Water Quality and Water Security in 2024

The book I’m reading now is The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. It’s a gripping, harrowing, dystopian novel that depicts a society in collapse, with crime run rampant, mass unemployment, civil unrest—and all set in the dark distant future of (gulp) 2024!

The book was first published in 1993 and, like most dystopian novels, it’s really about examining the problems going on at that time by extrapolating them into the stuff of nightmares. A key plot point is how water scarcity has contributed to the problems the characters face. In the novel, water has become so expensive that it can’t be used for firefighting when buildings start to burn; people die from drinking cheap but tainted water; an entire community is built around a desalination plant because demand is so high.

The situation we actually face in 2024 isn’t nearly so perilous. The drought in the western US (“megadrought” according to some sources) is, thanks to heavy rainfall and snowfall in 2022-2023 in remission. Yet climate change will continue to deliver rising temperatures and more violent weather patterns—meaning plumbing engineers need to design systems that can accommodate not only extended periods of drought but also manage (and hopefully capture for reuse) high levels of stormwater runoff.

A great example of this kind of design is the topic of this month’s Forum. A proposed change by the General Services Administration will require new government buildings of more than 5,000 sq. ft. employ rainwater catchment systems.  

Water scarcity compounds the problems of water access our country faces. According to the CDC Foundation (an independent charity that acts as a bridge between the Center for Disease Control and philanthropic organizations), an estimated 2.2 million Americans live in homes without running water or basic plumbing. Tens of millions more lack adequate facilities for the safe disposal of human waste and wastewater treatment.

The Americans most affected are typically poor, rural, and members of black, Latino or indigenous communities. As we reported in our June issue there is new federal legislation in the pipeline, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access Data Collection Act that would establish an interagency Water and Sanitation Needs Working group to conduct surveys and develop reports as a necessary stage towards funding capital improvements to the water and wastewater systems of those underserved communities.

While the wheels of government grind on, there are private organizations such as the Chris Long Foundation (chrislongfoundation.org/) and the Water Well Trust (www.waterwelltrust.org) working to assist low-income families with their drinking water and sanitation needs—often in partnership with companies like Xylem. If you’re a regular reader of CONTRACTOR we’ve featured their projects several times in these pages (just look for the group shots of smiling, sweaty volunteers).

Access, of course, means nothing without quality. According to the Water Quality Association (wqa.org) about 43 million people—15 percent of Americans—use drinking water from private wells not regulated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Additionally, $1 trillion will be needed for upgrades to the nation’s public water systems over the next 25 years—meaning the infrastructure investment in the IRA is only a downpayment, and also that water treatment and filtration pros will have secure livelihoods for the foreseeable future.

But to return to where we started all this—in dystopia— one of the points Butler is making in her novel is that change is inevitable, and change can bring both great good and terrible evil. But with foresight, with adaptation, we can shape the course of change towards positive ends. The work being done by some of the organizations mentioned above certainly gives me reason to hope.