Learning   Portfolio

            Conserving water can be a difficult task that requires intricate planning and policy-making to accomplish. Yet another factor lies within the world’s water system that cannot be ignored, and that factor is infrastructure. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects it will cost $384 billion over 20 years just to maintain the nation's existing drinking water infrastructure. Replacing pipes, treatment plants and other infrastructure, as well as expanding drinking water systems to handle population growth, could cost as much as $1 trillion.” (Klepper) Maintaining water infrastructure, such as pipes, is very expensive, and very essential. It is a major necessity to understand the cost of water infrastructure in order to appropriate funds to provide citizens with adequate water resources.

 

            Large cities face extreme difficulty when it comes to handling their water infrastructure due to the amount of citizens they must provide with water. However, these cities are fortunate in that the can produce much revenue from their large size.  “Large cities obtain 78±3% of their water from surface sources, some of which are far away.” (McDonald). Cities all over the world are having trouble with assessing the amount of water they intake. This cause “water stress” because of the low awareness of how much water the city will receive from its resources. A major issue in New York is more related to the infrastructure itself. “With some of the oldest infrastructure in the nation, the pipes under New York's cities and towns are failing at an alarming rate…” (Klepper) As much of the water infrastructure in New York ages, it also gets weaker and more worn out, especially from the extreme hot to cold weather patterns in New York. (Keppler) Proper assessment of these resources will help aide in the advancement of water provisions.