As part of Infrastructure Week 2014, the Value of Water Coalition kicked off its new Water Works! campaign on May 14 with a panel discussion on the critical investments needed to maintain our nation’s water infrastructure. The panel comprised several leaders in the water industry who participated in “an in-depth conversation on the current condition of water infrastructure in the United States, the consequences of letting these failing systems worsen, and solutions to meeting the water challenges of today and tomorrow.” A recording of the panel discussion is available online.
The Water Works! outreach effort also includes a paper, From Invisible to Invaluable: Changing the Way We Think About Water Infrastructure, which provides a summary of research on the value of water infrastructure investments for homes, businesses and local and national economies. For instance, “each job created in the water and wastewater industry at the local level creates 3.68 jobs in the national economy, and each public dollar spent yields $2.62 dollars in economic output in other industries nationwide.” Dissemination of this type of information to both policy makers and the general public is vital to ensuring that water infrastructure investment is prioritized in budgeting and spending decisions.