Sample Op-ed
Could This City Imagine a Day without Water?
October X, 2015
If you read something about “our infrastructure is falling apart,” you probably picture potholes
in the road and rusted out bridges that need to be replaced. But that is just the infrastructure
you can easily see every day. There is a whole universe of it under our feet that, in many places,
is much older than the roads we drive on.
Underground, out of sight and out of mind, is a massive network of water systems that work
24/7/365 to bring clean, safe drinking water to us and take away water after it has been used to
be treated. According to National Geographic, the U.S. has 1.2 million miles of water mains—
that’s 26 miles of water mains for every mile of interstate highway. Many of those pipes were
built in the 1800s or early 1900s, and many of those systems were built for cities of a century
ago, not modern metropolises.
If those systems failed us one day, [your area] would wake up to a very unpleasant morning.
Imagine a day without water. You couldn’t brush your teeth, flush the toilet or take a shower.
You couldn’t give your dog a bowl of water or make your coffee. And that is just residential use.
Commercial use is a huge component of water consumption as well. Everything from breweries
and restaurants, to manufacturing plants and the groundskeepers at [local sports stadium or
popular park] need water too. Water keeps our economy flowing.
We here at [your organization] know that water is essential, and that’s why we are part of a
nationwide educational effort called “Imagine a Day Without Water.” Dozens of other water
agencies, mayors, engineers, contractors, business leaders, community members, schools and
more are joining the effort, because even though water is absolutely essential to everything we
do, it too often is forgotten. Again: out of sight, out of mind.
But it needs to be on all of our minds because our system here in [your area] is probably older
than you realize. We have some treatment facilities and pipes that date back to XXXX. And
while [area water agency] does a good job bringing safe, reliable, and affordable water to
customers, the region should know that just because the infrastructure is invisible to us, it
doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Water might fall from the sky and flow through our rivers, but it
is far from free. Processing it, treating it, bringing it to and from your house costs [area water
agency] xxx millions a year and no matter how much or little water we use, that price tag is only
going to increase because of the age of our system.
The good news is, we can be ahead of the curve. Deferred maintenance, waiting until a water
main breaks or a system breaks down—those are the most expensive repairs possible. But if we
continually maintain the system, if we upgrade our pipes, if we implement smarter technology
that spots weaknesses in the system before they turn into breaks, then we can save money in
the long run. And if we keep doing a good job, this city will never have to imagine a day without
water.