Michael Deane, executive director of the National Assn. of Water Companies (NAWC), released the following statement in support of Infrastructure Week 2016.
This week America’s attention will focus on Infrastructure Week (May 16 to 23), and the NAWC is pleased at this opportunity to draw particular attention to water infrastructure.
We know the country’s roads, bridges, rails, ports, airports, power grid and broadband are important, but the water systems are the foundation for all other infrastructure systems. The need for water is something all people share, yet water is often taken for granted. Water’s treatment and delivery is rarely top of mind in households, businesses and city halls.
Private water companies have been in existence for more than 200 years. Today, private water operators reliably and responsibly deliver 4.6 billion gal of drinking water to 73 million customers every day.
Sometimes referred to as the “silent service,” water infrastructure has been taken for granted for too long in the United States. Our water flows underneath the nation’s roads, bridges, railroads, airports and neighborhoods in 2.8 million miles of invisible water and wastewater pipes—many built in the early 1900s. Each year there are 240,000 main breaks and 1.7 trillion gal of drinking water are lost due to faulty, aging or leaky pipes.
Infrastructure Week reminds us that the water challenges we face as a country are immediate, complex and costly due to a national water infrastructure system that is aging, and often not receiving the needed investment for repairs and replacement. These challenges will require multiple solutions and unprecedented cooperation and partnerships between the public and private water sectors.
Private water companies are eager to be an integral part of solving the nation’s water infrastructure challenges.
Source: NAWC
