Widespread wildfires, which powerful winds intensified, scorched through Northern California on October 8, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 100.
It destroyed at least 1,500 homes and establishments and sending out thousands fleeing as flames ravaged through.
More than 20,000 were evacuated as winds and the dry condition inflamed the blaze.
Called as “October Fire Siege”, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) considered the recent Northern California wildfires as the “worst fire disaster in the history of California.”
Our hearts go to those who were affected.
Imagine you were one of the firefighters assigned in the wildfire area and suddenly your water supply ran out. What will you do? Imagine a day without water.
Imagine a field without water. How can you grow crops?
At home, there was a ‘no water’ notice so you drive to the nearest restaurant but then the restaurant can’t cook your favorite dish for lack of water.
Shall hospitals close for a while until water returns?
It is a day when you realize that water is what that makes you do your job well. There is no profession that does not need the water.
Water is a very important resource to sustain life. Are we doing our best to be good stewards of this life-giving resource?
Based on the “D” rating of the American Society of Civil (ASCE) 2017 Infrastructure Report Card of the USA’s drinking water infrastructure the possibility of a water crisis is not far from happening.
However, such ratings do not mean that the US water story is now on the brink of inaccessibility. The water crisis, as ASCE evaluated, focuses on the urgent need for investments in water infrastructure.
Of course, we are just imagining a day without water for nature’s water cycle and the seasons assure us that there would always be water in this world.
What would be a grim possibility is that towns and cities will experience water crises and inaccessibility because of an inefficient water utility infrastructure management.
Because of delayed and neglect of water infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, the dreaded “a day without water” might literally happen.
A day without water means putting into jeopardy $43.5 billion of economic activity. If it continues to as long as a week, it could risk nearly 2 million jobs.
Calamities, man-made or the natural will come and go. They are unavoidable.
Would you rather resolve water utility infrastructure management issues in a planned and organized manner or confront them like fighting a roaring wildfire?
Having an efficient utilities infrastructure management plan means considering the risks around the infrastructure system and coming up with resiliency option and most of all, closing the infrastructure investment gap.
So that we won’t be fighting our water problems like putting out an uncontrollable wildfire, a working asset management plan should enable us to manage efficiently our infrastructure woes.