Restoring and Reimagining Investment in Public Water

Restoring and Reimagining Investment in Public Water

As the COVID-19 pandemic acutely highlighted, water is essential to life and health. Without affordable, clean, and safe water, the ability of people to wash their hands, bathe, wash and cook food, clean clothes, prepare infant formula, stay hydrated, and do other everyday activities that keep them healthy is severely compromised, if not impossible. However, threats of aging water infrastructure in desperate need of repair, combined with declining federal funding, have contributed to a water affordability crisis across the country, especially for low-income communities and communities of color. This policy brief examines the connections between the current state of water infrastructure, the unaffordability of water, and the harms caused by privatization, with a focus on how these issues impact vulnerable communities, especially those of color.

This brief includes case studies that examine privatization issues in Atlanta, Georgia, Baltimore, Maryland, Flint, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It also provides policy recommendations to help restore and reimagine water as a true public good—clean, safe, affordable, equitable, publicly controlled, and for all.