“Never take a drink from someone you don’t trust” … But what if it’s your water provider?

I’ve been thinking about how trust in our water service providers is one of the most sacred forms of citizen trust there is. And sadly, that trust appears to be diminishing. (The Value of Water Index shows that today only 40% of people think that national water infrastructure is “good” as compared to 59% in 2016.)

It’s pretty fundamental, but easy to take for granted. Our ability to live each day depends on having safe water. So pretty brilliantly, we’ve developed utilities that get safe water to most houses in the US every day (minus the 2.2 million that don’t).

When you think about the reality of our daily survival being tied to our water utilities, there’s a really intimate level of trust we need to have with our water providers. Is it crazy to say that the trust we need to have to drink water from our utility is more important than the trust we need in our life partner?!

So what’s it going to mean that this trust is dropping, and what are we doing about it?

I got deeper into thinking about this after hearing Manny Teodoro, co-author of “Profits of Distrust” share on an episode of the Waterloop ( waterloop ) why we should worry that bottled water companies are taking advantage of distrust in utilities, and what to do about it. As he points out, it’s not surprising that when we hear about a Flint, MI or a Jackson, MS supplying dangerous water, we all get spooked about our water supply.?

So here’s what it’s had me thinking about:

1. Is there a future in the US where safe piped water in every household is no longer the viable model? And playing devil’s advocate, is this inherently bad?

I don’t mean this in a fear-mongering way, but in economic terms. With the increasing costs of upgrading our technologies and infrastructure to address things like PFAS, and climate change, what if it becomes too expensive to provide the high quality of drinking water through our existing piped systems to everyone? And so instead, we all get our own safe water for drinking by buying our own filters, or bottled water??

Is that a good outcome? I think back to my time in Kenya and in other emerging markets without safe drinking water to houses, and I think it’s clear this would be a real backslide for society.

First there’s the obvious inequality related to affordability of this self-supply. Teodoro says that people in the US buying bottled water for drinking (excluding filter systems) spend about $100 - $150 per month on this. So if there’s no safe drinking water supplied more cheaply through a public network, in which we all share the costs, many won’t be able to afford that. Then, as we see in many emerging markets, they will have much worse health outcomes which is a burden on society as a whole.

Second, is it really a good use of time and resources for each household to have to somehow vet different commercial water sellers? First, the book points out that bottled water providers are not regulated as highly as public utilities. And we’re not all water scientists with test kits at home anyway. So If left to decide between brands, we’ll be relying on whatever clever marketing they use (like the canned water “Liquid Death” named to make you feel like you’re tough even if you’re not drinking booze). Not to mention all the wastage from more plastic products, supply chain issues, etc.

It leaves me thinking that drinking water from the tap is really not something we want to lose, so we’d better work on rebuilding trust in water utilities.?

1. So how do we use this moment to reverse the loss of trust in water utilities?

The book lays out a lot of really important tangible things that need to change to rebuild trust, like consolidation of small utilities, regulatory implementation, and infrastructure investment. All very logical and fundamental, especially consolidation. Like, how can we have 40,000 small community water providers that serve under 3,300 people and expect them to make enough revenue to cover upgrading tech and infrastructure, let alone the highly trained operations team needed???

I was also recently inspired by what George Hawkins, former CEO of DC water (now leading Moonshot Missions ) shared about rebuilding trust and brand identity for DC water. To turn things around, DC water first invested money for much needed improvements over 1.5 years. Then - only after delivering some results - they went out to engage the public with a rebrand and to show them how the utility had added value from that money. They showed them how better technology had reduced their non-revenue water so that they weren’t raising rates as much as they otherwise would have needed to - and then successfully managed to raise rates needed to provide a good service.

So, it gets me thinking about this landmark $55 billion federal investment in water infrastructure we just got for the next five years.?

Step one is obviously to use that money for those tangible improvements and upgrade infrastructure. But what if step two is to launch a massive public engagement effort at local and national scale that shows people the value of that investment? Could this rebuild trust? And using that trust could we talk about funding water more sustainably in the future? So maybe next time we don’t have to wait until our water and wastewater infrastructure has a national average rating of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers (for years!) before we do anything?

I’m eager to see how some of the great advocacy orgs and NGOs supporting local water leaders are gearing up for this part; folks like the US Water Alliance , WaterNow Alliance and Environmental Policy Innovation Center .?

• What kind of evidence do we think we’ll need to show Americans the value of this investment in water??
• And how will we market these improved services to gain back earned trust??

All in order to be able to get voters to approve the financing and laws that we need to protect our piped drinking water for the future.?

Here’s what I’m thinking sounds exciting to work on:

1. Getting ready to advocate for better revenue models for water services. The US Water Alliance is leading the way here. They’re testing innovative billing structures like cost-based billing that considers different property characteristics like distance from city centers or property value. They’ve called for more reliable national funding of water services to treat it more like the public good we know it is. Seems like after some of this $55 billion gets spent on improvements, we’ll be in a better position to advocate for this kind of consistent federal spending, rather than relying on future ad-hoc bail-outs for something so important.?

The importance of this national approach for regular funding is really brought home when we think about how a water crisis in one city can set off waves of distrust elsewhere that might reduce people’s willingness to approve local funding elsewhere.?

So what kind of awesome data will we be ready with to show people around the country the value of this historic investment??

1. Can we change the narrative on the future of water to be more about winning than losing? I hear about the folks doing this in climate and alternative energy. It’s a shift from talking about a future of scarcity (i.e. doom and gloom) to one of abundance and better ways of doing things.?

I keep thinking about how we do this in water. What if we make people feel proud to drink water from utilities that are ushering in the technologies and practices that make water more abundant - like water reuse?

It just seems like now is the time we really need to go into offensive mode in rebuilding the public’s trust of water utilities. Otherwise, how do we expect to reach new policies for using more recycled water (when the tech is readily available) in places like the West, if we’re starting from a place where people are already afraid to drink the water?

What offensive strategies are folks thinking about to rebuild national trust and funding for water? I’m sure we’ll need ‘em all, so I’m thinking about the water team I want to work with on this.?