IT'S WORLD WATER DAY.

There's some United Nations effort under that rubric.  It's about what you'd expect.  "Today, 785 million people are living without access to safe water, while 2 billion people are living without access to a toilet."

In the same way that the waters prevailed, the words will prevail.  Jump in, the water is fine.

Time for some fundamentals.  Here is what water as Nature endows it looks like.

The moment you set out a barrel to collect it, dear reader, let alone conceive of piping to move it, let alone flush toilets, you have turned it into a commodity.  Disregard that reality at your peril.

Water shortages occur when the demand outpaces the supply. According to the Earth’s Future study mentioned above, the U.S. population could grow to over 500 million people by 2100. Naturally, population growth is a predictor of water demand growth.

As supply is concerned, however, things don’t look bright. Besides the current concerns related to water pollution and the authorities’ failure to keep water safe, water supplies will undergo significant variations in response to climate change. Out of the 204 water basins supplying most of the country with fresh water, as many as 96 could fail to meet monthly demand starting in 2071.

There's something missing from that discussion, isn't there?  It's missing from this one, as well.

Accordingly, it’s reasonable to posit that the water-poor of the future will be at the mercy and manipulation of the water-rich. Those with clean, potable water will rule the roost. Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, and Canada all have plenty of freshwater. The top three—Canada, Brazil, and Russia—have more freshwater than China, India, the United States, India, and the continent of Africa combined. This will give these countries enormous power and trade leverage over water-strapped nations that need food and are struggling to keep their economic engines running. Major infrastructure projects like massive pipelines from freshwater sources is one tactic, but the slowdown in agricultural output puts them at a deep disadvantage against countries that do have water and can make products much more easily.

Those infrastructure projects, though, must apparently take place by magic.

In Jackson, Mississippi, thousands of residents have gone weeks without water. It is a crisis caused by systemic injustices, crumbling water infrastructure, and the climate chaos that brought unprecedented freezing temperatures throughout the South in February.

More than 100 water mains burst in Jackson, leaving residents without water for bathing and cooking. Emergency bottled water was distributed across the city for drinking, and some residents have also gathered and used melted snow and rainwater.

This should not be happening in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. And while the water woes being experienced by residents of Jackson are more acute than in other places struck by the recent freezing Southern weather, communities throughout the South have experienced widespread water main breaks and failures, largely driven by an aging infrastructure.

Looting the consequences and blanking out the causes, dear reader? It gets better.

The inability of cities to replace aging pipes is just one part of our national water crisis. We also have an aging wastewater system, rampant lead contamination, a separate and lurking rural water crisis, and significant water needs in Indigenous communities.

Unsurprisingly, the hardest impacted communities are largely communities of color. Jackson’s population, for example, is more than 80 percent Black.  Study after study has found that Black and Indigenous communities disproportionately lack access to safe water in the United States.

This daunting crisis requires a bold federal response. As President Joe Biden and Congressional leaders assemble a much-hyped infrastructure package, they must prioritize funding for our aging water systems.

Yes, there's even opportunity for another Hero Project.

At a time when large corporate interests are increasingly exercising control over society, the WATER Act limits water funding to publicly run systems and small, locally run entities, ensuring that federal dollars go to public benefit—not to profiteering water corporations.

Our nation is facing multiple crises—the pandemic, an economic downturn, a climate crisis, and a water crisis. President Biden has an opportunity to lead the nation through all of these. To do so, however, requires real leadership and a comprehensive agenda.

In fighting for significant funding for public water infrastructure, Biden and Congress can help ensure that millions of people in the United States have reliable access to clean public water, while simultaneously revitalizing the economy and building climate resilience for our collective future.

It's so easy to find some private interest to blame for the failure of the water works, every poverty hustler can get in on it.  "If there's something worse than not being warm or bathed or properly fed for weeks, it's having lawmakers who bring home huge paychecks and ride out storms in resorts while we suffer."  Oh, sorry, that's government failure, isn't it?  Here's more from Jackson, Mississippi.

In 2014, the city approved a 1% sales tax increase with the goal of improving its aging infrastructure, but that levy raises only $13 million in annual revenue, a tiny fraction of the $2 billion Mayor Chokwe Lumumba says the city needs—not only for the water system but also for making long-term repairs to the sewage system and roads.

"Even with that, we are far and away from the ability to be able to address these issues in a significant way," Lumumba told the Post. The mayor has called for help from the state government, saying "we need direct resources that can come to the city of Jackson."

Public officials can appeal to higher levels of government for access to piggy banks that don't really exist, and they can continue to pretend that roads are not productive assets, and water is not a commodity, and the roads will still develop pot-holes, and the pipes burst.

I looked up the water rates for Jackson, Mississippi.  As of this afternoon, there's a paragraph that might be in Latin, or it might be an essay written according to inclusive grading standards.  "In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi."

By contrast, here is how things flow in DeKalb.  It's your basic two-part tariff, with $26.27 six times a year as the connection charge, and $7.20 per hundred cubic feet, divided between a water service charge and a sewer service charge.  Sewer socialists also treat water as a commodity, with the current Milwaukee rates for household service also a two-part tariff, the monthly connection charge is $9.35, including $3.18 to maintain the fire protection mains, and $2.14 per hundred cubic feet.  That's price theory, dear reader: Milwaukee's supply is Lake Michigan, while DeKalb makes do with deeper wells, as an audit turned up scary levels of radium in the shallower wells.

That, dear reader, is how to ensure there are resources to maintain the water and sewer mains, and treat the water for reuse.

According to the American Water Works Association, the country needs to make massive investments in water infrastructure over the coming decades. But such repairs and replacements would cost at least $1 trillion. And when we talk about money, we also talk about politics. For the first time this year, moderators devoted about 12 minutes to tackle climate and water issues during a single presidential debate. Still, most media outlets seem to ignore the crisis.

The roads are productive assets. The water mains and sewers are productive assets. The public officials who recognize the value propositions in these assets are the public officials who will have more livable jurisdictions.