Episode 6: Melody Wright on The Water Access Gap in US Cities
Melody Wright
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Melody, owner & principal of Say/Do Strategies and a former Philadelphia Water Department official, tells John what lack of affordable access looks like in US cities, why we don’t understand the full extent of the problem, and how a Philadelphia program is providing a model solution for the rest of the nation.
Show Notes
Melody’s LinkedIn Page
Her firm, SAY/DO Strategies
The Philadelphia Water Department, where Melody worked for seven years before starting SAY/DO
The DigDeep/US Water Alliance report “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan.”
This study found that moratoria on water shutoffs during 2020 significantly lowered both the COVID-19 infection rate and daily death growth rate from COVID during that year.
This 2020 study published in PNAS estimated more than 1.1 million people in the US had insecure water access, with 47% located in the 50 largest US metro areas. The study says: “Unplumbed households in cities, on balance, are more likely to be headed by people of color, earn lower incomes, live in mobile homes, rent their residence, and pay a higher share of their gross income toward housing costs.”
Here’s a chart of the price of tap water in 30 US cities.
Former EPA chief Carol Browner wrote in 2021 for BusinessInsider that “America’s water infrastructure is a ticking time bomb.”
Here is the EPA’s breakdown of the water infrastructure investments contained in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Joseph Cook, associate professor of economic sciences at Washington State University, calls in this piece in The Conversation for a national water aid program for those Americans who struggle to pay their water bills.
Transcript
Forthcoming