p>
<p>These all require a serious program of water service transformation – one the government believes is beyond what local councils (which currently administer most water assets) will be able to deliver. </p>
<p>The projected cost is estimated at <a href="https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/three-waters-reform-programme-2021/%24file/case-for-change-fact-sheet-three-waters-reform-programme.pdf">between NZ$120 billion and $185 billion</a> (on top of currently planned investment), rolled out over the next 30 years.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1549665370340036611"}"></div></p>
<h2>Ambition and equity</h2>
<p>One way or another, the work has to be done. Last year <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/435864/lead-contamination-in-east-otago-a-timeline-of-the-events-and-what-you-need-to-know">elevated lead levels</a> were found in the water in east Otago. Ageing infrastructure and increasing demand are likely to increase the risk of similar incidents unless expensive upgrades are undertaken.</p>
<p>Without reform, the government argues, the huge cost of those upgrades will be unevenly spread across households, with a substantially higher burden on rural consumers. </p>
<p>To be affordable and equitable for everyone, therefore, the Three Waters plan involves creating four publicly owned, multi-regional entities. These will benefit from greater scale, expertise, operational efficiencies and financial flexibility compared to local councils. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-we-want-to-improve-nzs-freshwater-quality-first-we-need-to-improve-the-quality-of-our-democracy-159322">If we want to improve NZ’s freshwater quality, first we need to improve the quality of our democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But because councils could still contract out water services for 35 years, concerns have been raised about the potential for <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/474584/three-waters-35-year-contracts-de-facto-privatisation-academic-warns">creeping privatisation</a>. Indeed, similar concerns, including failed attempts to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/04/08/leasing-the-rain">privatise water services</a> in other countries, were a significant catalyst for asserting the human right to water more than two decades ago.</p>
<p>While international acknowledgment of water as a human right doesn’t automatically create binding obligations on New Zealand’s government, it can still inform the Three Waters debate.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, many of the benefits of this right have accrued from its ability to focus attention on securing high-quality and sustainable water services for everyone. That remains an essential ambition for New Zealand in 2022 and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Twenty years ago this month the UN affirmed that water is a human right – can this help resolve the political stand-off over New Zealand’s Three Waters reforms?Nathan Cooper, Associate Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927622022-10-18T15:31:18Z2022-10-18T15:31:18ZSouth Africa’s biggest cities are out of water, but the dams are full: what’s gone wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490352/original/file-20221018-24-jqrq3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Johannesburg cityscape panorama sunset.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THEGIFT777/GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s major cities in the Gauteng Province – the country’s economic heartland – are experiencing <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/635111/gauteng-gets-urgent-water-allocation-amid-shortages-and-breakdowns/">major water shortages</a>. In Johannesburg and Tshwane taps have run dry, with numerous areas experiencing intermittent supply while some areas have no water at all. </p>
<p>The province has metropolitan areas – the City of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. All are affected. Rand Water, the water authority for the region, has imposed <a href="https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/rand-water-implements-30-water-supply-reduction-2022-10-14/rep_id:4136">restrictions of 30%</a>. This will be revisited when the system recovers. </p>
<p>The last water shutdown was in November 2021 when Rand Water cut off water for <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-11-09-rand-water-shutdowns-to-restrict-consumers-supply-in-eight-municipalities-over-54-hour-period/">54 hours</a> so that it could to do infrastructure maintenance. There were also restrictions during the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/139975/shocking-pictures-show-just-how-empty-the-vaal-is/">drought in 2015-2017</a>.</p>
<p>The province serves as a perfect example of how an area can experience water shortages and intermittent supply even though dams are full. </p>
<p>The biggest problem lies with decaying infrastructure. This includes water storage, water supply and treatment. In addition water resources are poorly managed. And there’s been poor planning, a lack of financing to maintain ageing infrastructure and to keep up with rapid urbanisation. </p>
<p>The crisis in Gauteng has been developing over many decades. The water and sanitation infrastructure in Johannesburg is old – some water
pipes <a href="https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/delta-sewage-disposal-works-1934-1963">were installed nearly a century ago</a>. In addition, there’s been exponential growth – of businesses and the population.</p>
<p>Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province, but contributes <a href="https://www.gcro.ac.za/about/the-gauteng-city-region/">45%</a> to the country’s total economic output. All economic sectors have expanded in the past decades.</p>
<p>The province’s population has also increased to just over <a href="https://www.gcro.ac.za/about/the-gauteng-city-region/">16 million</a> – up from 12 million in 2011.</p>
<p>Rand Water has indicated that high water consumption is to <a href="https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/rand-water-implements-30-water-supply-reduction-2022-10-14">blame</a> for the current shortages. Estimates suggest that water consumption in Gauteng per person per day is over 300 litres, well above the global average of 173 <a href="https://twitter.com/Rand_Water/status/1580919219176189953/photo/1">litres</a>. Importantly, this estimate includes non-revenue water – water that’s lost before it reaches the consumer.</p>
<p>The Gauteng Province is unfortunately finding itself in a perfect storm of major intermittent water supply due to continued power blackouts, high temperatures leading to above average water use as well as major continued water losses through bursting pipes and major leaks due to dilapidated infrastructure.</p>
<p>There’s an urgent need to put water higher on the country’s agenda. Various water problems are escalating at a rapid rate.</p>
<h2>The decline</h2>
<p>The quality of water infrastructure in South Africa is deemed to be <a href="https://saice.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SAICE-IRC-2017.pdf">below average and deteriorating</a> in comparison to comparable countries such as Nigeria and Zambia.</p>
<p>A number of factors have contributed to the current state of affairs.</p>
<p>Firstly, the poor quality of infrastructure. This is attributed to insufficient long-term planning, poor construction techniques and materials as well as the poor maintenance of existing infrastructure. </p>
<p>South Africa’s infrastructure is mostly aged (more than two decades old), in a state of decay. In its 2017 infrastructure report card the South African Institution of Civil Engineering concluded that the country’s infrastructure was at risk due to its <a href="https://saice.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SAICE-IRC-2017.pdf">low overall grade of D+</a>. </p>
<p>Secondly, the management of consumption has been poor. South Africa is a water scarce country. Yet the average domestic water use is estimated <a href="https://www.dws.gov.za/National%20Water%20and%20Sanitation%20Master%20Plan/Documents/NWSMP(Master%20Plan)%20Call%20to%20Action%20v10.1.pdf">at 237 litres per person per day</a>, 64 litres higher than the international benchmark of 173 litres per person per day. </p>
<p>High consumption is partly attributed to high municipal non-revenue water. This stands at <a href="https://2030wrg.org/southafrica-stories/#:%7E:text=Non%2Drevenue%20water%20(NRW),best%20practice%20of%20about%2015%25.">41%</a> This means that 41% of water is lost due to leakages owing to poor operation and maintenance of existing aged water infrastructure, commercial losses caused by meter manipulation or other forms of water theft and lastly, unbilled authorised consumption such as firefighting.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-has-had-lots-of-rain-and-most-dams-are-full-but-water-crisis-threat-persists-178788">Global best practice is 15% </a>.</p>
<p>Thirdly, a lack of institutional capacity at a local level has limited the capability of local governments to provide infrastructure. Low expenditure levels on infrastructure investment is evidence of these capacity deficits despite the national government continuously emphasising the need for more investment.</p>
<p>Fourthly, there has been massive under funding for decades. This has led to decay and in some instances a collapse of infrastructure. Government spending on infrastructure reached its peak in the 1960s to late 1970s. There was then a steady decline from 1977. In 2000, the country’s per capita spending on infrastructure reached a 40-year low and warnings were issued about the condition of bulk water and sanitation infrastructure. </p>
<p>By 2002 the country’s infrastructure stock was at <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers19.html">similar levels to that of 1973</a>. </p>
<p>Other factors contributing to the current crisis include poor management (at national and local level), delays in implementation, insufficient institutional capacity and competence and a lack of political will.</p>
<p>Fifth, a multi-layered and complex system of managing water resources. Numerous stakeholders at different levels of government play a role in the management of water <a href="https://hsf.org.za/publications/hsf-briefs/the-institutional-structure-of-water-resource-management">resources</a>. </p>
<p>The Department of Water and Sanitation is the custodian of the country’s water. It is ultimately responsible for ensuring that water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled effectively. The development and management of national water resource infrastructure also forms part of the department’s functions. </p>
<p>Other managing agents include catchment management agencies (managing water resources at a regional or catchment scale), water user institutions (providing the institutional structure) as well as water service authorities which include local government and municipalities, water utilities and private firms responsible for governing domestic water supply services. </p>
<p>Johannesburg Water therefore sources water from Rand Water, which supplies potable water to the Gauteng Province and other areas. The City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water, for example, are responsible for dealing with growing demands and the management of the delivery and <a href="https://mg.co.za/special-reports/2022-03-15-water-conservation-and-water-demand-management-in-johannesburg/#:%7E:text=Johannesburg%20Water%20sources%20its%20water,other%20areas%20of%20the%20country.">services</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s needed</h2>
<p>The following steps should be considered to try and ensure continued suitable water supply within the Gauteng Province as well as other areas experiencing the same issues:</p>
<ul>
<li>A suitable budget needs to be made available immediately to address priority
areas. Proper planning and informed actions, not just promises, is a major
requirement. Johannesburg Water estimated in 2020 that R88 billion was required for the replacement of infrastructure with a total renewal backlog of <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/joburg-can-no-longer-rely-on-its-water-supply/">R20.4 billion</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The entity has been <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2022-06-09-native-watch-joburgs-golden-repair-under-way-with-r33bn-allocated-to-infrastructure/">allocated a R3.3 billion multi-year capital budget</a> aimed at replacing water and sewer pipes, upgrading water storage infrastructure, a wastewater treatment works programme and lastly, repairing and maintaining outdated
infrastructure. A further <a href="https://randburgsun.co.za/455293/joburg-water-general-manager-says-entity-is-operational-and-functional-2/">R2.3 billion has also been allocated</a> to address burst pipes across the province.</p>
<p>This amount of money might be a suitable investment to address the dilapidated state of infrastructure. But it should have been assigned much sooner. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Dilapidated infrastructure needs to be upgraded and properly maintained. The lack of maintenance has contributed to leaking pipes and faulty infrastructure which now needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency as it contributes to major physical water losses. This won’t solve the problem overnight given that there have been decades of neglect. But a start needs to be made.</p></li>
<li><p>Capacity constraints or lack of skills need to be identified and addressed.</p></li>
<li><p>Private sector investment in water infrastructure needs to be incentivised
together with the promotion of private-public partnerships.</p></li>
<li><p>Implementation of water conservation and demand management.</p></li>
<li><p>Political will to move away from simply providing infrastructure to
maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrading of existing infrastructure.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anja du Plessis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s an urgent need to put water higher on South Africa’s agenda. Various water problems are escalating at a rapid rate.Anja du Plessis, Associate Professor and Water Management Expert, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1587722021-05-11T02:46:50Z2021-05-11T02:46:50Z‘Boys and their toys’: how overt masculinity dominates Australia’s relationship with water<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399399/original/file-20210507-23-h4b7nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C5472%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia over recent months, the fury of women has been hard to ignore. The anger, much of it directed at the toxic masculine culture <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">of Parliament House</a>, has sparked a national conversation about how these attitudes harm women.</p>
<p>The movement has led me to think about how masculine cultures pervade our relationship with water. I worked as a civil engineer in the water industry for nine years, managing projects from planning through to construction. I’m now a water policy researcher, and in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.1886832">recent paper</a> I explored how dominant masculinity is limiting our response to dire water problems.</p>
<p>Overly masculine environments affect the way decisions are made. In particular, a reliance on technological and infrastructure “fixes” to solve problems is linked to masculine ideas of power.</p>
<p>Under this way of thinking, water is to be controlled, re-purposed and rerouted as needed. I believe we must reassess these old methods. Does it really need to be all about control and power? Managing water in tandem with nature may be more prudent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="two male engineers look at dam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dams and other major water infrastructure are a mainstay of male-dominated water management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hiring women is not enough</h2>
<p>In the case of federal parliament, the toxic masculinity problem has partly been blamed on a lack of women in senior roles. Similarly, in the area of water supply, sewerage and drainage services, <a href="https://data.wgea.gov.au/">only 19.8% of the workforce</a> comprises people who identify as women (compared to 50.5% across all industries). The sector include state government departments, water authorities and consultancies. </p>
<p>Globally, the lack of women in water engineering has primarily been addressed by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">increasing</a> the representation of women in the field, <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">on boards</a> and in management. </p>
<p>However creating a more diverse workforce does not automatically lead to a diversity of thinking. In the case of water management, hiring women, or others such as LGBTI and Indigenous employees, does <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">not necessarily mean</a> their contributions are valued. Very often, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">a masculine culture</a> prevails. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-water-policy-is-outdated-unfair-and-not-fit-for-climate-challenges-major-new-report-155116">Our national water policy is outdated, unfair and not fit for climate challenges: major new report</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="male engineer points as female look on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiring women is not enough - their contribution should be valued.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pipelines and gadgets aren’t always the answer</h2>
<p>Toxic masculinity doesn’t just refer to overtly sexist cultures or allegations of sexual assault. It can also refer to male-dominated decision making where other ideas are undervalued.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the dominant “technocracy” approach to water management, in which infrastructure and technology is relied on to solve problems.</p>
<p>In Australia as elsewhere, this can perhaps be seen in the emergence of “smart water management” which uses gadgets such as smart meters and other technology to gather and communicate real-time data to help address water management challenges. </p>
<p>As other researchers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343748198_The_moral_hazards_of_smart_water_management">have argued</a>, this “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Boys-and-their-Toys-Masculinity-Class-and-Technology-in-America/Horowitz/p/book/9780415929332">boys and their toys</a>” approach perpetuates a mindset that sustainability problems - often caused by deep-seated structural and behaviour faults such as over-consumption - can be solved with engineering and technology.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-drought-proof-australia-and-trying-is-a-fools-errand-124504">We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool's errand</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The idea that technology is a symbol of masculinity has been explored by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X03260956">many</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066">feminist</a> <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/42968827">theorists</a>. </p>
<p>Technical prowess, being “in control” and rationality have <a href="https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/allabs/19-a-1-1-7/file">historically been seen</a> as typically male characteristics. And senior technological roles are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X03260956">usually occupied</a> by men. </p>
<p>There’s nothing inherently wrong with using technology to solve water issues. But when technocratic thinking is “monolithic” and ignores wider societal issues, it can become a problem. </p>
<p>Take, for example, Victoria’s North-South pipeline built during the Millennium Drought. This A$750 million piece of infrastructure connected to Melbourne in 2010 but has <a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/the-750m-pipe-weve-never-used-and-never-will-but-still-pay-for/">lain idle</a> ever since – largely due to fears from farmers that taking water from rural areas will hurt agricultural output.</p>
<p>Similarly, desalination plants in many parts of Australia are an expensive technological approach that solve one problem, yet can create <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-water-scarcity-increases-desalination-plants-are-on-the-rise">many others</a>. They use a lot of energy, which contributes to climate change if drawn from fossil fuels, and can damage marine life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men look at laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most technology jobs in water management are occupied by men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding another way</h2>
<p>Global water scarcity is inescapable. Water use is growing at a <a href="https://worldwater.io/">rate faster</a> than population growth while climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/seriously-ugly-heres-how-australia-will-look-if-the-world-heats-by-3-c-this-century-157875">diminishing</a> clean water suppies in many areas.</p>
<p>We need look no further than Australia’s trouble-plagued Murray Darling Basin to know it’s time to reassess the old methods and explore new ways in our relationship with water. </p>
<p>Exerting control over water – say, building an extensive sewer network and water supply system – may have been needed when Australia was modernising. But now it’s time to take a more humble approach that works in tandem with the environment. </p>
<p>A different approach would incorporate valuable knowledge in the social sciences, such as recognising the politics and social issues at play in how we manage water. </p>
<p>For example, in 2006 residents in the Queensland town of Toowoomba rejected the prospect of drinking <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/toowoomba-says-no-to-recycled-water-20060731-gdo2hm.html">recycled wastewater</a> after a highly politicised referendum campaign. Residents had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/can-recycled-water-be-the-next-frontier-for-towns-running-out-of-drinking-water">just three months</a> to consider the proposal, which divided the community. A non-masculine approach might involve better public consultation and an effort by authorities to understand community attitudes prior to planning.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australians are the world’s <a href="https://www.yourhome.gov.au/water">greatest per capita consumers</a> of water. A new approach might also involve questioning this consumptive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2020.1805579">behaviour</a> and reducing our water use, rather than relying on technological fixes.</p>
<p>Such approaches are likely to require giving up some control. And it may require working closely with traditional owners to incorporate Indigenous understandings of water.</p>
<p>In 2017 for example, the New Zealand government <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">passed legislation</a> that recognised the Whanganui River catchment as a legal person. The reform formally acknowledged the special relationship local Māori have with the river.</p>
<p>This different approach may also mean moving to community decision making models or even programs to increase youth involvement in water management. </p>
<p>An over-reliance on technology and infrastructure papers over the need to understand the behaviours that lead to water problems. We must seek new, sustainable approaches that recognise the role of water in our social, political and cultural lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Kosovac does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pipelines, dams, gadgets: does water management really need to be all about control and power? Adopting less masculine ideas and working with nature may be more prudent.Anna Kosovac, Research Fellow in Water Policy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584832021-04-15T12:39:46Z2021-04-15T12:39:46ZNearly 60 million Americans don’t drink their tap water, research suggests – here’s why that’s a public health problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395072/original/file-20210414-15-q3fwpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thirsty?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/kitchen-sink-with-running-water-royalty-free-image/168583229">deepblue4you/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine seeing a news report about lead contamination in drinking water in a community that looks like yours. It might make you think twice about whether to drink your tap water or serve it to your kids – especially if you also have experienced tap water problems in the past.</p>
<p>In a new study, my colleagues <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/anisha-patel?tab=research-and-scholarship">Anisha Patel</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francesca-Weaks">Francesca Weaks</a> and I estimate that approximately 61.4 million people in the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.21255016">did not drink their tap water</a> as of 2017-2018. Our research, which was released in preprint format on April 8, 2021, and has not yet been peer reviewed, found that this number has grown sharply in the past several years.</p>
<p>Other research has shown that about 2 million Americans <a href="https://www.urbanwaterslearningnetwork.org/resources/closing-the-water-access-gap-in-the-united-states-a-national-action-plan-nov-2019/">don’t have access to clean water</a>. Taking that into account, our findings suggest that about 59 million people have tap water access from either their municipality or private wells or cisterns, but don’t drink it. While some may have contaminated water, others <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/12/769783763/philadelphia-promotes-tap-water-amid-national-distrust">may be avoiding water that’s actually safe</a>.</p>
<p>Water insecurity is an underrecognized but growing problem in the U.S. Tap water distrust is part of the problem. And it’s critical to understand what drives it, because people who don’t trust their tap water shift to more expensive and often less healthy options, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1468">bottled water or sugary drinks</a>.</p>
<p>I’m a human biologist and have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c89wo3AAAAAJ&hl=en">water and health</a> for the past decade in places as diverse as Lowland Bolivia and northern Kenya. Now I run the <a href="https://hhd.psu.edu/bbh/research/research-labs/water-health-and-nutrition-lab">Water, Health, and Nutrition Laboratory</a> at Pennsylvania State University. To understand water issues, I talk to people and use large datasets to see whether a problem is unique or widespread, and stable or growing.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vcCXCPD4lYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video from the South Coast Water District in southern California urges customers to choose tap water over bottled water.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An epidemic of distrust</h2>
<p>According to our research, there’s a growing epidemic of tap water distrust and disuse in the U.S. In a 2020 study, <a href="https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/sera-young.html">anthropologist Sera Young</a> and I found that tap water avoidance was declining before the Flint water crisis that began in 2014. In 2015-2016, however, it started to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027657">increase again for children</a>. </p>
<p>Our new study found that in 2017-2018, the number of Americans who didn’t drink tap water increased at an alarmingly high rate, particularly for Black and Hispanic adults and children. Since 2013-2014 – just before the <a href="https://theconversation.com/michigan-says-flint-water-is-safe-to-drink-but-residents-trust-in-government-has-corroded-95358">Flint water crisis</a> began – the prevalence of adults who do not drink their tap water has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.21255016">increased by 40%</a>. Among children, not consuming tap has risen by 63%.</p>
<p>To calculate this change, we used data from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about_nhanes.htm">National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey</a>, a nationally representative survey that releases data in two-year cycles. Sampling weights that use demographic characteristics ensure that the people being sampled are representative of the broader U.S. population.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A city worker loads bottled water into a pickup truck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395110/original/file-20210414-23-1ek1uge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jackson, Mississippi, residents pick up bottled water at a city distribution center on Feb. 18, 2021. Much of the city was without because of problems at its water treatment plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/WinterWeatherDeepSouth/a0ea7533576145119a3740a170af3eb6/photo">AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Racial disparities in tap water consumption</h2>
<p>Communities of color have long experienced environmental injustice across the U.S. Black, Hispanic and Native American residents are more likely to live in environmentally disadvantaged neighborhoods, with exposure to water that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12397">violates</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007361117">quality standards</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings reflect these experiences. We calculated that Black and Hispanic children and adults are two to three times more likely to report not drinking their tap water than members of white households. In 2017-2018, roughly 3 out of 10 Black adults and children and nearly 4 of 10 Hispanic adults and children didn’t drink their tap water. Approximately 2 of 10 Asian Americans didn’t drink from their tap, while only 1 of 10 white Americans didn’t drink their tap water. </p>
<p>When children don’t drink any water on a given day, research shows that they consume <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.0693">twice as many calories from sugary drinks</a> as children who drink water. Higher sugary drink consumption increases risk of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db271.htm">cavities, obesity and cardiometabolic diseases</a>. Drinking tap water provides fluoride, which lowers the risk of cavities. Relying on water alternatives is also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022186">much more expensive</a> than drinking tap water.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1308458331426549761"}"></div></p>
<h2>What erodes trust</h2>
<p>News reports – particularly high-visibility events like advisories to boil water – lead people to distrust their tap water even after the problem is fixed. For example, a 2019 study showed that water quality violations across the U.S. between 2006 and 2015 led to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905385116">increases in bottled water purchases</a> in affected counties as a way to avoid tap water, and purchase rates remained elevated after the violation.</p>
<p>The Flint water crisis drew national attention to water insecurity, even though state and federal regulators were <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/environmental-justice-unjust-coverage-of-the-flint-water-crisis/">slow to respond to residents’ complaints there</a>. Soon afterward, lead contamination was found in the water supply of Newark, New Jersey; the city is currently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/us/newark-lead-drinking-water-contamination-lawsuit-settlement/index.html">replacing all lead service lines</a> under a legal settlement. Elsewhere, media outlets and advocacy groups have reported finding tap water samples contaminated with <a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/">industrial chemicals</a>, <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/how-safe-is-our-drinking-water-a0101771201/">lead, arsenic</a> and <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/more-than-25-million-americans-drink-from-the-worst-water-systems/#analysis">other contaminants</a>. </p>
<p>Many other factors can <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2016.143">cause people to distrust their water supply</a>, including smell, taste and appearance, as well as lower income levels. Location is also an issue: Older U.S. cities with aging infrastructure are more prone to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X20904431">water shutoffs and water quality problems</a>. </p>
<p>It’s important not to blame people for distrusting what comes out of their tap, because those fears are rooted in history. In my view, addressing water insecurity requires a two-part strategy: ensuring that everyone has access to clean water, and increasing trust so people who have safe water will use it.</p>
<p><iframe id="e8SWm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/e8SWm/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Building confidence</h2>
<p>As part of his proposed infrastructure plan, President Joe Biden is asking Congress for <a href="https://waterfm.com/biden-unveils-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan-water-sector-reacts/">US$111 billion</a> to improve water delivery systems, replace lead pipelines and tackle other contaminants. The plan also proposes improvements for small water systems and underserved communities.</p>
<p>These are critical steps to rebuild trust. Yet, in my view, the Environmental Protection Agency should also provide better public education about water quality testing and <a href="https://www.drinkingwateralliance.org/aqwa">targeted interventions for vulnerable populations</a>, such as children and underserved communities. Initiatives to simplify and improve water quality reports can help people understand what’s in their water and <a href="http://policyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WaterDataPrize_Report.pdf">what they can do if they think something is wrong with it</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="gKnlV" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gKnlV/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Who delivers those messages is important. In areas like Flint, where former government officials have been indicted on charges including <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2021/01/14/nine-michigan-officials-charged-flint-water-crisis/4161106001/">negligence and perjury in connection with the water crisis</a>, the government’s word alone won’t rebuild trust. Instead, <a href="https://beltmag.com/flint-community-water-lab-trust/">community members can fill this critical role</a>.</p>
<p>Another priority is the 13%-15% of Americans who rely on <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/domestic-private-supply-wells?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects">private well water</a>, which is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-04/documents/epa816f04030.pdf">not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act</a>. These households are responsible for their own water quality testing. Public funding would help them test it regularly and address any problems.</p>
<p>Public distrust of tap water in the U.S. reflects decades of policies that have reduced access to reliable, safe drinking water in communities of color. Fixing water lines is important, but so is giving people confidence to turn on the tap.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Rosinger receives funding from the National Science Foundation on an unrelated project. This work was supported by the Ann Atherton Hertzler Early Career Professorship funds, and the Penn State Population Research Institute (NICHD P2CHD041025). The funders had no role in the research or interpretation of results. </span></em></p>New research finds that tap water avoidance is on the rise in the US, especially among minorities. An expert on water and health calls for better public education about water quality and testing.Asher Rosinger, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health, Anthropology, and Demography. Director, Water, Health, and Nutrition Laboratory, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442762020-09-13T19:51:23Z2020-09-13T19:51:23ZWhat lies beneath: tunnels for trafficking, or just a subterranean service? Time to rescue these spaces from the conspiracists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352199/original/file-20200811-16-1bt1gkt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=177%2C0%2C2646%2C1812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tidal drain at South Yarra, Melbourne, in 2008. The installation of litter-trapping equipment now prevents access.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Victoria Kolankiewicz</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital communications have <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-conspiracy-theories-on-the-rise-in-the-us-121968">spread conspiracy theories more widely than ever before</a>, particularly in this uncertain and tumultuous year. QAnon, for example, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conspiracy-theories-spread-online-its-not-just-down-to-algorithms-133891">a movement</a> that seeks to identify a “deep state” or “global elite” complicit in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-church-of-qanon-will-conspiracy-theories-form-the-basis-of-a-new-religious-movement-137859">human trafficking, “Pizzagate” and the orchestration of a global pandemic</a>. One conspiracy theory “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-children-rescued-tunnels/fact-check-35000-malnourished-and-caged-children-were-not-recently-rescued-from-tunnels-by-us-military-idUSKBN23M2EL">going viral</a>” is that extensive operations are taking place to rescue children held in secret underground locales beneath densely populated cities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conspiracy-theories-spread-online-its-not-just-down-to-algorithms-133891">How conspiracy theories spread online – it's not just down to algorithms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Tunnel networks beneath major Australian cities such as <a href="https://twitter.com/BushmansMum/status/1287181188860227586">Melbourne</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/timetowakeupsw1/status/1246785772268683265">Sydney</a> have <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarah.shanahan.58/posts/10157286425985685">received similar treatment</a>. Misconceptions of their form and purpose are communicated via social media. The stuff of urban legends, once circulated among acquaintances, is now online. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1246785772268683265"}"></div></p>
<p>The misunderstandings of these spaces reveal a more glaring oversight: of wartime histories, transportation follies, essential services and the unique geologies and climates that require drainage infrastructure. These tunnels are hidden by necessity. But they are close enough to the surface to be easily accessible, preventing their use for any large-scale conspiracy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Facebook post of conspiracy theory linking Melbourne lockdown to children held captive in underground tunnels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356898/original/file-20200908-20-1652fnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Facebook post linking the Melbourne COVID-19 lockdown to children held captive in underground tunnels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/sarah.shanahan.58/posts/10157286425985685">Facebook</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why the fixation with tunnels?</h2>
<p>Abandoned or atypical urban spaces have <a href="https://theconversation.com/reopening-londons-mail-rail-why-its-so-hard-to-recreate-the-thrill-of-exploring-urban-ruins-54423">long piqued the public imagination</a>. Sites of abandonment are also associated with notions of freedom and excitement. Urban exploration has increased significantly within the past decade, amplified by social media sharing of imagery and aesthetics. </p>
<p>Rumours abound of complex tunnel networks in major Australian cities, created in the wake of the second world war. Larger air raid shelters were often located close to urban settlement, but escaped use. They remained in public memory as mythology: bunkers can be located across Australia, from Dover Heights in Sydney, to Prospect and Glenelg in Adelaide. <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/the-only-air-raid-pipe-shelters-in-brisbane-still-remain-a-mystery-20190425-p51h4u.html">Over 20 air raid shelters exist in Brisbane alone</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Entrances to air raid shelter at Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352166/original/file-20200811-22-4u2nru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The entrances to an air raid shelter at Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_raid_shelters_at_Howard_Smith_Wharves_in_Brisbane_02.jpg">Kgbo/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fabled “<a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north/a-tunnel-in-the-banks-of-the-merri-creek-has-finally-been-filled-in-by-darebin-council/news-story/5c811dc980967ebc61e9321ec222a0b4">Northcote Tunnel</a>” in Melbourne was the subject of decades of rumour. It was eventually found to be the result of a search for an underground stream, not the large-scale 1940s American construction it was said to be. </p>
<p>Tunnels beneath Sydney served similar purposes, either by design or as the result of a failed transport infrastructure project. The St James tunnels are a prime example. This “hidden” space is about to be converted to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/st-james-tunnel-vision-plan-to-revive-abandoned-sydney-railway-20181001-p5073u.html">a tourism precinct</a>. </p>
<p>Beneath the streets of Melbourne, Sydney and beyond, mail and precious cargo were often transported about the city in underground tunnels from nearby railway stations or ports to parliament or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Post_Office,_Melbourne">General Post Office</a>. </p>
<h2>So what are these spaces used for today?</h2>
<p>Today, urban tunnels carry telecommunications, gas, electricity, water and sewerage infrastructure.</p>
<p>Exact locations remain secret for security and operational reasons. Access is allowed in rare cases. In the case of the <a href="http://www.health.vic.gov.au/healthvictoria/sep11/tunnel.htm">Royal Melbourne Hospital steam tunnels</a>, members of the public can book a place on once-yearly tours. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Partially constructed tunnels and unused platforms at St James railway station, Sydney." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352165/original/file-20200811-24-1b63gmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Partially constructed tunnels and unused platforms at St James railway station, Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_James_Railway_Station_Sydney_IMG_4450_(26443308184).jpg">Beau Giles/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stormwater drains are most abundant in urban areas; perhaps this is why they feature so heavily in conspiracies. Where depressions, undulations or linear tracts of open space exist in the landscape, a stormwater drain is likely lurking beneath the surface. These drains are needed to divert rainwater from areas where hard surfaces would otherwise lead to flooding. </p>
<p>In Melbourne, the <a href="https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-data-and-education/water-facts-and-history/history-and-heritage/timeline-our-history">Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works</a> started building these drains in the early 20th century. I have explored many of these complex networks, <a href="https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-data-and-education/water-facts-and-history/flooding/drainage-system">over 1,400 kilometres of drains</a> that span almost all of metropolitan Melbourne and its fringes. These drains are literally beneath the feet of city dwellers: many would be surprised to find that a drain runs <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-plan-to-turn-melbournes-elizabeth-street-into-a-rainforest-canal-20150304-13uk1x.html">beneath the major thoroughfare of Elizabeth Street</a>, historically Williams Creek. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1287181188860227586"}"></div></p>
<p>The Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board built similar infrastructure in Sydney. Open and closed conduits were built in concrete and brick — as well as bluestone in Melbourne, and limestone in Sydney — throughout the past century. Sydney’s stormwater network <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/sw/water-the-environment/how-we-manage-sydney-s-water/stormwater-network/index.htm">totals 454 kilometres</a> of drains and spans 73 water catchments. These drains ultimately carry <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/where-does-all-the-stormwater-go-after-the-sydney-weather-clears-20150430-1mx4ep.html">500 billion litres into Sydney Harbour or Botany Bay</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-legacy-of-liveable-cities-wont-last-without-a-visionary-response-to-growth-93729">Our legacy of liveable cities won't last without a visionary response to growth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drain on the Yarra River in South Yarra" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352197/original/file-20200811-18-1506vqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tidal drain at South Yarra, Melbourne, in 2008. The installation of litter-trapping equipment now prevents access.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Victoria Kolankiewicz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dangerous, yes, but for more mundane reasons</h2>
<p>These hidden spaces <em>can</em> be controversial or dangerous, but not for the reasons put forth by QAnon and its ilk. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-church-of-qanon-will-conspiracy-theories-form-the-basis-of-a-new-religious-movement-137859">The Church of QAnon: Will conspiracy theories form the basis of a new religious movement?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Social groups have emerged around drain exploration, with the Melbourne-based Cave Clan the best-known example. They have clear rules to ensure the safety of their members. “No drains when it rains” is one such rule: sudden rain can catch out explorers as water levels rise quickly inside drains. </p>
<p>Drownings have been reported in both <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/graffiti-drain-survivor-i-wish-i-had-died/news-story/40a663ce61814480552ad5348ea0d698?sv=d13fa3e80fab16b57ee6743c223cf149">Sydney</a> and <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/fears-for-lives-of-underground-explorers/news-story/e9a23d2f83212308d5a3b8928700fa07">Melbourne</a>. The unpredictability of sudden torrential flows means these spaces are fundamentally unsuited to the purposes suggested in conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>Frequent visits by urban explorers would also quickly identify any secretive mis-uses of drainage infrastructure. This would equally apply to other underground spaces such as steam and service tunnels – maintenance staff would soon spot anything amiss.</p>
<p>More crucial, however, is that the design of these drains means they could not play any part in supposed trafficking networks. Some of these drains are large enough for adults to explore. The vast majority, though, are too small to be accessed, with diameters as narrow as 300mm. </p>
<p>Even the most cavernous drains would not be suitable for storage. Larger drains are designed to hold larger flows, often at a confluence of catchment areas. While they these drains <em>could</em> host human beings, they would be at risk of drowning whenever it rained. Tidal flows or litter traps can also prevent access.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-tide-is-high-our-sewerage-systems-wont-hold-on-14467">If the tide is high, our sewerage systems won't hold on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1284427769393233920"}"></div></p>
<p>Child trafficking is a very <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-trafficking-and-slavery-still-happen-in-australia-this-comic-explains-how-112294">relevant</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/jeffrey-epsteins-arrest-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-human-trafficking-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-crime-120225">issue</a>, but it is certainly not taking place under cities across the nation. Rather than abandoning subterranean spaces to conspiratorial narratives or urban mythology, these spaces are important for other reasons. These point to the need to build a common understanding not only of their form and function, but also of the ethos underlying their existence, a concern for the common good. </p>
<p>That something as impressive and as everyday as our civic infrastructure inspires such fascination and fear is indeed curious. Ultimately, these spaces are too utilitarian to serve the purpose claimed by viral social media posts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Kolankiewicz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What was once the stuff of urban legends now spreads virally through social media claims the tunnels beneath our cities are used for child trafficking. The truth is both more mundane and important.Victoria Kolankiewicz, Research Assistant, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368382020-05-05T19:52:53Z2020-05-05T19:52:53ZThe PM wants to fast-track mega-projects for pandemic recovery. Here’s why that’s a bad idea<p>Our governments are <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-just-started-well-need-war-bonds-and-stimulus-on-a-scale-not-seen-in-our-lifetimes-137155">committing taxpayers to further debt</a> as part of a planned recovery from the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Infrastructure spending is great for economic stimulus, but it has to be the right kind of infrastructure. </p>
<p>These are some of our largest public investments, so we want this public money to work a lot harder to create multiple rather than just singular benefits. As well as quickly providing jobs and the economic benefits of solving the problems of transport or energy supply, stimulus projects need to deliver broad, long-term community value, <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-coronavirus-widens-the-renter-owner-divide-housing-policies-will-have-to-change-135808">reduce inequality</a> and help <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-to-disappoint-climate-deniers-but-coronavirus-makes-the-low-carbon-transition-more-urgent-135419">counter climate change</a>. </p>
<p>The focus of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-flags-company-tax-cuts-ir-reform-as-key-to-covid-19-economic-recovery-20200417-p54kvq.html">fast-tracked infrastructure spending</a> in the pandemic recovery should be many smaller-scale projects that provide these broader benefits. Hence these projects will provide greater value than the <a href="https://investment.infrastructure.gov.au/">transport mega-projects</a> that had already been <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-to-inject-economic-stimulus-by-accelerating-infrastructure-spend-127358">proposed for economic stimulus</a>. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-backs-economic-game-changer-high-speed-rail-as-part-of-pandemic-recovery-20200418-p54l24.html">high-speed rail project</a> Labor has proposed will help decarbonise travel, but it won’t provide enough jobs in the short or medium term. Major road projects will cut commuting time for some drivers, but won’t provide widespread benefits or longer-term employment. New roads also increase emissions and often damage neighbourhoods.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/look-beyond-a-silver-bullet-train-for-stimulus-136834">Look beyond a silver bullet train for stimulus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Good infrastructure delivers broad benefits</h2>
<p>Infrastructure projects are such significant economic engines they can incorporate community improvement without compromising their other outcomes. </p>
<p>The ways in which projects get planned and implemented hold the key. For example, projects should involve local businesses, give hiring preference to long-term unemployed people and use sustainable materials. </p>
<p>Infrastructure planning can integrate multiple functions. For example, water-management infrastructure (for drainage or flooding) can be designed to include open space, tree cover, recreation and cycleways. Streets can be designed as beautiful public spaces that include pedestrians, cyclists and cars, as well as tree canopy and water storage.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"895711876029349889"}"></div></p>
<p>Good infrastructure used for employment creation and economic recovery looks like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Deal">Roosevelt’s New Deal</a> of the 1930s. These programs created a legacy of high-quality public infrastructure across the United States. </p>
<p>A “Green New Deal” approach in Australia could focus on smaller-scale projects, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/physical-distancing-is-here-for-a-while-over-100-experts-call-for-more-safe-walking-and-cycling-space-137374">infrastructure to promote walking and cycling</a></p></li>
<li><p>tree planting to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-solution-to-cut-extreme-heat-by-up-to-6-degrees-is-in-our-own-backyards-133082">reduce heat and store carbon</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-fire-and-flood-how-outer-urban-areas-can-manage-the-emergency-while-reducing-future-risks-131560">land-management strategies to reduce fire and flood risks</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-the-economy-we-need-green-stimulus-not-fossil-fuel-bailouts-133492">renewable energy infrastructure</a> of all kinds</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-know-what-weve-got-till-its-gone-we-must-reclaim-public-space-lost-to-the-coronavirus-crisis-135817">improvements to public open spaces</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-focus-of-stimulus-plans-has-to-be-construction-that-puts-social-housing-first-136519">retrofitting and enhancing schools</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.greenway.org.au/">multipurpose greenways</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N1z0gn5gKRs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This greenway traverses Sydney’s Inner West municipality.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These types of projects are fast to get going and labour-intensive. They can be implemented in both cities and regional areas. These projects can also build longer-term employment capacity and help with the transition of workers out of fossil fuel industry jobs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-cities-in-the-face-of-twin-crises-136765">The future of cities in the face of twin crises</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bigger isn’t necessarily better</h2>
<p>The largest infrastructure projects, like those being proposed, are the riskiest in terms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacular-cost-blowouts-show-need-to-keep-governments-honest-on-transport-66394">cost blowouts</a> and often deliver limited social and environmental value. In many instances their <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23607068?seq=1">claimed economic value is also doubtful</a>, as their costs are modelled inaccurately and their benefits and use are often vastly exaggerated. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacular-cost-blowouts-show-need-to-keep-governments-honest-on-transport-66394">Spectacular cost blowouts show need to keep governments honest on transport</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One cause of cost blowouts is that governments are often reluctant to commit to spending in the early stages of major projects. This means commitments are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/missing-evidence-base-for-big-calls-on-infrastructure-costs-us-all-99080">made before projects are well enough understood</a>. Early spending to explore alternatives, understand impacts and consult widely can often <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2009.00606.x">realise projects more quickly and with more predictable outcomes</a> that better serve the public interest.</p>
<p>The Morrison government is promoting the myth of fast-tracking through the cutting of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-25/coronavirus-eeconomy-reforms-usual-suspects/12182786">red tape</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/23/coalition-is-aiming-to-change-australias-environment-laws-before-review-is-finished">green tape</a>. This is not the key to faster project delivery. We have a decent system of development regulation, which attempts to balance the business interests of developers against the public good. The current crisis has illustrated very clearly the importance of the public values of <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-us-how-liveable-neighbourhoods-matter-for-our-well-being-135806">liveability</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-scorecard-gives-the-health-of-australias-environment-less-than-1-out-of-10-133444">preserving natural resources</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/physical-distancing-is-here-for-a-while-over-100-experts-call-for-more-safe-walking-and-cycling-space-137374">easy access to open space and local centres</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/physical-distancing-is-here-for-a-while-over-100-experts-call-for-more-safe-walking-and-cycling-space-137374">Physical distancing is here for a while – over 100 experts call for more safe walking and cycling space</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We must hold all our infrastructure projects to higher standards. Robust planning and <a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-green-tape-may-be-good-politicking-but-its-bad-policy-here-are-5-examples-of-regulation-failure-137164">environmental regulation are crucial</a> to maximise the public benefit of projects. Effective <a href="https://theconversation.com/sidelining-citizens-when-deciding-on-transport-projects-is-asking-for-trouble-92840">community engagement ultimately leads to smoother implementation</a> and better outcomes. Projects that work within planning regulations <a href="https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/urbanism/planning/fast-tracking-development-in-nsw-genuine-reform-or-rent-seeker-give-away/?ct=t%2821+april+2020%29">move more swiftly into implementation</a> than projects that try to bypass them. </p>
<p>In this pandemic crisis we have seen governments move fast and effectively to change policy and implement large-scale programs to benefit the community. The economic rebuilding forced on us by the pandemic is an opportunity to show the same agility to rethink our approach to infrastructure as an engine to uplift our communities and improve life for all citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Mossop is a founding director of Spackman Mossop Michaels landscape architects in Australia and the USA. </span></em></p>Smaller projects are better for delivering broad, long-term value to communities across the country, reducing inequality and cutting emissions, as well as quickly providing jobs and economic stimulus.Elizabeth Mossop, Dean of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1303562020-02-11T12:58:36Z2020-02-11T12:58:36ZBuried in mud: Wildfires threaten North American water supplies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311236/original/file-20200121-117917-skrq4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=205%2C205%2C3864%2C2522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Rim Fire burned 256,000 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park in 2013. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/9898802086/">(USDA Forest Service, Chris Stewart)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As rain offers a welcome relief to fire-scorched Australia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sweet-relief-of-rain-after-bushfires-threatens-disaster-for-our-rivers-129449">concerns</a> over flash floods and freshwater contamination cast a shadow on the joy. Already, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/17/hundreds-of-thousands-of-fish-dead-in-nsw-as-bushfire-ash-washed-into-river">massive fish kills</a> have been reported due to heavy ash and sediment in local stream.</p>
<p><a href="https://utilitymagazine.com.au/waternsw-to-protect-dam-water-quality-from-bushfire-risks/">Local reservoirs</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/bushfires-threaten-drinking-water-safety-the-consequences-could-last-for-decades-129353">municipal water supplies</a> might become so polluted from the fires that the current water supply infrastructure will be challenged or could no longer treat the water.</p>
<p>Flash floods and water contamination after large-scale wildfires are emerging as real hazards in Australia and many other places, threatening drinking water, ecosystems, infrastructures and recreational activities.</p>
<h2>Water supply from forests is at risk</h2>
<p>In many ways, this is not surprising. Forests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605354113">provide water</a> to 90 per cent of the world’s most populous cities, and most of these forests already yield degraded water quality. Forests also provide other <a href="https://blog.globalforestwatch.org/data-and-research/watersheds-lost-up-to-22-of-their-forests-in-14-years-heres-how-it-affects-your-water-supply">essential water services</a> like flood control, hydroelectricity, fishing and recreational opportunities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-costs-approaching-100-billion-the-fires-are-australias-costliest-natural-disaster-129433">With costs approaching $100 billion, the fires are Australia's costliest natural disaster</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.112">recent global analyses</a> clearly showed Australia’s water supply was at high risk from wildfires. We also found areas on every continent except Antarctica face similar risks. In North America, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/we-have-to-learn-to-live-with-fire-how-wildfires-are-changing-canadian-summers-1.5135539">larger and more severe fires</a> have created new challenges for forest and water managers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311720/original/file-20200124-162185-dvbmms.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 2015 Stouts Creek Fire in Oregon led to more runoff and erosion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kevin Bladon)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Post-fire water hazards</h2>
<p>Wildfires can have many detrimental impacts on water supplies. The effects can last for <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200110093836.htm">multiple decades</a> and include drinking water pollution, reservoir sedimentation, flash floods and reduced recreational benefits from rivers.</p>
<p>These impacts represent a growing hazard as populations expand, and communities encroach onto forest landscapes.</p>
<p>Looking closer, wildfires <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03735-6">change the amount of water that comes from</a> upstream forests and the seasonal timing of water flows. Such changes complicate water resource allocation as less water might be available during periods of high demand.</p>
<p>When rainstorms follow large and severe wildfires, they tend to flush ash, nutrients, <a href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/water/Benzene-found-water-supply-fire/97/web/2019/04">heavy metals and toxins</a>, and sediments into streams and rivers. This contamination from wildfires causes problems for the health of downstream rivers and lakes, as well as safe drinking water production.</p>
<p>Mercury, which can be deposited on leaves and absorbed by plants, is a particular concern. During a fire, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-7263-2018">mercury may be re-emitted in large amounts and deposited</a> in nearby lakes, wetlands and other water, where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0609798104">it accumulates</a> in the food web, and into fish, that are caught and eaten by people. Indigenous communities living in fire-prone forests in Canada and who already struggle with mercury contamination might be particularly exposed.</p>
<h2>Risks in North America</h2>
<p>Polluted water creates many expensive, difficult and long-lasting challenges for the drinking water treatment process. For example, water remained difficult to treat for <a href="https://denverwatertap.org/2017/06/16/legacy-colorados-largest-wildfire/">15 years after</a> after the 2002 Hayman fire in Colorado. </p>
<p>The quality of the post-fire water increased the chances of forming undesirable byproducts of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2019.04.0172">water disinfection</a>. These toxic chemicals had to be removed before the water could be supplied to more than half a million users in Denver.</p>
<p>But most of the fire-prone areas in North America lack large-scale vulnerability assessments of their municipal water supplies — and not because the risks are inconsequential.</p>
<p>In Canada and the United States, one large and severe wildfire might increase drinking water production costs by US$10 million to US$100 million. In southern California, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/deadly-california-mudslides/">mudslides from heavy rainfall</a> after wildfires caused 23 deaths and produced more than US$100 million of structural damage in 2018.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311722/original/file-20200124-162190-1p38eew.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boulders moved in the 2018 Montecito mudslide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(WERF, 2018)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The financial burden of these changes is eventually carried by taxpayers. Adopting nature-friendly solutions to reduce severe wildfires in upstream forests, such as <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-restoring-watersheds-is-a-new-priority-in-a-warming-world">prescribed burns</a> under controlled conditions, will lower the bill and provide better protection of water services.</p>
<h2>Protecting the source</h2>
<p>Forest health is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa9092">already declining across Canada</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2008.03.003">United States</a>. This trend will likely continue because of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac6759">climate change and land degradation</a> linked to human activities.</p>
<p>Climate projections suggest that fires will happen <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF09002">more frequently</a> and become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7e6e">more severe</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617394114">Urban sprawl</a> also increases the likelihood of these fires happening in the vicinity of homes.</p>
<p>Combined with increased rainfall and declining snowfall, this makes river flows and the quality of surface water less predictable. Consequently, water supplies become <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6190102/fresh-water-canada-climate-change/">less reliable</a>.</p>
<p>In light of these environmental changes and the inevitability of wildfires, countries like Canada and the United States can expect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06783-6">cascading hazards</a> with impacts similar in magnitude to what is now happening in Australia.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5kvjkpig3T4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Therefore, governments need to seize <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124360">existing opportunities</a>, such as leveraging existing data and taking advantage of growing computing power, to measure <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF000867">wildfire risk to water supplies</a>. A tailored wildfire-water risk reduction strategy can help achieve better source water protection, improve infrastructure and foster preventive disaster planning.</p>
<p>There is no doubt we will learn more as our knowledge of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans">Indigenous forest management practices</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/native-people-did-not-use-fire-to-shape-new-englands-landscape-129429">improves</a>. Instead of reinventing the wheel we must try to keep water in the landscape by <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-fight-wildfires-and-climate-change-with-wetlands-117356">restoring wetlands</a>, and accept a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EO137917">helping hand</a> when offered.</p>
<p>Because ultimately, forests and clean water resources are of paramount importance to our own future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>François-Nicolas Robinne receives funding from Global Water Futures and the Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science (Canada Wildfire). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Hallema receives funding from the USDA Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Bladon receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. </span></em></p>Wildfires reduce the reliability of city water supplies in North America. But active forest management provides a key to the solution.François-Nicolas Robinne, Postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Geography, University of AlbertaDennis W Hallema, Research Assistant Professor, North Carolina State UniversityKevin D. Bladon, Assistant Professor, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1161192019-05-24T10:44:11Z2019-05-24T10:44:11ZWater stays in the pipes longer in shrinking cities – a challenge for public health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276213/original/file-20190523-187157-5jamhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=450%2C84%2C2861%2C2093&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How long has that water already been in the system?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/drinking-water-flowing-fountain-9977686">mike.irwin/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The geographic locations where Americans live are shifting in ways that can negatively affect the quality of their drinking water. </p>
<p>Cities that experience long-term, persistent population decline are called <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Shrinking-Cities-Understanding-urban-decline-in-the-United-States/Weaver-Bagchi-Sen-Knight-Frazier/p/book/9781138601154">shrinking cities</a>. Although shrinking cities exist across the U.S., they are concentrated in the American Rust Belt and Northeast. Urban shrinkage can be bad for drinking water in two ways: through aging infrastructure and reduced water demand.</p>
<p><iframe id="Qg7N1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Qg7N1/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Major federal and state investments in U.S. drinking water occurred after the World Wars and through the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/drinkingwatersrf/how-drinking-water-state-revolving-fund-works">Drinking Water State Revolving Fund</a> created by the 1996 amendments to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-safe-drinking-water-act">Safe Drinking Water Act</a>. Many of the pipes and treatment plants built with those funds are now <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Drinking-Water-Final.pdf">approaching or have exceeded the end of their expected lifespan</a>. Shrinking cities often don’t have the tax base to pay for maintenance and replacement needs. So the infrastructure, which is largely underground, out of sight and out of mind, deteriorates largely outside of the public eye.</p>
<p>Water systems are typically designed for growth, not shrinkage. Oversized water treatment and distribution systems are common in shrinking cities that experience less water demand than they did decades ago. Consequently, shrinking cities can have drinking water sit in their old and corroded distribution system pipes longer than desired. The water age, or time water spends in pipes from treatment to consumption, increases. As engineers, scientists and public health professionals, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qixoZO4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">we</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vtHjmu8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">are</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uxN_efQAAAAJ&hl=en">studying</a> the health effects of drinking water and concerned that not enough attention is being paid to what high water age can mean for public health. </p>
<h2>More time in the pipes</h2>
<p>In the early 2000s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a report about how <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/2007_05_18_disinfection_tcr_whitepaper_tcr_waterdistribution.pdf">high water age causes undesirable changes</a> in the chemical, microbiological and physical quality of drinking water. Examples of water quality factors that can deteriorate with increased water age include levels of disinfection byproducts, corrosion, microbial growth (including pathogens) and nitrate. Each of these factors can directly affect public health.</p>
<p>As an example, there’s been a major shift in the type of microbes that cause waterborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. since the EPA report was published. In 2002-2003, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/surveillance/pdf/ss5308.pdf">two-thirds of these outbreaks</a> involved bacteria that cause diarrhea, and approximately a quarter of outbreaks were due to pneumonia that can occur when vulnerable people breathe in contaminated water while showering, for instance. In the most recent report, covering 2011-2012, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/surveillance/pdf/mm6431.pdf">the statistics reversed</a>, with pneumonia (mostly due to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/history.html">Legionnaires’ Disease</a>) accounting for two-thirds of all outbreaks and 100% of all waterborne deaths during the monitoring period.</p>
<p>High water age contributes to low chlorine concentrations and corrosion, which can result in high levels of metals, such as iron. When these conditions occur during warmer summer months, growth of Legionnaires’ Disease bacteria increases. Low levels of disinfectant can also increase total bacteria in drinking water and support growth of some bacteria that can be unhealthy for the youngest, oldest and most ill consumers. </p>
<p>Importantly, routine monitoring of microbiological indicators in U.S. drinking waters hasn’t changed much since the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 1974. It still centers on detecting organisms that can cause diarrhea, not respiratory illnesses like pneumonia, and it is assumed that treatment methods that address the former will remove the latter. </p>
<p>Overall, there is still much that scientists do not know about the impact of water age on water quality conveyed through distribution systems and household pipes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276214/original/file-20190523-187176-3khha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flint has become emblematic of shrinking cities’ water problems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Flint-Water/2ae6991884b24081b6c2b70e458f16f4/7/0">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Individuals working on a societal problem</h2>
<p>This infrastructure crisis in water has contributed to a nationwide trust crisis. Polls show that the U.S. public is increasingly worried “a great deal” about polluted drinking water, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/207536/water-pollution-worries-highest-2001.aspx">up to 63% of Americans in 2016</a>, and it is the top concern among environmental factors that Americans care about. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-flint-water-crisis-corrosion-of-pipes-erosion-of-trust-53776">problems in Flint, Michigan</a> have become notorious, but the condition of Flint’s water system is not unique. It’s a shrinking city that already had high water age before corrosive water was passed through its pipes. The corrosion event in 2014-2015 leached lead into drinking water delivered to consumers. Lead is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/leadinwater/default.htm">a potent neurotoxin</a> that is problematic for children’s developing brains.</p>
<p>As exemplified by Flint, lead remains in some pipes, solders and “lead-free” fixtures that are not actually free of lead. Schools and residents are increasingly turning to point-of-use filters where water is treated to remove lead just prior to leaving the faucet. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10934529.2019.1611141">While helpful</a>, these treatment options may not remove all contaminants of concern and may cause water quality to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09603120410001725595">deteriorate</a> if filters are not maintained.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276215/original/file-20190523-187165-lrvyjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">School administrators and private citizens aren’t water quality experts but need to ensure their water is safe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Washington-Schools-Lead/968d282e50784dada95a58c2b104003f/6/0">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Residents and school principals aren’t experts in water treatment, yet are forced to become more involved with ensuring good drinking water quality in buildings. This requires them to rely on utilities for information on water quality – and water age is not routinely considered. Utilities are increasingly trying to convey technical information that has a high level of scientific uncertainty around it. Requests for more openness create a communication challenge for utilities – and run counter to the high-security practices and mindsets put in place in the aftermath of 9/11.</p>
<p>Greater transparency requires greater trust between water officials, public health officials, community members and water experts. At the same time, officials serving shrinking cities need to provide safe drinking water for those consumers who remain.</p>
<p>Despite all its accomplishments, the Safe Drinking Water Act is an imperfect law. Simply relying upon and then communicating about a water quality parameter that “meets all regulatory standards” – as per the law – is an inadequate way to communicate about water quality, as you can see in Flint.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Love receives funding from the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1632974) and the State of Michigan through a subcontract from Wayne State University. She is also a member of the Flint Technical Advisory Committee administered through Flint's City Hall, and appointed by Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to the Flint Water System Advisory Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Jackson served as a senior public health official at both the CDC and in California. Other than salary and prior service on public health and National Academies Committees, he has no conflicts to disclose. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shawn P. McElmurry has received funding related to this topic from the State of Michigan; National Science Foundation under award numbers 1832692 and 1633013; and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award numbers R21 ES027199. He is also a member of the Flint Technical Advisory Committee administered through Flint's City Hall, and appointed by Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to the Flint Water System Advisory Council.</span></em></p>In many municipalities, aging water infrastructure is serving fewer people than it was built to accommodate. Out of sight has meant out of mind – but resulting changes in water quality may affect safety.Nancy Love, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of MichiganRichard Jackson, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Los AngelesShawn P. McElmurry, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1124232019-02-27T13:53:42Z2019-02-27T13:53:42ZCape Town has a plan to manage its water. But there are big gaps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260969/original/file-20190226-150702-1quu32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What lessons were learnt from Cape Town's "Day Zero"?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The City of Cape Town – and southwest Africa more generally – experienced its worst drought on record between 2015 and 2018. With fresh rains as well as careful water management, the city has now emerged from this environmental and economic emergency. </p>
<p>The final consequences of the drought might never be known for certain. This is because the effects on groundwater depletion or biodiversity loss may not appear until years after the event. But the economic impact of the drought is more easily identified. Over 30,000 jobs have been lost in the <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/drought-impact-on-w-cape-economy-worse-than-anticipated-minister-20180301">agricultural sector</a> in the Western Cape region, caused by a 20% decrease in agricultural production. </p>
<p>There are other consequences too, such as the impact on the city’s international reputation, as well as residents’ and policymakers’ experiences of water restrictions and the threat of “Day Zero”. </p>
<p>So what are the lessons learnt?</p>
<p>The City of Cape Town has recently released a <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/City-Connect/Have-your-say/Issues-open-for-public-comment/draft-cape-town-water-strategy">draft strategy for water supply and management</a> which aims to ensure safe access to water and sanitation for all the city’s residents, efficient water use, diversified water sources and shared costs and benefits by 2040. This strategy has been strongly informed by events of the past three years and is a bold statement of intent. As such, it sets a benchmark for sustainable development in the city and the wider region. The strategy is aimed at increasing usable water availability and managing that water better. But some elements are missing. </p>
<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>Missing parts of the strategy include the uncertainty of future trends in climate, economic activities, population growth, water demand and infrastructure investment needs. Increasing water availability is easy in theory because it is based on balancing supply to need. But this water needs to come from somewhere. </p>
<p>Rainfall is becoming ever more precarious, groundwater <a href="http://niwis.dws.gov.za/niwis2/DroughtStatusManagement/GroundwaterStatusOverview">aquifers are depleted</a>, and river and dam water is already allocated. Desalinisation is an option. But this is expensive and has unknown environmental impacts. </p>
<p>Another option is water redistribution. In the recent drought, water was diverted from the agriculture sector to supply the city. But this had ripple effects on farming communities and economies. This approach is probably no longer sustainable. </p>
<p>There is also the option of reducing water demand. The new draft strategy doesn’t specifically mention managing demand – it makes vague reference to the need to use water wisely. It may be that the memory of water restrictions is too recent to discuss in this document. But water management is not just about supplying water, it’s about changing hearts and minds. These take much longer to change. For some Capetonians, the drought is over and normal business is resumed. For others, the spectre of Day Zero still remains. </p>
<p>And the plan doesn’t indicate that lessons have been learnt. For example, an innovative <a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/Residential-utility-services/Residential-water-and-sanitation-services/cape-town-water-map">Water Map</a> used by the City of Cape Town was able to “name and shame” excessive water users, but some township users were exempt from restrictions while other wealthy users largely ignored the water restrictions because they could afford to pay the resulting fines. </p>
<p>This kind of behavioural analysis is important when it comes to equitable planning and water management, and provides a rich source of data for drought epidemiology – Cape Town knows more about how its residents use water than most cities.</p>
<h2>Emerging from disaster</h2>
<p>Over the next decades, it’s anticipated that southern Africa will experience both higher average annual temperatures, in particular in summer. It’s also expected to have <a href="http://www.weathersa.co.za/images/SAWS_CC_REFERENCE_ATLAS_PAGES.pdf">more variable</a> and somewhat lower rainfall. Collectively, these climatic changes will result in greater water insecurity, irrespective of any changes in population, water demand or capacity of water infrastructure.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9f9">recent study</a> shows that climate change has trebled drought risk in Cape Town. Future-proofing cities such as Cape Town to withstand water insecurity and drought conditions cannot be done without managing water infrastructure better. In South Africa, <a href="http://www.dwa.gov.za/National%20Water%20and%20Sanitation%20Master%20Plan/Documents/NWSMP%20Call%20to%20Action%20v10.1.pdf">56% of waste water treatment plants</a> are not fully operational. This limits its ability to deliver on the future promises outlined in the City of Cape Town strategy document.</p>
<p>Water restrictions in Cape Town have eased over recent months. But persistent drought still exists elsewhere in the region, in small town rural communities where there’s a lack of water infrastructure, lack of access to dam water supplies and depleting aquifers. Addressing the future water problem for Cape Town should not be done at the expense of the wider region, and must be formulated as a national-scale strategy. This should be a government priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasper Knight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cape Town’s draft strategy on water supply is out for comment, but important elements are missing from it.Jasper Knight, Professor of Physical Geography, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1024132018-09-03T14:01:37Z2018-09-03T14:01:37ZNature’s whims cause water crises. Its infrastructure can stop them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234228/original/file-20180830-195304-1kb3so0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavy rainfall recently devastated large swathes of Kerala, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prakash Elamakkara/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across Asia, man-made structures have stood powerless to avert tragedy after tragedy during 2018’s rainy season. Hundreds remain missing in Laos following <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/07/24/a-huge-dam-in-laos-collapsed-washing-away-6000-homes/?utm_term=.8decc55ae84b">the collapse</a> of the partially built Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric dam, which followed relentless rainfall. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, more than 300 people have been confirmed dead after the worst downpours in a century <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/nasa-satellite-images-show-devastating-effect-of-kerala-floods-from-space-a3921261.html">overwhelmed dams</a> in the Indian state of Kerala.</p>
<p>Dams are vital for <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/40F3E613CFE321F1492576FC0023DE59-water-strge-hydropow-supp-grwth.pdf">energy needs and economic growth</a>. But they’ve been <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160909112300.htm">criticised</a> for posing risks to local communities and the fragile environments in which they are built. In the case of both Laos and Kerala, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/21/laos-dam-collapse-work-continues-on-huge-projects-despite-promised-halt">questions are being raised</a> about the long-term suitability and sustainability of dam building projects in the light of recent disasters and the continued threat of climate change.</p>
<p>At the same time “green” infrastructure – a term for nature-based structures capturing stormwater underground and in wetlands – is gaining popularity. It was the topic of the United Nations’ <a href="http://www.unwater.org/publications/world-water-development-report-2018/">2018 World Water Development Report</a>, which called for concerted efforts to feature natural infrastructure among the solutions when addressing increasing vulnerability and water insecurity.</p>
<p>And, as projects that harness nature-based structures in places like <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/water-storage/ensuring-resilience-through-community-sand-dams-in-kenya/">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180218/plus/vanishing-wetlands-281954.html">Sri Lanka</a> are showing, green infrastructure can be a valuable tool in helping vulnerable communities to face the double threat of flooding and drought. <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/environmental-services-3/nature-based-integrated-watershed-management-solution/">Research and practise</a> from India over the last 30 years demonstrate this, through integrated watershed management that involves local stakeholders.</p>
<h2>Sand dams in Kenya</h2>
<p>One example of a successful “green” infrastructure approach can be found in the town of Kitui in Kenya, situated 150 km east of Nairobi. The land in Kitui is semi-arid. Rain falls in two wet seasons, usually as infrequent, intensive storms. During the dry season, surface water sources are scarce. It takes a long time to walk to the few reliable water sources.</p>
<p>In response to these challenges, and given the good geological conditions for constructing sand storage dams, the government has budgeted for 2,000 sand dams to be built by 2021. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-016-0938-y">Sand dams</a> are simple dams on seasonal smaller rivers that use naturally accumulated sand behind the dam wall to create a subsurface reservoir for water. Sand dams can store up to 10,000 cubic meters per year. </p>
<p>The water these dams save can be abstracted throughout the dry season, avoiding problems found with standard dams such as evaporation losses, contamination from other sources and malaria.</p>
<p>Thanks to this technique, the distance to drinking water sources in the dry season has <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/water-storage/ensuring-resilience-through-community-sand-dams-in-kenya/">declined by 1,700 meters</a>, on average. In some cases it’s dropped from more than 10 kilometres to less than one.</p>
<p>More water and soil moisture has become available for agriculture, increasing the irrigated crop area by 400%. </p>
<p>Typically, the increase in <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/water-storage/ensuring-resilience-through-community-sand-dams-in-kenya/">income surpasses </a> the construction and maintenance costs of sand dams. This makes them economically sustainable options, and the dams are now spreading to Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, where seasonal river flow and a suitable subsurface renders them viable and sought after.</p>
<h2>Underground taming of floods</h2>
<p>Other natural infrastructure is hidden below the ground. Around <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/">half</a> of the water we use for irrigation is found in underground aquifers. Finding ways to keep those aquifers fully charged helps communities to stay a step ahead of climate change. Water can be safely stored in times of excess, then made available again in times of scarcity.</p>
<p>In India, the International Water Management Institute is piloting <a href="http://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/water-retention-3/underground-taming-of-floods-for-irrigation-utfi-2/">a project</a> to divert monsoonal flows from irrigation canal systems into underground aquifers, via specially designed ponds. </p>
<p>The project showed that each system is enough to store up to 70,000 cubic meters of water underground each year without any detrimental impact on the environment or groundwater quality. This amount of water enables local farmers to grow up to 35 hectares of crops in the winter season or 11 hectares in the dry season.</p>
<p>Local villagers perceive that their water availability has improved for both domestic and agricultural uses, and the underground taming of floods approach has now been incorporated into the Rampur District development plan, opening the way for broader implementation.</p>
<h2>Urban wetlands crunch the floods</h2>
<p>The Sri Lankan capital of Colombo is a city built on wetlands. This complex network of water bodies has the capacity to store enough water to fill <a href="http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2018/02/world-wetlands-day-2018/">27,000 Olympic-size swimming pools</a>, reducing the risk of flooding. </p>
<p>It also helps reduce extreme temperatures across at least half of urban Colombo through evaporative cooling. Yet these wetlands are <a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180218/plus/vanishing-wetlands-281954.html">disappearing at an alarming rate</a>. In some areas, as much as 60% of the wetland area has been lost since the 1980s. The current overall rate of loss due to urban expansion is estimated at 1.2% per year. Unless this trend is reversed, the wetland area will decline by one-third over the next two decades.</p>
<p>Local institutions have responded with a <a href="https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/Colombo%20Wetland%20Management%20Strategy.pdf">comprehensive plan</a> for better wetland management. This features 20 concrete action points.</p>
<p>These include the formation of a wetlands committee to coordinate efforts and institutional contributions. Wetland benefits are also being incorporated into the government’s urban planning, ensuring this “green” infrastructure is protected. Recently, the Sri Lankan cabinet approved an order to halt all land reclamation and destruction in the wetlands, and declared the ecosystem a protected zone.</p>
<h2>Working with nature</h2>
<p>Worldwide water crises show no signs of slowing. It is time we paid more attention to nature’s own engineering. At times, the best course may be to combine it intelligently with human invention. The time for relying solely on man-made infrastructure has past. We need to work with nature, if we are to temper its own extremes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Villholth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Green infrastructure can be a valuable tool in helping vulnerable communities to face the double threat of flooding and drought.Karen Villholth, Principal researcher; also Coordinator of the global partnership GRIPP, Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice, International Water Management InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937702018-03-21T23:04:58Z2018-03-21T23:04:58ZUnderstanding the risks to Canada’s drinking water<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211439/original/file-20180321-165571-1llnv6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new report finds concerns about water infrastructure tops the list for Canada's water providers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>March 22 marks World Water Day, an acknowledgement of the importance of safe, clean drinking water. This year, the celebration takes place against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nudging-the-city-and-residents-of-cape-town-to-save-water-92192">backdrop of water shortages</a>. </p>
<p>The United Nations has concluded that there is an international water crisis, and the principal failing is one of governance. Cape Town is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-town-water-crisis-7-myths-that-must-be-bust-86582">latest crisis</a>, but we can only <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-a-water-crisis-looms-in-cape-town-could-it-happen-in-canada-90582">expect water shortages to become more common</a>.</p>
<p>Canada has an abundance of water for its size: It has 0.5 per cent of the world’s population but seven per cent of the world’s renewable freshwater supply. </p>
<p>From a global perspective, most Canadians are lucky, but the messages that emanate from academic and popular literature often paint an unsettling picture. </p>
<p>Our freshwater systems are under strain from threats of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-water-mains-infrastructure-1.4517540">aging infrastructure</a>, climate change causing <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-fresh-water-review-1/article35262579/">floods and droughts</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3827296/cyberattacks-bank-of-canada/">cyberattacks</a>, transboundary <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/victoria-sewer-dispute-hits-the-fan-as-washington-state-urges-bc-intervene/article19131685/">conflicts with the U.S.</a>, contamination due to <a href="https://energy.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/Report%20of%20the%20Nova%20Scotia%20Independent%20Panel%20on%20Hydraulic%20Fracturing.pdf">hydraulic fracturing (fracking)</a> and <a href="https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/canadians-stance-on-water-exports-softens-in-last-decade-poll-shows-396092911.html">the sale of water to foreign markets</a>.</p>
<p>On top of that, more than 300,000 people who live in Indigenous communities do so under long-term boil-water orders. The federal government, however, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-first-nations-boilwater-advisories-1.4500068">has committed to correcting this longstanding wrong by 2021</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/collaboration-can-help-in-the-indigenous-water-crisis-83705">Collaboration can help in the Indigenous water crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many of these risks are qualitatively different, and require different approaches to addressing them. Over the past two years, my colleagues and I have studied the Canadian water sector with an eye to better understanding its risks. </p>
<p>We concluded that there is merit in distinguishing between the types of risks. </p>
<h2>Infrastructure tops the list</h2>
<p>The first category includes infrastructure risks that can result in wasted water and water contamination. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/dept/maceachen-institute/REPORT%20-%20Stregthening%20the%20Resilience%20of%20the%20Canadian%20Water%20Sector.pdf">national survey</a> of Canadian water service providers, aging infrastructure, such as pipelines and water treatment plants, ranked as their top risk — and by a good measure. </p>
<p>According to the 2016 <a href="http://www.canadainfrastructure.ca/downloads/Canadian_Infrastructure_Report_2016.pdf">Federation of Canadian Municipalities Infrastructure Report</a>, the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure that is in poor condition in Canada would cost $51 billion to replace. </p>
<p>The solutions to the deficit include access to funding, technology, improved supply-and-demand models and better coordination across jurisdictions. </p>
<p>These risks are often the domain of the technical experts, but we sometimes neglect important social considerations. </p>
<p>People don’t like to pay for the true cost of water. According to <a href="https://www.cdhowe.org/sites/default/files/attachments/research_papers/mixed/commentary_281.pdf">a 2009 report</a>, Canadians pay about 70 per cent of the real cost on their bills, and are apt to complain to elected officials if their rates increase. </p>
<p>Rural communities face additional barriers. With their shrinking tax bases, they are less able to pay for upgrades and attract the qualified labour to manage these assets. </p>
<p>Not withstanding these blind spots, most water managers and engineers are reasonably confident when it comes to understanding these risks. But the second and third categories of risk to freshwater supply are more problematic.</p>
<h2>Lack of reliable data</h2>
<p>Our second category includes uncertain threats such as climate change, cyber-security and malevolent actors, such as insider threats and terrorists. We don’t, however, have enough reliable information to predict the likelihood of these events. </p>
<p>While Canadian water service providers recognize some of the potential consequences of these threats, they spend less time worrying about these types of risks, largely because they exist outside of their routines and they don’t have adequate data, policies or training. </p>
<p>In these cases, risk management becomes more reliant on “fuzzy” or subjective measures; risk estimations usually include a range of possibilities and disagreements among experts. </p>
<p>Uncertain risks frequently generate surprises that we didn’t see coming, such as the recent news of the possibility of severe water shortages <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/africa-capetown-water-shortage-drought-canada-rockies-glacier-1.4564616">in Western</a> and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/iqaluit-will-run-out-of-water-1.4156559">Northern Canada</a>.</p>
<p>We also underestimate the interconnected nature of water infrastructure. For example, a failure in the water supply will have an immediate impact on the health sector and the economy.</p>
<p>When addressing uncertainty like this, we have to accept that we may have to deal with surprises from time to time. We also need to understand our willingness to accept a failure in the system; when it is low, we need to invest in redundant and more robust systems and train our staff to address circumstances that deviate from normal practice. </p>
<p>Governments are driven by the priorities of the day, and researchers aren’t always adept at communicating their research results. These habits don’t help. </p>
<p>In order to improve our understanding risks, we need to continue to support research so we can understand them better. We also need to allow those in the water sector and researchers to exchange information and learn from each other. </p>
<p>We should educate the public about the cost and behaviour changes that may be required to address challenges like climate change or emerging security threats.</p>
<h2>Conflicting values and views</h2>
<p>The third category covers the deeply held, conflicting values and beliefs about our water supply, including how it should be used and protected. </p>
<p>Environmental groups are opposed to fracking, for example, because they believe that fracking will contaminate the water supply, and that the consequences could be irreversible. </p>
<p>Fracking advocates, however, argue that the natural gas made available through fracking could meet Canada’s natural gas demands for generations, create jobs and provide clean energy security. They believe the downsides can be managed through technological advances.</p>
<p>Greater public engagement is required in this debate, but it is problematic. </p>
<p>Town halls on fracking can be reduced to sit-ins and screaming matches. More discrete consulting efforts open up the possibility of lobbying, which benefits those with resources, expertise and privileged access. </p>
<p>Managing these types of risks often lead to precautionary approaches, which are expensive because they often seek consensus among different groups, which slows progress and constrains innovation. These approaches also lack clear indicators of who is paying the price for failing to advance new policies, and how we can provide evidence that people will accept before moving ahead with new policies.</p>
<p>We need to focus on learning and negotiation, and develop provisional plans until we have a better understanding of the risk of fracking. Ironically, these debates are hardly mentioned by Canadian water service providers, suggesting that these debates are too often the domain of a select few.</p>
<h2>Balancing risks</h2>
<p>Individually and collectively, we have a difficult time comparing risks across policy areas, like water and energy. Our bureaucratic regulatory arrangements reinforce this limitation. </p>
<p>People would prefer to hear what these individual sectors are doing to manage risks than contemplate the messy trade-offs that are inherent in policy decisions. How much water do we risk contaminating for more energy, and how would the benefits be distributed? </p>
<p>On World Water Day, we shouldn’t be framing a discussion about water in isolation of other considerations. It neglects fundamental characteristics of the challenge before us. </p>
<p>In our study, we concluded that a risk profile for the water sector is not simply a list — we need to be careful to distinguish and categorize these risks based on the knowledge we have about them. This will allow us to commit the right types of resources to the right problems at the right time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Kevin Quigley received research funding from the Canadian Safety and Security Program (CSSP) and the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA). We also thank Public Safety Canada (PSC) for its assistance throughout the water security research project.
Dr. Quigley is the Scholarly Director at the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, a non-partisan organization based at Dalhousie University. </span></em></p>World Water Day shines a light on the importance of safe, clean drinking water, but a new report finds Canada’s freshwater systems are under stress.Kevin Quigley, Scholarly Director of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/917242018-02-20T14:37:28Z2018-02-20T14:37:28ZWhy your tourist toilet habits are bad for locals – and the environment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206809/original/file-20180216-50550-1yppnws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While many prospective holidaymakers actively seek a change in cuisine or climate when choosing their destination, standardised sanitation usually remains a must.</p>
<p>You might think that the preference for a porcelain pew is harmless, but in reality it can put a serious strain on both the local population and the environment. In fact, many of the most pervasive problems associated with tourism can be seen through the toilet bowl.</p>
<p>Research suggests that in some locations <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517711000793">up to 40% of water is consumed by tourists</a>. Tourists tend to splash out <a href="https://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Unit2-Resource-A-1.pdf">far more per day on average</a> than local residents, who are often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738312000047">outcompeted</a> by industry for water access. Using limited freshwater supplies to flush tourists’ toilets means less for residents’ drinking, cleaning and cooking needs.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207106/original/file-20180220-116360-1g3sdxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Don’t be scared.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-style-japan-toilet-415484425?src=dQP67N10AKsBsw_E8TjrIg-1-3">Heemsuhree/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Environmentally, the sheer volume of incoming tourists can come at a high price. Local sewage facilities often struggle to cope with the influx of human waste. Many small islands with limited infrastructure, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle_Mycoo/publication/249023794_Sustainable_Tourism_Using_Regulations_Market_Mechanisms_and_Green_Certification_A_Case_Study_of_Barbados/links/5591255108aed6ec4bf69627.pdf">such as Barbados</a>, have no choice but to pump raw sewage straight into the sea, putting vast swathes of the Caribbean’s coral reefs at risk.</p>
<p>This defecatory deluge also depletes limited water reserves. In Cape Town, hotels are having to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/cape-town-drought-water-shortage-luxury-five-star-hotels-day-zero-laundry-showers-toilet-flush-pool-a8191966.html">abruptly limit guests’ water usage</a> as the city suffers drought. In Bali, fast-growing tourism demand is linked to <a href="http://www.idepfoundation.org/en/bwp/summary">rapid depletion of the island’s water resources</a>.</p>
<h2>Sanitation solutions</h2>
<p>These economic and environmental harms often stem from a misplaced sense of cultural superiority that accompanies us to the bathroom. The internet is awash with travellers’ <a href="https://thetravelmanuel.com/why-malaysia-has-the-worst-toilets-in-the-world/">toilet horror stories</a>, written with apparently little social sensitivity or willingness to compromise.</p>
<p>Those fortunate enough to be able to travel might want to remind themselves of UN estimates for 2017, which suggest that <a href="http://www.unwater.org/new-publication-whounicef-joint-monitoring-programme-2017-report/">61% of the global population</a> – roughly 4.5 billion people – lack access to a toilet or latrine that disposes of waste safely. Westerners tend to judge other cultures harshly, when really they should be judging global inequality, poverty and politics.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xtn21JwhPiE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps some judgement should be reserved for people in rich countries themselves, where bathroom norms aren’t exactly perfect. For example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/18/truth-about-poo-doing-it-wrong-giulia-enders-squatting">squatting</a> rather than sitting is better for the colon. Rather than a sight to be avoided, a glance at one’s waste before flushing can in fact be a <a href="https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/Healthy_Bowel-_Patient_Information_leaflet.pdf">quick and easy health check</a>. Embarrassment about bodily functions is inhibiting when holidays are meant to be liberating.</p>
<p>Different sanitation solutions suit different situations. The <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/11/17/world-toilet-day-2017">World Bank</a> and the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/fall-2016/articles/sustainable-toilets-and-their-role-in-freshwater-conservation">WWF</a> have both worked to celebrate toilet innovations across the world that challenge preconceptions and improve sustainability. For instance, <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/11/17/world-toilet-day-2017">urine-diverting privies in Bolivia</a> are an integral link in a chain that converts waste into fertiliser for growing crops. Cranfield University is developing the <a href="http://www.nanomembranetoilet.org/">Nano Membrane Toilet</a>, which converts waste into clean water and energy, without the need for external power or water.</p>
<p>Some Western tourist locations are already rethinking their taste in toilets. Composting toilets introduced in various Scottish nature reserves have proved <a href="https://www.fvl.org.uk/files/2314/5933/7417/Eco-loo_Case_Studies.pdf">highly popular with visitors</a>. Melbourne Zoo and other attractions have implemented <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/about-us/vision-and-mission/environmental-sustainability/saving-water">water conservation and recycling measures</a> in restrooms, including waterless urinals. The increasing use of such practices by authorities and businesses will only help to challenge harmful expectations when people travel further afield.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jGPpXF7y9Rg?wmode=transparent&start=37" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Potty training</h2>
<p>There are also simple changes that tourists can make when going to the bathroom that will have a positive impact on the environment and local communities, and possibly even lead to more interesting holiday experiences.</p>
<p>Remember that different ecological settings require different bathroom styles. Always avoid flushing wipes and other non-biodegradables. In water stressed areas, be conscious of your water usage. Don’t demand what local people don’t have. The threat of extreme drought has forced Cape Town luxury hotels to ask guests to limit the length of showers, turn off the tap while brushing their teeth, and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/cape-town-drought-water-shortage-luxury-five-star-hotels-day-zero-laundry-showers-toilet-flush-pool-a8191966.html">let it mellow if its yellow</a>, but actions like these could benefit locals in tourist destinations across the developing world.</p>
<p>Support small businesses. Their toilets may not always be gleaming, but the experience might be more memorable. While luxury tourism in developing countries <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-ethical-to-take-a-luxury-holiday-in-a-developing-country-80984">rarely benefits those in need</a>, going local is one way to contribute. </p>
<p>Lastly, nurture your sense of adventure. If you want to live like a local, you should defecate like one. Pack your hand sanitiser and spare toilet roll, and immerse yourself in local culture. Get ready to try out new facilities, not just whatever commode is à la mode. There are <a href="http://www.traveller.com.au/traveller-10-the-worlds-top-toilets-gzs1l0">toilet attractions</a> dotted all over the globe that are well worth a visit. For example, why not try the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/09/south-korea-toilet-theme-park">Haewoojae Museum</a> in South Korea, solely dedicated to celebrating the lavatory.</p>
<p>We shouldn’t expect all toilets to look the same. Tourism is about challenging expectations, exploring alternatives and expanding horizons. For the sake of the environment and the vulnerable, it is high time that we became more open-minded and adventurous with our toilette when travelling. After all, when in Rome, wipe as the Romans wiped (using a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/ancient-roman-toilets-gross/423072/">wet sponge on a stick</a>, apparently).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Canavan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you want to live like a local when on holiday, you should defecate like one.Brendan Canavan, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/828222018-02-12T02:54:27Z2018-02-12T02:54:27ZFixing cities’ water crises could send our climate targets down the gurgler<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205223/original/file-20180207-74501-hkvy6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Water treatment plants can't afford not to think about electricity too.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two cities on opposing continents, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/americas/chile-flooding-drinking-water/index.html">Santiago</a>
and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/03/day-zero-cape-town-turns-off-taps">Cape Town</a>, have been brought to their knees by events at opposing ends of the climate spectrum: flood and drought. </p>
<p>The taps ran dry for Santiago’s 5 million inhabitants in early 2017, due to contamination of supplies by a massive rainfall event. And now Cape Town is heading towards “<a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/cape-town-receives-glimmer-of-hope-as-nervous-countdown-to-day-zero-continues/news-story/1e8db65b14416c7184c7d32e70765579">day zero</a>” on May 11, after which residents will have to collect their drinking water from distribution points. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-town-is-almost-out-of-water-could-australian-cities-suffer-the-same-fate-90933">Cape Town is almost out of water. Could Australian cities suffer the same fate?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s probably little comfort that Santiago and Cape Town <a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-towns-water-crisis-driven-by-politics-more-than-drought-88191">aren’t alone</a>. Many other cities around the world are <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/from-cape-town-to-melbourne-taps-run-dry-in-crisis-cities">grappling with impending water crises</a>, including in Australia, where <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/rainfall-and-dams/streamflow/streamflowhistorical">Perth</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prediction-melbourne-could-begin-to-run-short-of-water-by-2028-20170722-gxgm2q.html">Melbourne</a> both risk running short. </p>
<p>In many of these places governments have tried to hedge their bets by turning to increasingly expensive and energy-ravenous ways to ensure supply, such as <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534996/megascale-desalination/">desalination plants</a> and bulk water transfers. These two elements have come together in Victoria with the pumping of desalinated water 150km from a treatment plant at Wonthaggi, on the coast, to the Cardinia Reservoir, which is 167m above sea level.</p>
<p>But while providing clean water is a non-negotiable necessity, these strategies also risk delivering a blowout in greenhouse emissions.</p>
<h2>Water pressure</h2>
<p>Climate change puts many new pressures on water quality. Besides the effects of floods and droughts, temperature increases can boost evaporation and promote the growth of toxic algae, while catchments can be <a href="http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?act=view_file&file_id=EC120p8.pdf">contaminated by bushfires</a>.</p>
<p>Canberra experienced a situation similar to Santiago in 2003, when a bushfire burned through 98% of the Cotter catchment, and then heavy rain a few months later washed <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13241583.2006.11465291">huge amounts of contamination into the Bendora Dam</a>. The ACT government had to commission a A$40 million <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_bioreactor">membrane bioreactor treatment plant</a> to restore water quality.</p>
<p>At the height of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/millennium-drought-22237">Millennium Drought</a>, household water savings and restrictions lowered volumes in sewers (by up to 40% in Brisbane, for example). The resulting increase in salt concentrations put extra pressure on wastewater treatment and reclamation. </p>
<p>The energy needed to pump, treat, distribute and heat water – and then to convey, pump, reclaim or discharge it as effluent, and to move biosolids – is often overlooked. Many blueprints for <a href="https://d231jw5ce53gcq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Insight-brief_Net-zero-energy8_2.pdf">zero-carbon cities</a> underplay or neglect entirely the carbon footprint of water supply and sewage treatment. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.urbanwateralliance.org.au/publications/UWSRA-tr100.pdf">Some analyses</a> only consider the energy footprint of domestic water heating, rather than the water sector as a whole – which is rather like trying to calculate the carbon footprint of the livestock industry by only looking at cooking.</p>
<p>Yet the growing challenge of delivering a reliable and <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-water-industry-needs-to-join-the-fight-against-superbugs-37233">safe</a> water supply means that energy use is growing. The United States, for example, experienced a 39% increase in electricity usage for drinking water supply and treatment, and a 74% increase for wastewater treatment <a href="http://www.waterrf.org/Pages/Projects.aspx?PID=4454">over the period 1996-2013</a>, in spite of improvements in energy efficiency.</p>
<p>As climate change puts yet more pressure on water infrastructure, responses such as desalination plants and long-distance piping threaten to add even more to this energy burden. The water industry will increasingly be both a contributor to and a casualty of climate change.</p>
<p>How much energy individual utilities are actually using, either in Australia or worldwide, will vary widely according to the source of supply – such as rivers, groundwater or mountain dams – and whether gravity feeds are possible for freshwater and sewage (Melbourne shapes up well here, for example, whereas the Gold Coast doesn’t), as well as factors such as the level of treatment, and whether or not measures such as desalination or bulk transfers are in place.</p>
<p>All of this increases the water sector’s reliance on the electricity sector, which as we know has a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-electricity-sector-needs-to-cut-carbon-by-45-by-2030-to-keep-australia-on-track-80883">pressing need to reduce its greenhouse emissions</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205222/original/file-20180207-28333-18qd6w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Desalination plants: great for providing water, not so great for saving electricity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Moondyne/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One option would be for water facilities to take themselves at least partly “off-grid”, by installing large amounts of solar panels, onsite wind turbines, or Tesla-style batteries (a few plants also harness <a href="https://theconversation.com/biogas-smells-like-a-solution-to-our-energy-and-waste-problems-36136">biogas</a>). Treatment plants are not exactly bereft of flat surfaces – such as roofs, grounds or even ponds – an opportunity <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sa-water-to-put-floating-solar-panels-in-happy-valley-water-treatment-plant-to-bring-down-power-bills/news-story/8585a5f009ad15b381f1bff71457dc1c">seized upon by South Australian Water</a>. </p>
<p>But this is a large undertaking, and the alternative – waiting for the grid itself to become largely based on renewables – will take a long time.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/publication/energy-efficiency-benchmarking-pump-stations-project-fact-sheet">2012 study</a> found large variations in pump efficiency between water facilities in different local authorities across Australia. Clearly there is untapped scope for collaboration and knowledge-sharing in our water sector, as is done in Spain and Germany, where water utilities have integrated with municipal waste services, and in the United States, where the water and power sectors have gone into partnership in many places.</p>
<h2>The developing world</h2>
<p>Climate change and population growth are seriously affecting cities in middle-band and developing countries, and the overall <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609974/how-nuclear-weapons-research-revealed-new-climate-threats/">outlook is grim</a>. Many places, such as <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/4937/chapter/6">Mexico City</a>, already have serious water contamination problems. Indeed, in developing nations these problems are worsened by existing water quality issues. Only one-third of wastewater is treated to <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/bastre.pdf">secondary standard</a> in Asia, less than half of that in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a minute amount in Africa. </p>
<p>The transfer of know-how to these places is critical to reaching clean energy transitions. Nations making the energy transition – especially China, the world’s largest greenhouse emitter – need to take just as much care to ensure they avoid a carbon blowout as they transition to clean water too.</p>
<p>Just as in the electricity sector, carbon pricing can potentially provide a valuable incentive for utilities to improve their environmental performance. If utilities were monitored on the amount of electricity used per kilolitre of water processed, and then rewarded (or penalised) accordingly, it would encourage the entire sector to up its game, from water supply all the way through to sewage treatment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-what-australias-growing-cities-need-to-do-to-avoid-running-dry-86301">This is what Australia's growing cities need to do to avoid running dry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Water is a must for city-dwellers – a fact that Cape Town’s officials are now nervously contemplating. It would be helpful for the industry to participate in the strategic planning and land-use debates that affect its energy budgets, and for its emissions (and emissions reductions) to be measured accurately.</p>
<p>In this way the water industry can become an influential participant in decarbonising our cities, rather than just a passive player.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on a journal article (in press) co-authored by David Smith, former water quality manager for South East Water, Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cities all over the world are facing growing challenges to provide clean, reliable water. And many of the fixes, such as desalination plants, have a huge carbon footprint.Peter Fisher, Adjunct Professor, Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/833452017-09-17T19:40:23Z2017-09-17T19:40:23ZMore than just drains: recreating living streams through the suburbs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185575/original/file-20170912-1368-1qg03ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A drain carries water but does little else, but imagine how different the neighbourhood would be if the drain could be transformed into a living stream.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoe Myers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/vanishing-australian-backyards-leave-us-vulnerable-to-the-stresses-of-city-life-81479">Lot sizes and backyards are shrinking</a> in Australia at the same time as <a href="https://theconversation.com/density-threatens-liveability-if-we-miss-the-big-picture-of-how-a-city-works-69549">building density is increasing</a>. So we cannot afford to overlook the potential of existing – but neglected – spaces in our suburbs, like drains. </p>
<p>In denser living environments, we <a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/34429/64917_1.pdf?sequence=1">will need new types of green and open space</a> to meet the needs of residents.</p>
<p>One such overlooked space is the urban water drainage system. As part of my research I’m examining the potential of a co-ordinated and integrated network of suburban streams. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-planners-understand-its-cool-to-green-cities-whats-stopping-them-55753">If planners understand it’s cool to green cities, what’s stopping them?</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>The largest water catchment in the Perth metropolitan area is <a href="http://www.bayswater.wa.gov.au/environment/bayswater-brook">Bayswater Brook</a> (previously called the Bayswater Main Drain). Largely for the purpose of improving water quality, in recent years <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/Barnett/2012/11/Bayswater-drain-to-be-transformed.aspx">work</a> has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-19/bayswater-wetlands-rejuvenation-to-protect-swan-river-health/6025606">begun</a> to remake drains running through the suburbs into “<a href="https://www.water.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/1716/99300.pdf">living streams</a>”.</p>
<p>Aside from the obvious benefits of <a href="http://www.water.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/1657/84955.pdf">water purification and stormwater management</a>, these networks of suburban streams can be re-imagined as preferred paths through the neighbourhood. </p>
<p>Using established drainage routes capitalises on their existing connections through a suburb. This network could amplify the connections between parks and other green areas, providing a rich soundscape of birds, frogs and insects, and a diversity of sedges, rushes, melaleucas and other vegetation along the banks. </p>
<h2>Look at the big picture</h2>
<p>While the conversion of <a href="http://www.water.wa.gov.au/water-topics/waterways/managing-our-waterways2/urban-waterways-management-and-living-streams">old infrastructure into living streams is not new</a>, it has as-yet-unrealised potential to rehabilitate the large sections of open drainage that run in visible, connected ways through our suburbs. This elevates the idea of a living stream to a multi-layered ecosystem, one that includes multiple drains across the suburb. </p>
<p>The Bayswater Brook <a href="http://www.bayswater.wa.gov.au/cproot/932/2/Bayswater-main-drain.pdf">permanent drainage system</a> runs through the northeastern suburbs of Perth. These drains can be dangerous and public entry to these areas is prohibited out of necessity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185494/original/file-20170911-1342-1x06nn9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Access barriers are unsightly but necessary because the existing drains can be dangerous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author's own</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The drains run along the rear of mostly low-density housing, hidden from streets.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185489/original/file-20170911-1373-ui5dv9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of houses backing onto a 90-metre long open drain in Perth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their condition is typically marked by weeds, minimal vegetation and stagnant water. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185609/original/file-20170912-11536-k2gph2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fenced-off areas offer no public benefits to the neighbourhood other than drainage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoe Myers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sheer number of these open drains across the metropolitan area offers a compelling opportunity to reconceptualise the system as a holistic and integrated network of ecologically restored streams. This requires co-operation between multiple levels of government. </p>
<p>A project by WaterCorp in Western Australia (which manages drainage infrastructure) has begun <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/ongoing-works/drainage-for-liveability-program">inviting local governments</a> to submit proposals for use of the green space around drains. These are currently for small portions of the larger network, such as a <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/Barnett/2016/09/Drains-fuel-green-community-space-gains.aspx">pop-up park planned for a basin in Morley</a>. </p>
<p>The benefit of doing this in a co-ordinated way – rather than single stream restoration – lies in the possibilities of making these spaces a genuine alternative to the street.</p>
<h2>What are the benefits?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185584/original/file-20170912-20832-79puyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Typical drains (above and below) add very little to neighbourhood amenity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoe Myers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185585/original/file-20170912-15801-196l0fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoe Myers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By activating unused, off-limits areas at the back of houses, we can turn public space “inside out”. Providing a sequence of accessible paths creates a new option for pedestrians away from roads and cars, but still with an established, clear route through the suburb. We can have a space that is buffered from traffic noise without the isolation of an empty park segregated from main thoroughfares. </p>
<p>Many studies have convincingly found <a href="http://www.tlu.ee/%7Earro/Happy%20Space%20EKA%202014/blue%20space,%20health%20and%20wellbeing.pdf">connections between the sounds of waterscapes and restorative emotional states and views</a>. Having multiple entry and exit points as the streams thread through the suburbs would heighten the spaces’ usefulness as everyday pathways. Children could walk along the streams to school, or adults could take a short cut to catch the bus to work, maximising this kind of beneficial interaction with water. </p>
<p>Recreating natural habitats would also increase biodiversity and create a multi-sensory environment, as well as a cooler micro-climate. That would make it an even more attractive place to be in hot months. Encouraging a more natural flow of water through the streams would also reduce biting midges and mosquitoes, which thrive in stagnant water. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-for-wellbeing-science-tells-us-how-to-design-urban-spaces-that-heal-us-82437">Green for wellbeing – science tells us how to design urban spaces that heal us</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Potentially the most convincing reason for local governments to rehabilitate drains is that living streams increase neighbourhood property values. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212428416300123">Research has shown</a> the effect is significant. In the Perth suburb of Lynwood, for example, median home values within 200 metres of a wetland
restoration site <a href="https://watersensitivecities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IndustryNote_A1.2_livingstreams.pdf">increased by A$17,000</a> to A$26,000 above
the trend increase for the area. </p>
<p>This in turn can support increased density. High quality nature spaces potentially offset the sacrifice of the usual backyard area, by increasing the number of people with direct access to these spaces.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185485/original/file-20170911-1327-1hmpnwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turning an urban drain into a living stream opens up a world of possibilities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author's original render</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a growing imperative to remove the false choice between designing for people or for nature. Remaking our old infrastructure for many new uses offers multiple benefits to our ecology and well-being. When a drain becomes a living stream it doesn’t just provide a new kind of open space but adds a new dimension to enjoying, and moving through, your suburb.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Myers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Drains take up precious but inaccessible open space in our cities. Converting these to living streams running through the suburbs could make for healthier places in multiple ways.Zoe Myers, Research Associate, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771592017-05-09T14:16:17Z2017-05-09T14:16:17ZTo get the ‘good debt’ tick, infrastructure needs to be fit for the future<p>In distinguishing between “good” and “bad” debt, federal Treasurer Scott Morrison equates good debt with infrastructure investment. However, not all infrastructure investment announced in the budget is necessarily “good”. </p>
<p>We are now in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anthropocene-belongs-to-earth-system-science-64105">Anthropocene</a> – a new geological age defined by the global scale of humanity’s impact on the Earth – which <a href="https://theconversation.com/stumbling-into-the-future-living-with-the-legacy-of-the-great-infrastructure-sell-off-73850">places new requirements on our infrastructures</a>. We need to move beyond the AAA ratings mindset, and instead aim for net-positive outcomes in social, economic and ecological terms from the outset.</p>
<p>Infrastructure (such as transport, water, energy, communications) underpins our ability to live in cities and our quality of life. And most infrastructure is very, very long-lived. Therefore, our infrastructure investment decisions matter enormously, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-critical-about-critical-infrastructure-73849">especially for tomorrow</a>. </p>
<p>More than half of the world’s people <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">live in cities</a>, and have just one planet’s worth of material resources <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-25-years-of-trying-why-arent-we-environmentally-sustainable-yet-73911">to share around</a>. This means we must define a new set of expectations and performance criteria for infrastructure. </p>
<p>Rather than settling for doing less bad, such as less environmental destruction or social disruption, we must aim from the outset to do more good. This net-positive approach requires us to restore, regenerate and increase social, cultural, natural and economic capital.</p>
<h2>What sort of change is needed?</h2>
<p>Examples of this kind of thinking are, as yet, rare or small. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pub.gov.sg/abcwaters/explore/bishanangmokiopark">Bishan Park</a> on the Kallang River in Singapore gets close. Formerly a channelled stormwater drain, this collaboration between the national parks and public utility agencies has recreated significant habitat while providing flood protection and an exceptional recreational space. All this has been done in an <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST?locations=SG">extremely dense city</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/53314756" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Singapore’s Bishan Park is an example of a new approach to urban infrastructure.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking further into the future, in transport, a net-positive motorway might prioritise <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/active_transport/">active transport</a> and make public transport central by design. It might send price signals based on the number of passengers, vehicle type (such as autonomous) and vehicle ownership (shared, for instance).</p>
<p>Net-positive thinking aligns with a groundbreaking <a href="http://www.apra.gov.au/Speeches/Pages/Australias-new-horizon.aspx">speech</a> by Geoff Summerhayes, executive board member of Australia’s Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), earlier this year. He identified climate change risk as a core fiduciary concern, and therefore central to directors’ duties. </p>
<p>This shift raises significant questions for the financial and operational validity of major infrastructure projects. </p>
<p>For example, in assessing the WestConnex motorway project, <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/infrastructure/roads/westconnex-what-could-go-wrong-20160919-grjtlo">Infrastructure Australia queried</a> why a broader set of (potentially less energy-intensive) transport options was not considered. Similar questions arise for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund’s <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/mining/coal/northern-australia-fund-board-risks-legal-action-over-adani-loan-20170411-gvipjp">support for Adani’s giant Carmichael coal mine</a> and associated water and transport infrastructure.</p>
<p>A core part of the switch to net-positive infrastructure is the realisation that resilience and robustness are different things. Historically, robustness has been central to infrastructure planning. However, robustness relies on assuming that the future is more or less predictable. In the Anthropocene, that assumption no longer holds.</p>
<h2>How do we build in resilience?</h2>
<p>So, the best we can do is <a href="https://theconversation.com/building-climate-resilience-in-cities-lessons-from-new-york-52363">set ourselves up for a resilient future</a>. This is one where our infrastructure is at its core flexible and adaptable. </p>
<p>This could include, for example, phasing infrastructure investment and development over time. Current analysis is biased toward building big projects because we assume our projected demand is correct. Therefore, we expect to reduce the overall cost by building the big project now.</p>
<p>However, in a more uncertain future, investing incrementally reduces risk and builds resilience, while spreading the cost and impact over time. This approach allows us to monitor and amend our planning as appropriate. It has been shown to save water utilities in Melbourne <a href="http://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=65797">as much as A$2 billion</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe the fact that we can be criticised for not having enough capacity ready in time has influenced our decision-making. We should really be challenged over investing too much, too soon, thereby eliminating the opportunity to adapt our thinking.</p>
<p>Or maybe we are so concerned about the need to build certainty into our planning that we are missing the opportunity to build learning through feedback loops into our strategies.</p>
<p>Surely there is a balance to be struck between providing enough certainty for investment without pretending we know with absolute certainty what we need to invest for the next 30 years.</p>
<p>We need long-term plans alongside learning and adaptation to respond to the imminent <a href="https://www.ice.org.uk/eventarchive/unwin-lecture-2016-london">challenges facing infrastructure</a> everywhere. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>major unregulated growth in interdependencies between infrastructures;</p></li>
<li><p>lack of systems thinking in planning and design;</p></li>
<li><p>radical shifts in the structure of cities and how we live and work;</p></li>
<li><p>increasingly fragmented provision;</p></li>
<li><p>no central governance of infrastructure as a system; and</p></li>
<li><p>much existing infrastructure approaching or past its end of life.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Regulatory reform is part of what’s required to enable public and private investment in better outcomes. Here too we need to learn our way forward. </p>
<p>Sydney’s emerging, world-leading <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617301968">market in recycled water</a> is an example of a successful niche development that delivers more liveable and productive pockets in our cities through innovative <a href="https://network.wsp-pb.com/article/central-park-sustainable-liveable-resilient-and-future-ready">integrated</a> infrastructure.</p>
<p>Ultimately, doing infrastructure differently will also require investment in research on infrastructure. The UK is investing £280 million in this through the <a href="http://www.ukcric.com">Collaboratium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities</a>. But in Australia’s recent <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/42216">draft roadmap</a> for major research investment, infrastructure is largely absent. We overlook infrastructure research at our peril.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Mitchell is Chair of Sydney's Local Water Solutions Forum, and a Member of the NSW Government's Independent Water Advisory Panel. She consults widely to the water sector.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Singleton is Chair of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia and a Swinburne University Council member. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Bentley is Managing Director of Hunter Water Corporation.</span></em></p>If infrastructure is to meet the needs and challenges of an uncertain future, we need to move beyond the AAA ratings mindset and aim for net-positive social and ecological outcomes as well.Cynthia Mitchell, Professor of Sustainability, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyDavid Singleton, Chair, Smart Cities Research Institute, Swinburne University of TechnologyJim Bentley, Honorary Director, Centre for Infrastructure Research, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/738522017-04-06T02:43:28Z2017-04-06T02:43:28ZWhy suburban tensions and inequality will drive infrastructure innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160632/original/image-20170314-9600-hsvodd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What new and innovative infrastructure is likely to emerge from the suburbs? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roger Keil</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the fifth article in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/making-cities-work-37182">Making Cities Work</a>. It considers the problems of providing critical infrastructure and how we might produce the innovations and reforms needed to meet 21st-century needs and challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The global trend towards <a href="http://www.utppublishing.com/Suburban-Governance-A-Global-View.html">suburbanisation and suburbanisms</a> (meaning suburban ways of life) has an <a href="https://www.jovis.de/en/books/details/product/suburban-constellations.html">important infrastructure dimension</a>. In both growing and shrinking suburbs, <a href="http://suburbs.info.yorku.ca/2015/06/the-global-suburban-infrastructure-workshop-june-14-16-2015/">decisions on infrastructure</a> – mobility systems, water and waste water systems, and energy distribution and production networks – have been central. </p>
<p>Around the world, major transport and water/wastewater infrastructures often drive mushrooming peripheral growth. Big pipes, expressways, rapid transit lines, gas supply and the electricity grid, for example, have traditionally preceded residential subdivisions and commercial development.</p>
<p>In other areas (often in less-developed contexts), infrastructure development lags behind peripheral expansion. Informal settlement patterns, rapid and unequal peri-urbanisation and high degrees of social segregation characterise these areas. </p>
<p>In more mature suburban environments and in high-growth regions, gridlock, system failure and all manner of bottlenecks are typical. </p>
<p>The various forms of infrastructure need to be situated within their societal context. Infrastructures are contested between constituencies and are <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00792.x/abstract">powerful instruments of social regulation</a>. Central to our argument is the view that the ramifications stretch far beyond the expectations and control of decision-makers. </p>
<h2>Suburbs are sites of stress</h2>
<p>Suburban areas, in their multiform, emerging worldwide configurations, feel infrastructure stress most acutely. Having to deal with severe infrastructure inadequacies, suburbs offer fertile ground for infrastructure experimentation and innovation.</p>
<p>All infrastructures share a common characteristic. At the very core of the concept is the role of supporting the functioning of different aspects of society. </p>
<p>We differentiate two types of infrastructure. </p>
<p>The first is the “hard” physical, public-works-type infrastructure: roads, highways, water and sewage systems, railways, wires, cables and transmitters. This includes the political, organisational know-how and financial requirements for their design, construction, operation and maintenance. </p>
<p>The second category can be described as “soft” or social infrastructures. These consist mostly of services. </p>
<p>Infrastructures are central to newer, non-central portions of metropolitan regions in this era of global suburbanisation. This is because they operate as conduits, facilitators and sometimes the main ingredient of that extension. Infrastructures order these suburban landscapes and make them accessible. </p>
<p>One feature common across the suburban environment is its fragmentation. Fragmentation is built into the morphology of the suburb. Its territory is dissected by the transport and utility infrastructures connecting the central city to its hinterland and the rest of the world. </p>
<p>An important, underrated aspect of suburban infrastructures is their tremendous importance for how the entire urban region functions. Suburban infrastructure, often thought of as merely functional for the suburban constellation itself, remains multi-scalar – that is, it also supports metropolitan and higher-scale purposes. </p>
<p>Thus, infrastructures work as fragmenting and sorting mechanisms of complex suburban landscapes. </p>
<p>Infrastructures play a central role in building suburbs but are also the foundation for the retrofitting of ageing peripheral areas. <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2163-extrastatecraft">Keller Easterling describes</a> the infrastructural grid as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… thick with technologies that are potential multipliers: populations of suburban houses, skyscrapers, vehicles, spatial products, zones, mobile phones, or global standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this sense the suburbs are a “zone”. And suburbanisation is a horizontal division of labour, a giant production grid, a gargantuan spatial factory floor spread across city and society. And networked infrastructures enable it. </p>
<h2>Infrastructure connects and excludes</h2>
<p>With fragmentation come inequality and marginalisation – access to and exclusion from suburban infrastructures. The global suburb is a place of extremes. High levels of unevenness in the availability of infrastructures reflect and intensify this. </p>
<p>Infrastructure issues are exacerbated in the suburbs. Several of their characteristics contribute to this situation: their recent nature, rapid development, economic polarisation and sprawling nature.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162848/original/image-20170328-21267-l763oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anting suburban train station, Shanghai. The pressures to provide infrastructure to such areas are likely to drive innovative solutions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roger Keil</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The infrastructure deficit in suburban areas results from the combined effects of accelerated suburban growth and insufficient funding. The latter reflects difficult economic circumstances and the predominance of other public sector expenditure priorities. </p>
<p>Infrastructure deficiencies are most severe in informal settlements. Governments largely overlook their needs, and the acute poverty of residents prevents reliance on locally funded infrastructure programs. The shortage or absence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-sensitive-innovations-to-transform-health-of-slums-and-environment-71615">water and sanitary infrastructures</a> contributes to low health and longevity indicators. </p>
<p>Confronted with the need to overcome multiple forms of infrastructure difficulties, the suburbs are a likely source of urban infrastructure innovation and fertile spawning grounds for new solutions. We thus expect the future of urban infrastructures to emerge from the suburbs. </p>
<p>The impetus is great for infrastructure innovations to fill the gap between need and availability and overcome the inappropriateness of prevailing systems. In this sense, suburbs can be seen as laboratories for new infrastructure. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws on a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2016.1187122">research paper</a> by the authors in a new <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cupr20/35/1">special issue</a> of the international journal, Urban Policy and Research, on critical urban infrastructure. These matters have been taken up in more detail in two forthcoming books by the authors, Global Suburban Infrastructure: Social Restructuring, Governance and Equity (University of Toronto Press) by Pierre Filion and Nina Pulver, and Suburban Planet (Polity Press) by Roger Keil.</em></p>
<p><em>You can read other published articles in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/making-cities-work-37182">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73852/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre Filion receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Keil receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.</span></em></p>Suburban areas feel infrastructure stress most acutely. Having to deal with severe inadequacies, suburbs offer fertile ground for infrastructure experimentation and innovation.Pierre Filion, Professor, School of Planning, University of WaterlooRoger Keil, York Research Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/738492017-04-02T19:34:36Z2017-04-02T19:34:36ZWhat’s critical about critical infrastructure?<p><em>This is the first article in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/making-cities-work-37182">Making Cities Work</a>. It considers the problems of providing critical infrastructure and how we might produce the innovations and reforms needed to meet 21st-century needs and challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Our cities and regions depend on the critical nodes and arteries that together comprise urban infrastructure systems. This includes energy, food, water, sewerage and communications.</p>
<p>The positioning of critical infrastructure is crucial to our understanding of the world we live in and how we see ourselves. It’s our means of survival as <em>Homo urbanis</em>.</p>
<p>This means key questions around critical infrastructure need to be better considered. How is it critical, when and for whom?</p>
<h2>Beyond espionage, sabotage and coercion</h2>
<p>Critical infrastructure has received much attention in recent years. The reasons include concerns about exposure to terrorist attack, disruption by disasters, rising awareness of the interdependent nature of urban infrastructure, and changes in ownership and responsibility for infrastructure assets. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Media-and-publications/Publications/Documents/national-guidelines-protection-critical-infrastructure-from-terrorism.pdf">Australian government defines critical infrastructure</a> as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… those physical facilities, supply chains, information technologies and communication networks which, if destroyed, degraded or rendered unavailable for an extended period, would significantly impact on the social or economic wellbeing of the nation or affect Australia’s ability to conduct national defence and ensure national security.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This definition expands traditional thinking to include network and information infrastructure. However, the emphasis is on national security and defence issues such as espionage, sabotage and coercion. Infrastructure is defined as critical on the basis of what is <em>at threat</em> should it be destroyed or disabled, and how much that matters.</p>
<p>Yet what is critical about critical infrastructure is not just a matter of national security threats. It is also the key linkages between this infrastructure and human and environmental system vulnerability, integrity and equity. </p>
<p>Experiences of critical infrastructure are not equal, but highly contingent on political and economic priorities, influence and opportunity.</p>
<h2>Critical how and for whom?</h2>
<p>When securing urban infrastructure, the focus is on whom or what is being secured – and from what. </p>
<p>Any issue is capable of securitisation which involves casting the security issue as a threat that calls for emergency measures. But security for whom? From what threats? By what means? And at what cost? </p>
<p>Critical infrastructure can be government-owned (such as dams), privately owned (like airports), community-owned (like irrigation systems), or involve public-private partnerships (like electricity distribution networks). </p>
<p>The ownership patterns of infrastructure of all kinds have changed rapidly in recent years. This has left questions of responsibility unresolved. An example is the ownership versus service provision arrangements for the supply and distribution of catchment water resources. </p>
<p>Alongside the need for improved service quality, cost efficiencies, variety and choice, a growing trend towards highly uneven and inequitable community and environmental outcomes demands our attention. </p>
<p>How critical infrastructure is defined influences which stakeholders are deemed to have a role or responsibility in protecting it. </p>
<p>In South Australia, a severe thunderstorm <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/sa-weather-serious-questions-must-be-answered-frydenberg-says/7886262">blacked out the state</a> in 2016. The resulting political finger-pointing distracted attention from the real issues of risk and responsibility in delivering electricity to the community. </p>
<h2>Critical when and at what scale?</h2>
<p>The scale question leads us to consider assets not normally included as critical infrastructure. An example is the vital role of natural ecosystems in our long-term economic and social welfare. Natural or semi-natural water catchments are in many places the sole source of water for towns and cities. </p>
<p>However, maintaining the integrity of these water supplies has largely ignored the importance of the catchment itself in providing much-needed filtering and treatment of that water. The contamination of Canberra’s water supply, following the <a href="http://www.environmentcommissioner.act.gov.au/publications/soe/2003actreport/indicators03/fire03">2003 bushfires</a> in the Cotter River catchment, was unprecedented in redefining what is critical infrastructure.</p>
<p>An alternative to a national security approach to critical infrastructure involves a complementary focus on the local scale. Local access to food, for instance, can be seen as critical. The <a href="http://www.australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/home-page/">Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance</a> argues for community-scale urban food policies and practices. </p>
<p>In 2001, foot and mouth disease broke out in the UK. The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35581830">crisis</a> exposed individuals’ vulnerability to increasingly integrated, global food supply chains. That underscores the merits of social and environmental policy at local government level. </p>
<p>Big assets and sudden events are at one level defensible as a prime focus. But this approach is limited by a traditional framing of critical infrastructure and a bias towards certain timeframes.</p>
<p>Decisions on resources, priorities and effort inevitably involve scale-dependent judgements. These judgements should be defined by the nature of the impacts: one-off or cumulative; human or nature-oriented; fast or slow onset. </p>
<p>For example, local infrastructure – minor roads, flood buffers, bridge culverts and so on – is critical for society to function. Yet it is not well catered for in policy. Local government capacity to provide and manage infrastructure is limited. And varying interpretations of scale and criticality shape the funding debate. </p>
<h2>Our urban arteries</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08111146.2017.1282857?journalCode=cupr20">Critical infrastructure</a> networks shape and sustain our cities and regions. But they also expose communities to a range of threats. These include natural disasters, terrorism, peak oil and climate change. </p>
<p>So how do we decide what is critical and what is not? To arrive at an answer we must consider not only physical or informational assets, but the inclusion/exclusion of communities, places and values. </p>
<p>How can we better recognise and integrate natural ecosystems as critical to human survival and flourishing? How do we do this amid infrastructure privatisation and securitisation? And where are the points of resistance and pathways for alternative action?</p>
<p>We need to be more imaginative about critical urban infrastructure. A better, more sustainable approach needs to: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>expand our understanding of what critical infrastructure is to include environmental and local systems;</p></li>
<li><p>learn from previous security decisions and their outcomes; and</p></li>
<li><p>include local levels of activity to broaden the narrow national security approach in order to meet contemporary infrastructure challenges.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws on a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2017.1282857">research paper</a> by the authors in a new <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cupr20/35/1">special issue</a> of the international journal, Urban Policy and Research, on <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2017.1283751">critical urban infrastructure</a>. You can read other published articles in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/making-cities-work-37182">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Steele receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Hussey has received funding in the past from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Dovers' research is in part funded by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.</span></em></p>Critical infrastructure is our means of survival as an urban species. So, we must identify what is critical, for whom and how it might fail us.Wendy Steele, Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, RMIT UniversityKaren Hussey, Deputy Director, Global Change Institute, The University of QueenslandStephen Dovers, Emeritus Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732172017-02-20T11:37:33Z2017-02-20T11:37:33ZOroville dam danger shows how Trump could win big on infrastructure<p>Disaster was narrowly averted after America’s tallest dam threatened to release a deluge of water over thousands of homes on February 12. Dramatic scenes of water cascading from the Oroville dam emerged after a hole the size of a football field appeared in the spillway floor, allowing water to rip through its foundations and compromise the whole structure. Authorities <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38952847">ordered 180,000 people</a> to evacuate while the water level was lowered to relieve pressure on the damaged spillway. But 48 hours later, the immediate danger had passed and residents were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38976958">allowed to return home</a>. </p>
<p>This near catastrophe is just the latest symptom of the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/10/07/jeffrey-sachs-how-to-escape-our-economic-problems.html">chronic ill-health</a> of America’s civil infrastructure, which has suffered from decades of <a href="http://theconversation.com/want-a-free-lunch-invest-in-americas-infrastructure-48624">under-investment and neglect</a>. But the Oroville dam crisis could provide <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-oroville-dam-crisis-change-catalyst-20170217-story.html">an unexpected opportunity</a> for the new Trump administration to take on both problems – and win.</p>
<p>Winning is important to the US president, Donald Trump. This is not in dispute. He has built his name, his fame and his entire presidential campaign on being seen to be a winner. In office, he has been quick to reject situations where there is no easy win in sight: from his <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53195/trump-climate-policies/">opposition to the environmental lobby</a>, to his <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/757832/donald-trump-eu-tpp-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-deal">dislike of multilateral trade deals</a> and his <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-ban-will-have-lasting-and-damaging-impacts-on-the-worlds-refugees-72001">“shut up shop” attitude</a> on migration.</p>
<p>But when it comes to infrastructure, the win is clear to see: stuff is broken, stuff can be fixed by good, honest blue-collar workers driving proper US-made machines. These things can be paid for using money – and money is what Trump knows about. New roads, new jobs, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/newdealrev1.shtml">a New Deal</a> even – these all look like wins for a relentlessly ambitious president.</p>
<h2>What’s the damage?</h2>
<p>But renewing the nation’s failing infrastructure is not a simple process, as successive White House administrations have found. Up to <a href="http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/a/#p/home">US$1 trillion</a> is required to repair or replace ageing dams, bridges, highways and all the other components that support modern civilisation. Where to source the money has been a subject of political wrangling for decades. </p>
<p>Arguments between state and federal administrations, fuelled by political in-fighting and lobbyists – including environmentalists who are opposed to big infrastructure on principle – have all contributed to the stasis. But with a new strategy, Trump might just be able to score a big win where other presidents have lost out. </p>
<p>For water infrastructure, such as Oroville dam, perhaps the most obvious part of the problem is the weather. After five years of extreme drought, this winter has brought <a href="https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/PLOT_ESI.pdf">record rainfalls</a>. Just prior to the crisis, the Oroville reservoir and others like it were at <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89650&eocn=home&eoci=iotd_title">more than 150%</a> of their normal capacity.</p>
<p>Under these conditions, every storm becomes a challenge for water resource engineers. But what has this got to do with Trump’s infrastructure promise? Year-on-year variations in seasonal weather are highly unpredictable. But in the longer term, <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/stories/what-are-atmospheric-rivers">atmospheric rivers</a> (a key factor in Californian climate) and similar extreme weather events are robustly predicted to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL067392/full">increase in frequency</a> as the global climate warms. The strong balance of scientific <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024024/meta">evidence and opinion</a> suggests that greenhouse gas emitters worldwide are at least partially responsible: particularly in the US and China, which together generate <a href="https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters">a third</a> of world emissions</p>
<h2>The denier’s dilemma</h2>
<p>This presents <a href="http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-global-warming-hoax/">Trump the climate change denier</a> with a dilemma. To get the win on infrastructure, he needs money. To get the money in a reasonable time frame, he will need corporate investors who are prepared to cut through the political deadlock. But investors require incentives to channel funds into long-term public works, for which Trump will claim the bulk of the credit. And market economics suggests that if there was any money in it for them, this would already be happening.</p>
<p>The Oroville dam, though, demonstrates that some of the largest imminent threats to infrastructure will increase through climate change. If Trump could take an executive decision to shift his position on that – surely not hard for someone who deals so readily in “alternative facts” – then a pathway to the win could open up. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157352/original/image-20170217-10217-1wtohgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keen for a win.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Donald_Trump_%2817645083170%29.jpg">Gage Skidmore/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apportioning blame for carbon emissions could bolster his case for tariffs and other sanctions on Chinese imports. A similar economic stick for domestic polluters would be less palatable, but the money raised could be used to provide corporations with financial incentives to invest in maintaining infrastructure, expanding renewables and adopting green, energy-efficient technology. All these projects promise long-term gains for US businesses and jobs, if only the initial inertia could be overcome. Carbon reduction tariffs, linked specifically to infrastructure renewal incentives, could provide that vital momentum.</p>
<p>Such ideas have been around for decades: environmental thinkers including Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins espouse the notion of “<a href="http://www.natcap.org/">natural capitalism</a>” – a market-driven economics which centres on the value of natural resources. The Oroville dam provides compelling evidence of the hard economic costs of inaction on infrastructure. </p>
<p>Accepting man-made climate change could provide Trump with a chance to deliver on one of his major campaign promises, change the face of capitalism and perhaps even save the world along the way. Doesn’t that look like a win?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Bridge is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the British Society for Geomorphology and member of the Institution of Environmental Sciences. He has in the past received grants from the Natural Environment Research Council in areas separate from the subject of this article. Views expressed in this article are his own. </span></em></p>For a small price, Donald Trump could score the easy win he’s been waiting for.Jonathan Bridge, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681722016-11-08T19:04:28Z2016-11-08T19:04:28ZThe lessons we need to learn to deal with the ‘creeping disaster’ of drought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144988/original/image-20161108-4711-eg80dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Millennium drought had a huge impact on the Murray-Darling river system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">suburbanbloke/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The journal <a href="http://link.springer.com/journal/10584">Climatic Change</a> has published a <a href="http://link.springer.com/journal/10584/139/1/page/1">special edition</a> of review papers discussing major natural hazards in Australia. This article is one of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-natural-hazards-series-32987">series</a> looking at those threats in detail.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Droughts are a natural feature of the Australian environment. But the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-ready-for-the-next-big-dry-12819">Millennium drought (or “Big Dry”)</a>, which ran from 1997 to 2010, was a wake-up call even by our parched standards. </p>
<p>The Millennium drought had <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wrcr.20123/abstract">major social, economic and environmental impacts</a>). It triggered water restrictions in major cities, and prompted severe reductions in irrigation allocations throughout the vast <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-drought-looms-the-murray-darling-is-in-much-healthier-shape-just-dont-get-complacent-50063">Murray-Darling Basin</a>.</p>
<p>The Millennium drought also highlighted that, compared to the rest of the world, the impacts of drought on Australia’s society and economy are particularly severe. This is mainly because our water storage and supply systems were originally designed by European settlers who failed to plan for the huge variability in Australia’s climate.</p>
<h2>Have we learned the lessons?</h2>
<p>Are we likely to fare any better when the next Big Dry hits? It’s important to reflect on how much we actually understand drought in Australia, and what we might expect in the future.</p>
<p><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-016-1798-7">Our study</a>, part of the Australian Water and Energy Exchanges Initiative (<a href="http://www.ozewex.org">OzEWEX</a>), had two aims related to this question. The first was to document what is known and unknown about drought in Australia. The second aim was to establish how Australia’s scientists and engineers can best investigate those unknowns.</p>
<p>The fact is that despite their significance, droughts are <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-nino-is-here-and-that-means-droughts-but-they-dont-work-how-you-might-think-47866">generally still poorly understood</a>. This makes it hard to come up with practical, effective strategies for dealing with them when they strike. </p>
<p>One reason for this is that unlike natural hazards with more graphic and measurable impacts (such as floods, cyclones, and bushfires), droughts develop gradually over huge areas, and can last for years. Often they go unnoticed until they trigger widespread water or food shortages, or cause significant energy, economic, health or environmental issues. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145003/original/image-20161108-4694-1yu2xzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By the time you know it’s arrived, a drought can already be doing damage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASheep_on_a_drought-affected_paddock.jpg">Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Drought has been described as a “<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1085/abstract">creeping disaster</a>”, because by the time a drought is identified, it is usually already well under way, the costs to fix it are mounting, and the opportunity to take proactive action has already been missed. </p>
<p>This is complicated still further by the uncertainties around defining, monitoring and forecasting drought – including predicting when a drought will finally end. As in the case of other natural hazards (such as drought’s polar opposite, <a href="https://theconversation.com/planning-for-a-rainy-day-theres-still-lots-to-learn-about-australias-flood-patterns-68170">floods</a>), what we need most is accurate and practically useful information on the likelihood, causes and consequences of droughts in particular areas. </p>
<p>This is a very tricky question, not least because we still need to come up with a rigorous way to distinguish between correlation and causation. For example, are increased local temperatures a <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-nino-is-here-and-that-means-droughts-but-they-dont-work-how-you-might-think-47866">cause or a consequence</a> of drought? </p>
<p>The complications don’t end there. Because droughts are so much <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2009GL041067/abstract">slower and bigger</a> than other natural disasters, they therefore have much more complicated effects on agriculture, industry and society. Bushfires can be devastating, but they also offer ample opportunities to learn lessons for the next time. Droughts, in contrast, give us <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wrcr.20123/abstract">limited opportunities to learn how best to prepare</a>. </p>
<p>Yet prepare we must. Given Australia’s history of <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarctic-ice-shows-australias-drought-and-flood-risk-is-worse-than-thought-59165">decades-long swings between wet and dry</a>, and the fact that these swings are <a href="http://www.csiro.au/state-of-the-climate">projected to grow even stronger</a>, drought will be a key concern for Australia for a long time to come.</p>
<h2>What to do next</h2>
<p>We therefore make several recommendations to help boost our understanding and management of drought. </p>
<p>1). Reconsider the way drought is defined and monitored to remove confusion between drought causes, impacts and risks. Similarly, there is also a need to better distinguish between drought, aridity, and water scarcity due to over-extractions. </p>
<p>The simplest definition of “drought” is a deficit of water compared with normal conditions. But what is normal? How long does the deficit have to persist, and how severe does it need to be, to be considered a drought? What is meant by water: rainfall, snow, ice, streamflow, water in a storage reservoir, groundwater, soil moisture, or all of these? </p>
<p>The answers to these questions depend very much on the local situation in terms of climate and water use, which varies significantly in space and time and is why the simplest definition of drought is insufficient. We need to develop drought definitions that clearly differentiate drought from long-term changes in aridity and water scarcity, and that capture drought start, duration, magnitude and spatial extent. Such definitions should account for the differences between Australia’s climate zones, the wide variety of end-users and applications of drought monitoring information, and the diversity of droughts that have occurred in the past. There needs to be a common understanding of what a drought is and the differences between drought, aridity and human-induced water scarcity.</p>
<p>2). Improve documentation of droughts that took place before weather records began, in roughly 1900. This will improve our understanding of Australia’s long-term “baseline” drought characteristics (that is, how bad can droughts get? how does the worst drought on record compare with the worst that has ever occurred?), and thus provide the fundamental information needed to successfully manage droughts. </p>
<p>This requires compilation of longer-term and more spatially complete drought histories via the merging of palaeoclimate information with instrumental, satellite, and reanalysis data. This will help us better understand instrumental and pre-instrumental drought behaviour, and put the droughts observed in the instrumental record into context. This work will involve looking at <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarctic-ice-shows-australias-drought-and-flood-risk-is-worse-than-thought-59165">ice cores</a>, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128533">tree rings</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR017062/abstract">different tree rings</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR017059/full">cave deposits</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2005GL025052/abstract">corals</a>, <a href="http://ozewex.org/?p=1506">sediments</a> and <a href="http://www.thebigflood.com.au/">historical changes to river channels and floodplains</a>.</p>
<p>3). Improve drought forecasting by developing more realistic models of the many factors that cause (or contribute to) drought. This will help us separate out the influences of natural variability and human-induced climate change, which in turn will help us make more accurate long-term projections.</p>
<p>If we can answer these big research questions, we will all be better prepared when the next big dry inevitably arrives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Kiem receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Johnson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and World Health Organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seth Westra receives funding from the Australian Research Council and various State Government research funding programs. </span></em></p>Droughts are much bigger and slower than other natural disasters that hit Australia - meaning that despite their huge impacts, we still haven’t figured out how best to protect ourselves.Anthony Kiem, Associate Professor – Hydroclimatology, University of NewcastleFiona Johnson, Senior Lecturer, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW SydneySeth Westra, Associate Professor, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/664352016-10-23T18:19:29Z2016-10-23T18:19:29ZPublic, not private, money needed to plug Africa’s water and sanitation gaps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141996/original/image-20161017-4768-1ov81cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Africa, those consuming water from stand posts often pay the highest price</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African stakeholders have called for <a href="http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/african-stakeholders-call-for-prioritizing-water-at-cop-22/">water supply and sanitation to be a priority</a> at the next meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They want the November meeting of <a href="http://www.cop22-morocco.com/">COP22</a> to integrate issues related to water supply and sanitation with the climate change agenda.</p>
<p>Some progress has been made on water and sanitation in the past 20 years. Under the Millennium Development Goals, <a href="http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_English.pdf">rates of access</a> in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 20% for drinking water and 6% for sanitation between 1990 and 2015. </p>
<p>But far more needs to be done. Population growth means that the number of people without access to drinking water <a href="http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_English.pdf">increased from</a> 265m in 1990 to 316m in 2015 and those without safe sanitation from 388m to 692m. </p>
<p>The sector is in dire need of extensive investment. Estimates vary slightly but, to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets, Africa would have to spend about $15bn annually while <a href="http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/sectors/water-supply">current</a> spending is around $3.6bn. </p>
<p>To close the gap, there is <a href="http://unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150619-SDSN-Financing-Sustainable-Development-Paper-FINAL-02.pdf">support</a> for greater private investment in water in developing countries. But the reality is that the financing gap in Africa <a href="http://www.publicfinanceforwash.com/">can only</a> be addressed viably and equitably with a major increase in public investment. </p>
<h2>Privatisation, not the answer</h2>
<p>Water privatisation in sub-Saharan Africa goes back <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/utility-privatisation-in-sub-saharan-africa-a-case-study-of-water/B08F64045835FB93F55FCF11440AA73F">to 1960</a> and became a core policy in the 1990s but it has proven to be extremely challenging. Private firms have contributed next to nothing in terms of financing the sector in the African region. </p>
<p>According to World Bank research, the private sector has contributed <a href="http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/system/files/AIATT_299-322.pdf">just</a> 0.1 % of water supply and sanitation annual financial flows in sub-Saharan Africa. Funding has <a href="http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/system/files/AIATT_299-322.pdf">mostly come</a> from government sources and overseas aid. </p>
<p>The low levels of private investment are predominantly due to high perceived risks. Investing in this sector requires extensive up front investment in pipes and pumps that takes many years to be recovered. Such investment is at higher risk where end users have low incomes and state capacity is weak. Given the essential nature of water, provision can be politically charged which may affect pricing and increase the investment risk still further. </p>
<p>This has resulted in high rates of cancellation of private contracts for water supply in Africa. <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2276/608040PUB0Afri10Box358332B01PUBLIC1.pdf?sequence=1">About</a> 29% of contracts have been prematurely terminated. This is a huge problem given the time and money taken up with the tendering process which then sometimes <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/321951468018575158/pdf/756060PPIAF0As00Box374359B00PUBLIC0.pdf">fail to result</a> in a contract being awarded or completed. In Nigeria, for example, privatisation has been on the policy agenda since the late 1990s but still <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/30/water-privatisation-worldwide-failure-lagos-world-bank">no contract</a> has been signed. </p>
<p>When contracts do come through, there is <a href="http://www.psiru.org/sites/default/files/2014-07-EWGHT-efficiency.pdf">little</a> compelling evidence that the private sector is more efficient than public providers in water and sanitation. In cases where the private sector appears to be more productive, it is <a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331034&">often</a> as a result of cutting employment or because donor funding was conditional on privatisation. </p>
<p>As the limitations of water privatisation have become clear, there have been calls for innovation in private financing mechanisms. One <a href="https://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-Research-Brief-Leveraging-Public-Funds-to-Attract-Commercial-Finance-Improved-Water-Services.pdf">example</a> is the use of public resources to stimulate private sector investment through “blended finance”. This is where the government provides subsidies and/or guarantees to encourage commercial financiers to invest in water. </p>
<p>But a number of <a href="http://www.oefse.at/fileadmin/content/Downloads/Publikationen/Oepol/Artikel2013/2_Kwakkenbos_Romero.pdf">concerns</a> have been raised with this approach. Private capital is not a substitute for public capital and is volatile and expensive. To date there seems to be <a href="http://www.eurodad.org/files/pdf/1544941-global-financial-flows-aid-and-development.pdf">little justification</a> for diverting limited public resources toward trying to attract investors into the sector rather than investing government funds in water directly.</p>
<h2>Financial sustainability</h2>
<p>The focus on addressing the financing gap for water has also drawn attention to the issue of financial sustainability. Throughout the global water sector, there has been a push for full cost recovery pricing in water. This is where the service provider receives sufficient revenue from customers to cover operating and investment costs. It is seen as a prerequisite for privatisation.</p>
<p>In sub-Saharan Africa it is argued that since only the wealthy have connections to the piped network, a subsidised water tariff – implicit in any price that is below full cost recovery pricing - benefits the better off. <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2276/608040PUB0Afri10Box358332B01PUBLIC1.pdf?sequence=1">Research by the World Bank</a> has advocated an increase in water tariffs in Africa, arguing that this is affordable, particularly if consumption is lowered.</p>
<p>But full cost recovery raises a number of <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/economics/research/workingpapers/file86432.pdf">concerns in practice</a>, again making a case for public financing:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>It is not clear what cost should be recovered. How, for example, should historical costs or leakage costs be accounted for? </p></li>
<li><p>When taken to its logical conclusion, those that cost more to serve will be the poorest households. In Senegal, for <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Senegal_RuralWater_web_PG,E&E.pdf?download">example</a>, poor households pay more for water from a standpipe than those that have access to a private connection.</p></li>
<li><p>Water distribution systems are complex. There is not a simple divide between wealthy households that consume utility water via a piped connection and poorer households that use other sources. For example, in <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Tanzania-Water.pdf">Dar es Salaam</a>, water produced by the public utility is re-sold by private tankers across the city. Sometimes this water changes hands several times before reaching end users. These are often individuals in low-income areas, buying by the jerry can.</p></li>
<li><p>Tariff increases may lead to a reduction in consumption and therefore have an adverse impact on overall revenue. </p></li>
<li><p>Water tariffs <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/economics/research/workingpapers/file86432.pdf">are already high</a> in many African countries. Relative to incomes, these are often much higher than water prices in organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, even for the income of the richest quintile.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Little attention to public sector solutions</h2>
<p>Public sector solutions are notably absent from current policy debates even though they have been the <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/2973AE205C000F1BC125738A00432401/%24file/Prasad-paper.pdf">mainstay of infrastructure development</a> across the world. </p>
<p>In developed countries, universal coverage was largely achieved with government spending raised by taxation and government loans. <a href="http://www.psiru.org/sites/default/files/2007-01-W-waaps.pdf">European and US</a> water and sewerage networks were developed with public funding mechanisms. There is also evidence that that public investment <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/6507">crowds in</a> private investment. </p>
<p>An alternative approach to closing the financing gap is needed, focusing on increasing public revenue rather than pushing for private. There are indications that considerable potential exists to increase revenue mobilisation in the region. For example by, <a href="http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/eac_report.pdf">reducing tax breaks</a>. These are provided to attract investment but evidence suggests they are ineffective. The continent can also focus on <a href="http://www.afdb.org/en/blogs/afdb-championing-inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/hemorrhage-of-illicit-financial-flows-in-africa-11859/">curbing</a> capital flight to increase public revenue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Bayliss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Africa is facing an annual financing gap for water infrastructure of around $45bn to meet the needs of its citizens. Where is the money going to come from?Kate Bayliss, Research Fellow, Development Economics, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.