WHITE PAPER

Draining: The Economic Impact of America’s Hidden Water Crisis

At least 2 million Americans still don’t have running water or a working toilet at home, costing the US economy $8.58 billion each year. But, there’s hope. Every $1 spent on closing the water access gap yields nearly $5 in societal benefits—an incredible return on investment.

But, there’s hope. Every $1 spent on closing the water access gap yields nearly $5 in societal benefits—an incredible return on investment. Read the first national study to calculate the true cost of allowing millions of Americans to live without running water at home, and the hundreds of billions in economic benefits we could generate by closing the gap for good.

The United States, the world’s most prosperous democracy, has a hidden water crisis: over 2.2 million people living without running water or proper sanitation. Without working toilets, households in Appalachia are forced to flush sewage into nearby streams - sometimes the only source of drinking water for others in their community, causing outbreaks of illness. Families on the Navajo Nation walk or drive miles to haul drinking water, which they ration for weeks at a time, while people in Texas border colonias often spend more than a third of their monthly income on trucked water deliveries which may not be potable. Many Americans see water poverty as an issue affecting only low-income countries far away, and are completely unaware that the same crisis exists right in their own backyards.

This is the water access gap — where millions of Americans struggle to meet their basic needs every day. Every year that we allow the gap to stay open, the U.S. economy loses a staggering $8.58 billion in decreased household earnings, higher healthcare costs, lost tax revenues, and labor market disruptions.

As bleak as these numbers are, there is cause for hope: our report shows that closing the water access gap yields a return on investment of nearly 5 to 1. For every dollar invested in bringing water and sanitation to a family for the first time, the economy gains $4.65. This means closing the water access gap could unlock nearly $200 billion of economic value over the next 50 years.

The Cost of Living Without a Tap and Toilet

Past investments in water infrastructure have excluded many Indigenous tribes, communities of color, immigrant communities, low-income communities, and rural areas. Closing the water access gap will help correct these inequities, and directly benefit underserved communities. Other communities have seen their water systems fall offline as a result of climate change, economic shifts, and a legacy of disinvestment. Not having access to water and sanitation quantifiably impacts every aspect of a person’s life. In this report, DigDeep analyzed a wide variety of public health and economic data to calculate the price tag of life without a tap or toilet. The economic costs are broken into the following:

  • Time lost: $846 million, including estimates that working-age adults spend an average of 232 hours per year, and school-age children spend an average of 170 hours per year collecting water for their homes.
  • Physical health: $762 million, including increased risk of disease, physical injuries from hauling water, and greater overall healthcare bills. Each year the water access gap causes 219,000 cases of waterborne illness and takes an estimated 610 lives—the equivalent of two passenger planes falling from the sky.
  • Water purchase costs: $291 million, as it’s estimated that 40% of these homes rely on bottled water as the primary source of drinking water - resulting in an average family spend of $1,350 per year.
  • Mental health: $218 million, people living without water at home are 22% more likely to suffer from mental health conditions as a result of stresses and depression. Each year, the gap causes 71,000 cases of mental illness.
  • Additional GDP impacts from lost productivity: $924 million, which accounts for lost earnings and productivity due to physical disease and mental health conditions, and a decrease in individual earnings.

Adaptive Reuse: Converting Offices to Multi­Residential Family

Adaptive reuse of commercial office spaces to residential multifamily offers opportunities to ease some of the housing shortage in the US. These types of construction projects have many challenges, from zoning restrictions, financing, and also controlling construction costs. Construction costs specifically can have a disparate impact on whether an adaptive reuse project is possible, let alone successful. Therefore, flexibility during the construction process is vital to the success of an adaptive reuse project. Codes for plumbing and mechanical systems that support design versatility and science-based methods, such as the Uniform Codes, will be essential for controlling construction expenses.

Capacities of Stacks and Horizontal Drains in Storm Drainage Systems

The sizing for storm drainage systems are dependent upon flow capacity equations used to calculate velocities and flow rates in pipe conduits. One of the variables in the equations is the coefficient of roughness. This paper explores how the roughness of different types of material will change the computational results that are dependent upon the roughness coefficient of the pipe.

Increase in Flow Diversity From Simultaneous Fixture Use: Impact on Peak Flow Estimate

In calculating peak water demand, there can be instances where an increase in fixture count results in a decrease in the expected peak demand. This white paper explains why this counterintuitive result can occur, especially when there is some probability of stagnation (i.e., zero demand). Using IAPMO’s Water Demand Calculator (WDC), we are not designing with zero flow in mind; hence, zero flows are ignored, and the 99th percentile is extracted from actual flows for any combination of busy fixtures.

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