Water Sector Partnership Calls For 'Sexy' Solution To Access

Is there a sexy side to water infrastructure?

One organization is trying to frame it that way. Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), a partnership of water sector companies including Thames Water and Unilever, discussed the goal of universal access to clean water in an editorial headlined “making universal water access sexy.”

Neil Jeffrey, the chief executive at WSUP, is familiar with the struggles in promoting scaled-up infrastructure.

“We recognize that all this talk of capacity building isn't very sexy... but it really changes people's lives for the better: in achieving universal access, let's begin with what works!” he wrote.

Raising awareness about water infrastructure is a constant challenge to utilities and a barrier to raising rates and obtaining public funding. Writer Charles Fishman, author of a book focused on the water industry called The Big Thirst, explained why it takes so long for aging water mains in the U.S to be replaced, per an interview with NPR.

"Los Angeles Water will tell you they are on a 300-year water main replacement cycle. Washington, [D.C.], used to be on a 300-year water main replacement cycle; now we're on a 200-year water main replacement cycle. We're not actually planning to replace most of the water mains any time in our lifetime or the lifetime of our kids or their kids," he said.

According to Fishman, it's not because the water mains are so sturdy they can last that long.

"The reason is because we don't pay attention to the water system," he said.

Confronting non-revenue water problems is an important part of maintaining a healthy water system in the U.S. and improving access to clean water around the world.

“A dangerous misconception is that it doesn't make commercial sense for a utility to serve low-income areas: wrong! Most of these people already pay high prices for their water, to an unregulated informal supplier; in many cases they pay more than the resident of a wealthier area with a piped utility supply,” he wrote.

“Non-Revenue Water (NRW) levels in [low-income] cities can be shockingly high -- often more than 50 percent -- creating massive inefficiencies. Reduce that figure by just 10 percent (it can go much lower!), and the utility already has substantial additional revenue that can be channeled into serving low-income areas,” he wrote.

WSUP has tried to improve access to clean water in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, Mali, and India, according to the organization.

Non-revenue water is not confined to places with low-income customers. Utilities all over the world struggle with this challenge. The World Bank has said the price tag on non-revenue water, globally, is close to $14 billion each year, Forbes reported. And the average U.S. water utility based in a city "loses up to 30 percent through leaks or un-billed usage."

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