The Water/Wastewater industry addressed many issues over the next 20 years: environmental, growing population, rural vs. urban, agriculture, water shortages, financial constraints, etc. One problem that impacts all aspects of the industry is aging infrastructure.
Water utilities average 240,000 water main breaks per year wasting over 2 trillion gallons per year. Residents lose another 1.3 trillion gallons due to leaks.
The panel discussed how asset planning can help identify problems for each utility, prioritize their solutions, and create an implementation plan. We explored various strategies for funding costly infrastructure upgrades and protecting utility customers from unforeseen water leak expenses.