WATER EQUITY

Everyone should have access to water that is safe, reliable, and affordable.

The pandemic brought a renewed focus on the essential role water service plays in protecting public health. At the same time, the economic fallout left more households struggling to pay their utility bills. These dual realities created an urgent focus on water equity. NAWC members are advancing water equity through efforts that uphold Five Principles of Water Equity.

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NAWC’s Five Principles for Water Equity

1 Everyone should have access to water that is safe, reliable and affordable

NAWC members are committed to achieving water equity, which means that everyone should have access to safe, reliable and affordable drinking water.
As a nation, we must advance water equity to ensure customers of all income levels have access to high-quality water.
In order to truly benefit customers, we need water service to meet all three components of water equity – safety, reliability and affordability.
- Safe water is water that complies with US Environmental Protection Agency regulations and Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
- It is also crucial for water to be reliable so that it is there when customers need it.
- Water service should also be affordable in that customers are able to pay for this essential service.

2 Focus on the customer

For NAWC’s water utilities, the customer is the top priority.
NAWC members demonstrate their customer-first mentality in many ways, from making bill paying easy, to early and often communication about service issues, to sharing conservation tips and tricks to reduce water usage.
Although water service is affordable for most customers, NAWC members have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to water equity by creating a variety of customer assistance and conservation programs to help customers who struggle to pay their bills.
- At the onset of the COVID pandemic, NAWC members renewed their focus on customers by voluntarily suspending all disconnections for nonpayment.
- Many NAWC members responded to the pandemic by creating new Customer Assistance Programs and/or augmenting existing programs to help struggling customers.
- NAWC believes that a federally funded low-income assistance should become permanent with funding levels that are the same as those provided to assistance programs for electric and natural gas customers.

3 Never compromise on providing safe and reliable water

Providing safe, reliable, and affordable water can be challenging given the obstacles many water systems face, including:
- Rising infrastructure costs;
- Water quality concerns (emerging contaminants and lead service lines);
- Extreme weather events;
- Threat of cyberattacks.
NAWC’s utilities maintain safe and reliable water by proactively meeting these challenges in the following ways:
- Investing in experienced employees who are able to meet complex and frequently changing environmental and safe drinking water standards;
- Creating sustainable and long-term infrastructure replacement plans to ensure a continued commitment to addressing aging infrastructure;
- Developing security plans and engaging in “black sky” planning to guard against and respond to cyber and physical attacks;
- Undertaking infrastructure hardening and emergency planning to prepare for extreme weather conditions;
- Pricing water service at a level that is affordable, but that also accurately represents the cost of treating and delivering the water, so that utilities have access to capital to maintain high-quality service.

4 Invest in communities

Many of the pipes and water mains in this country are reaching the end of their useful lives and need to be replaced.
Incremental and consistent investment in infrastructure allows those costs to be incurred gradually, meaning they are more easily budgeted-for by both the utility and its customers.
The 10 largest NAWC companies invest nearly $3.7 billion in their water systems annually. These investments keep rates stable and quality high.
NAWC’s utilities strive to lift up communities where we live, work, and serve, by investing in those communities to create long-lasting positive change and promote public health.

5 Develop partnerships and encourage water system consolidation

Partnerships and system consolidation are a critical means of expanding access to safe and reliable water across the nation.
The drinking water sector in the United States is extremely fragmented, with over 50,000 water systems across the country. More than half of these systems serve fewer than 10,000 customers.
Without economies of scale, many small systems are unable to invest in infrastructure, deploy new technology, address affordability issues and treat emerging contaminants.
Water system fragmentation increases costs and often decreases water quality, perpetuating environmental injustice and causing disproportionate harm to low-income communities.
Partnering with a larger, more experienced utility is a proven way for smaller or struggling systems to obtain the resources necessary to maintain a healthy system and provide customers with safe and reliable water at stable prices.

News & Updates

For more information on NAWC’s work on water equity, contact April Ballou, General Counsel & Vice President of State Regulatory Affairs at april@nawc.com.

4.5 billion
gallons of drinking
water delivered

73 million
Americans Served

100,000 miles
of pipe maintained

About America's Water Companies

Water companies proudly serve millions of customers across the country. Here are some fast facts and key stats for understanding our industry:

We keep clean water flowing to millions of households. America’s water companies serve more than 73 million Americans, delivering 4.5 billion gallons of drinking water every day and maintaining 100,000 miles of pipes.
We have a great record of delivering clean water and support regulations to address "forever chemicals." American’s water companies have a better safety record than traditional public utilities. According to EPA data, publicly operated water utilities are 24% more likely to violate the Safe Drinking Water Act than America’s water companies.
We uphold strict quality standards to ensure healthy water at a fair price. Each state’s public utility commission sets water rates for America’s water companies through a process called a rate case. These water rates are both fair to consumers and allow water companies to make the investments in water system infrastructure needed to keep the water supply safe.