Perspective | Water is the New Carbon

Provocative? Perhaps. But true.

In a new op-ed for Circle of Blue, Jay Famglietti, Jose Ignacio Galindo, Palash Sanyal, and Li Xu at Waterplan, a water risk monitoring platform, say water is the new carbon.

When it comes to acknowledging society’s impact on climate, environment, and human security, water is the next frontier for comprehensive accounting and adaptation strategies – for industry, municipalities, governments, and individuals, all of which have made impressive commitments and progress to track carbon pollution. 

However, our increasingly threatened global water security demands that accounting for water use and risk rapidly acquire the same urgency with which we address carbon. 

The time for action on carbon has been widely and successfully accepted. The time for action on water is now.

Jay Famiglietti is executive director of the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) at the University of Saskatchewan, and he serves as chief scientist of Waterplan. Jose Ignacio Galindo is co-founder & CEO of Waterplan. Palash Sanyal is the strategic partnership and project manager at GIWS, and Li Xu is a postdoctoral researcher there. Both are members of Waterplan’s science team.

What’s Up With Water — April 5, 2022

For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud.

Featured coverage from this week's episode of What's Up With Water looks at:

• Australia’s prime minister announced billions of dollars in funding for two dams that have been on the drawing board for decades. Plans to build the Hells Gate and Urannah dams have been scrapped numerous times by politicians over the last 80 years.
• In the United States, meager amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains are melting quickly, another sign that drought-weary California should expect dry conditions to continue this summer. Historically, April 1 marks the end of the snow-accumulation period and the beginning of the spring runoff.
• In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a spending bill that will boost the state’s water and sewer systems. The governor called the $4.7 billion package one of the largest infrastructure investments in state history.

Contractors for Houston Public Works install a wastewater and drainage project in the Greater Eastwood neighborhood in this file photo from 2020. Communities across the country are choosing to use federal pandemic relief dollars for pipe repairs, infrastructure upgrades, and other water system needs. Photo © Elizabeth Conley / Circle of Blue


Billions Flow to Water Systems from Federal Pandemic Relief Funds

The American Rescue Plan Act — the relief bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11, 2021 — set aside $350 billion to assist states, tribes, territories, and local governments in responding to financial challenges wrought by the pandemic. Water infrastructure improvements are one of four broad spending categories authorized by the act.

Since ARPA became law nearly a year ago, government agencies have been determining how to divide their share of the pie.

According to a database compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures, states, territories, and Washington, D.C. have already dedicated at least $10.1 billion in ARPA funds to water systems, Circle of Blue reported last month.