“Who Runs the Water?” is kicking off and stressing the importance of water utilities in keeping our water safe all across the nation.
In a recent survey done by Grundfos, 42 percent of Americans believe they will be affected by a water supply shortage and 63 percent believe that access to clean water is an issue in the U.S. So, it’s not surprising that the survey also found that 40 percent feel concerned about the quality of their water, with 45 percent reporting they don’t know enough, if anything, about their local water supply.
Water professionals are also concerned. They claimed that they feel the public has a poor understanding of water systems and services.
“It’s safe to say this is an out of sight out of mind issue,” said Robert Montenegro, Executive Vice President of Water Utility at Grundfos.”But when issues like the Flynt Michigan issue from a couple years ago, really shed a lot of light like we have at a local level, it’s still really missing from a national level.”
Montenegro said that 14 percent of people do not trust their water, and he thinks that number is due to a spike within the media on a particular issue. Nationally 12 percent of the countries water is lost every year.
“There is a real challenge to fund the necessary upgrades to modernize these water systems so we aren’t wasting it,” said Montenegro.
The “Who Runs the Water” campaign is a public awareness initiative that illustrates some of the challenges faced by utility companies and what it takes to keep the water running. You can even utilize the websites rate comparisons to see what people are paying across the U.S.
