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. These cities are fortunate in that they can produce much revenue from their large size, but they do not make the most out of the water that is available to them.  “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. Many of the world’s largest cities overestimate their “water stress,” or amount of water they intake form resources compared to the demand for water. By failing to truly measure the amount of water they are receiving, these cities find it difficult to relieve their own water stress. “Accounting for water scarcity in the [water footprint] analysis increases the effectiveness of the analysis and generates more valuable and accurate information for water management and planning.” (White) By recognizing the actual amount of water cities are receiving, they can appropriate its distribution more accurately.

 

            In a similar way, New York is facing a crisis with its water infrastructure statewide, but this problem stems from the materials themselves. “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 many of the pipes, sewers, and other water distribution materials in New York age, they also get weaker and more worn out, especially from the extreme hot to cold weather patterns in New York. (Keppler) Solving this issue is a matter of political science and economics, which are both underlying sciences in water sustainability. The state government of New York gives cities some money to help, but it isn’t enough to completely replace the decaying infrastructure. “For now, fixing pipes will largely be a patch job, with cities scrambling to fix an increasing number of [pipe] breaks.” (Klepper) Cities do not have enough money to replace their current water supplies. It is difficult to obtain this money because of the citizens’ low acceptance of raising taxes. “… Big federal investments made in water projects during the Depression, the post-war years and again in the seventies fell beginning in the '80s as other government costs — pensions, health care, education, social services and debt — went up. Raising taxes became increasingly unpalatable.” (Klepper) Essentially, the government of New York has only been able to allocate money towards their water systems in dire circumstances. Understanding the political science behind economics can allow better insight into how water infrastructure can be improved.

 

            Spreading awareness about the scarcity of resources and low quality of aging materials can be a key factor in solving these issues. Using visual graphics is an excellent way to capture a viewer’s attention, but reaching a large amount of viewers can also be a huge difficulty. Social media can be a major help in spreading the awareness of issues in water structure. Social media is a quickly growing medium that reaches out to all internet users daily. Posts to social media draw users in by using simple yet aesthetically pleasing designs. Sometimes interactive, sometimes not, creating a visual using different colors and shapes can draw viewers in and make them more interested in the ideas that are being presented.

 

            Communicating with people can play a giant role in solving today’s issues regarding water infrastructure. Maintaining accurate knowledge of water stress can allow cities to provide citizens with resources they need. Doing this also requires upkeep of infrastructure materials, such as pipes and treatment plants, which requires an understanding of political science and economics to accomplish. In addition, public awareness of these issues remains a necessity for change. Though renewal of water infrastructure is costly, its vitality to modern society makes this issue vastly significant.