Infrastructure. When most people hear this word, the first things that comes to their minds are roads and bridges. But in this blog, we’ll be talking about wastewater infrastructure. Now what does wastewater infrastructure encompass you may ask? Well, it’s pretty much any infrastructure that’s involved in the process of wastewater treatment. For example, pipelines, tunnels, pump stations, treatment facilities, the list goes on. In my vlog today, I’ll be discussing issues specifically related to manholes, drains, and lakes. Check it out below!
So as we can gather from my vlog, we are currently facing numerous issues related to wastewater infrastructure, and with the growing population and constant demands for clean water, it is vital that we start planning for the future now! Many countries are already struggling to maintain their wastewater infrastructure, and as the population grows, more and more money needs to be invested in making our wastewater infrastructure resilient and sustainable.
However, in the present day, it’s not like we can just ignore the fact that our timeworn wastewater infrastructure needs to be renewed. We can’t just wait for pipes to start bursting before we start addressing the issue. Yet this still seems to happen in first world countries.
Just the other day, I was on my way to uni and my car was absolutely drenched by water due to a faulty pipe on a main road. Luckily, nobody was hurt from this burst but I couldn’t help and wonder what if…? What if someone had been standing just above the pipe when it burst? And how can we possibly be taking such a massive risk? Why are we waiting until disaster strikes before we decide to invest in our infrastructure? Safety should be number one for all water utility companies!
I understand that it’s obviously hard to predict the lifetime of many assets and that water utility companies probably have a backlog worth millions of dollars in assets that they need to replace but how did they get themselves in such a pickle anyway? Why are they so behind in replacing all of this infrastructure?
The issue is due to the lack of planning for the future and this backlog will continue to exist if we don’t start addressing the issue now. So how do we fix this issue? I believe the solution lies directly with United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 9 (hereafter referred to as SDG 9), and that is, to build and promote resilient and sustainable infrastructure and foster innovation.
But before we delve deeper into the possible solutions, let’s quickly outline some points related to the issue of aging wastewater infrastructure. Below I’ve summarised the main reasons why there’s a constant demand to upgrade our wastewater equipment:
- Equipment deteriorates over time and becomes unusable
- Regulations and practises are always changing but it’s vital we maintain safety standards
- Technology is also always changing and wastewater facilities need to keep up
- Our population is growing exponentially and our wastewater facilities don’t have the capacity to deal with such amounts of waste anymore, leading to overflows
All of these reasons contribute to the need to upgrade our wastewater infrastructure but that brings us to issue of cost. It costs a lot of money to replace or repair all of these assets. But what if we could decrease the total costs involved? How about implementing some sort of new, innovative technology or somehow increasing the lifetime of our infrastructure?
One interesting initiative that I came across was that the Water Corporation has recently built a ‘Water Research and Innovation Precinct’ in Subiaco, as pictured above. This initiative was driven by their goal to make Perth a leading waterwise city by 2030 and the new precinct will allow for a collaborative workspace, delivering new and innovative wastewater treatment processes. I believe this is a great step forward for the organisation to achieve their goal given that SDG 9 states that we need to foster innovation in order to build resilient and sustainable infrastructure for the future.
Another example that is in line with SDG 9 is the use of new technology in the US. Acoustic monitoring has been implemented in a few US states to reduce pressure in certain areas of pipes, in turn reducing the stress and making the pipes last longer.
Green technology could also be utilised in order to avoid large investments in infrastructure by keeping stormwater out of combined sewer systems. The above map points out the 772 US communities that have a combined sewer system. In Philadelphia, rain gardens and green roofs have been implemented to divert stormwater from the waste stream, meaning that there is less chance of raw sewage entering our water sources.
All of these innovative methods are being implemented in various parts of the world so I think we should create some sort of online document that collates all the ideas and solutions that have been trialled in the world. Water utility companies from all over the world can get a live look at what’s happening, understanding how innovative communities have dealt with wastewater infrastructure challenges.
I am sure that if we foster such innovation in the water industry and build resilient infrastructure, this will drive economic growth and development in many other important industries. In turn, this will create a domino effect, allowing us to deal with the inevitable issues that we’ll face in the future as well as achieve many other SDG’s.
All in all, wastewater infrastructure is the one thing that stands between our waste and ruining our most precious resource – water. So let’s hope water utility companies can help us #avoidtheshit we’re about to get ourselves into and if not, we should be asking them: “Water you doing to address the issues we’re facing?”
Water You Doing? 