Soaring water utility bills force many households to ration water use for essential needs while still falling behind on payments. Stanford scientists offer a new approach to measuring water affordability that could help utilities and government agencies identify and aid those most at risk.
Rising water prices are forcing many households in the United States to choose between rationing water or risking shutoff by leaving bills unpaid. A new study in Environmental Research Letters shows government agencies and water utilities may be underestimating the true number of households at risk of losing affordable access to basic water service – and offers a solution.
“Water affordability is a growing problem and we need new tools to better address it,” said senior study author Sarah Fletcher, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and School of Engineering. Aging water infrastructure, climate change, extreme droughts, and increasing costs tied to water quality maintenance all threaten to exacerbate the challenge, which disproportionately affects low-income households and communities of color.
Water affordability is a growing problem and we need new tools to better address it.”
Sarah Fletcher
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
“Applying the methods we demonstrated in this study could provide a better sense of how many households are currently struggling to pay their water bills,” said Aniket Verma, a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering who co-led the June 21 study with Jennifer Skerker, also a PhD student.
Accurate assessments of water affordability are important because they inform decisions about utility rates, assistance programs, and eligibility for government financing for infrastructure improvements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sets limits for contaminants including dangerous “forever chemicals” in drinking water, considers affordability when evaluating the impact of new standards on water suppliers and when negotiating deadlines for wastewater treatment facilities to comply with regulations.
Problems with the affordability ratio
Water utilities, non-governmental organizations, and regulators generally assess water affordability by looking at total monthly water bills as a portion of household income, or what experts call the “affordability ratio.”
The method has faced growing criticism because affordability ratios fail to capture a given household’s actual water needs, which depend on family size, appliance efficiency, and other factors. Furthermore, the affordability ratio is usually obtained as an average or snapshot in time of a census block or city, meaning the metric is not specific to individual households or necessarily accurate over the longer term.
“The traditional metric compares a household’s water bill to the household’s income as a way of trying to assess the household’s ability to pay, but there are important nuances that this metric cannot capture and […]
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