In Jackson, Miss. this week, and for the second time in a year, a weather-related disaster has shut off the taps for much of its population. Jackson is emblematic of a water infrastructure crisis that many U.S. cities and rural areas must prepare for.
Most Americans easily flip on the water tap to wash their hands or quench their thirst. If they pay their monthly bill, which ranks comfortably low when compared to much of the world, vital water simply flows.
“In the past, it might have made sense to consider a flood a rare and random event — communities could just build back. But the statistical distribution of weather events and natural disasters is shifting,” says Richard Rood, a professor of climate, space sciences and engineering in the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, and a participant in the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment.
At times, would-be fixes have been shouldered by both the public and private sectors. And figuring out who is most responsible for water and sewer upgrades — cities, states or Washington, D.C. — adds to the burden on officials and homeowners.“I have said on multiple occasions that it’s not a matter of if our system would fail, but a matter of when our system would fail,” Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said during a news conference this week.
“U.S. storm water infrastructure received an even lower mark than the nation’s drinking water infrastructure, with the engineer group warning that few systems could afford the high cost of retrofits.” As Jackson struggles, more Americans are wondering if water troubles could hit their own communities: Google GOOGL, +1.40% data reveals that Americans are searching for the term “water scarcity” 30% more in 2022 than in 2021.
“Underserved communities are taking the brunt of the effects of climate change. We’ve seen widespread suffering from flooding, heat, cold, and fires. Add-on effects from a vulnerable water system or other infrastructure are readily apparent too. Pile on that, the underserved areas have low local revenue from which to draw and often stressed management resources,” said Brian Svendahl, senior portfolio manager, U.S.
Last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law set aside more than $50 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency to improve our nation’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure — the single largest investment in water that the federal government has ever made. Mississippi, for one, is receiving $75 million to address water problems.
Tackling environmental injustice extends from air pollution to reliable water, and more. It’s an issue that many have made a priority, including in the just-passed congressional spending law, which is in addition to last year’s infrastructure law. All told, the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022″ provides $369 billion for climate and clean energy provisions, the most aggressive climate investment ever taken by Congress.
“Increasingly, experts say, cities will have to plan for the scenarios worsened by climate change and rethink the location of vulnerable people, in vulnerable landscapes.” Major reservoir Lake Mead’s water levels have sunk to record lows. Nearly 6 million people in the Los Angeles area are feeling the crunch as authorities enact unprecedented restrictions on water use.
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