Water system sustainability has several intertwined dimensions. First, systems must maintain operational capacity, meaning the ability to continue operations when system operators retire, system requirements change, or there are disruptions. Second, systems need adequate financial capacity, including the resources to upkeep systems with revenues generated from services provided and other reliable funding. Lastly, water systems need to be cognizant of their environmental impact and sustain access to safe water resources over time while maintaining the health and natural functions of water sources, particularly in the context of climate change.

Failure to upkeep systems has costs. System deterioration can lead to drinking water, groundwater, or soil contamination that harms humans and ecosystems. If systems are out of compliance, communities face fines for violations, which disproportionately affect communities of color. Industries linked to systems can be culprits in water violations too, and polluting facilities are more likely to be sited in low-income communities of color.

Climate change has made water systems harder to maintain as well. Aging water and wastewater systems are vulnerable to increasingly frequent and extreme weather events, such as freezes and heavy rains. Our research in rural Texas revealed that power outages during Winter Storm Uri prevented water treatment systems from functioning, leading to weeks of boil water alerts and record numbers of burst pipes. Heavy rains in Arkansas caused stormwater to back up through a business’s drain, and in Mississippi, moisture from a sewer back up after heavy rains caused black mold to grow in an adjacent apartment. In North Carolina, the lagoons servicing industrial hog operations overflowed after three separate hurricanes, harming the surrounding Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities.

Funders, policymakers, and communities can address the intertwined operational, financial, and environmental sustainability issues facing rural water and wastewater systems through the following actions:

  • Invest in proactive improvements to increase climate resilience.
  • Consider regionalization to spread out costs.
  • Prioritize water-use efficiency to reduce costs and increase conservation.

Read the full article about rural water systems by Rebecca Marx at Urban Institute.