 | | Rosazlia Grillier, co-chair emeritus with COFI POWER-PAC Illinois, an anti-poverty group, campaigned in her hometown of Chicago for debt relief and affordable bills. Grillier says that expenses such as water bills all add up for people struggling to make ends meet, especially during the pandemic. The city’s new assistance program will help to alleviate some of the crushing financial challenges that residents face by reducing bills and providing debt relief. Photo © Alex Garcia / Circle of Blue |
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| Customer debt relief programs are more common for electric and gas utilities than for water. But with rising water bills, debt relief is getting a closer look.
The Chicago water department says that customer debt has soared nearly 300 percent since 2011, a rise that parallels a spike in the cost of water and sewer service. One in six residential water accounts was past due at the end of last year, according to data the department provided to Circle of Blue. At the end of 2019, residential customers owed the Water Management Department $341 million in unpaid bills. |
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 | | Valentine, Texas. Photo © Brian Lehmann/Circle of Blue |
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| Residents of the Big Bend region have felt imperiled by the frantic fossil and clean development occurring north of them in the Permian Basin. New market conditions make that threat much less urgent. |
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 | | A sign near Cannonsville Reservoir warns against trespassing onto lands in the Delaware watershed that supply drinking water to New York City. As part of a plan to protect its water supply, the city bought land around the reservoir to prevent development. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons user Paul Comstock |
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| Since 1997, New York City has spent some $2.5 billion on ecosystem protection in the Catskill and Delaware watersheds, the source of most of the city’s drinking water. Expert panel says investments to prevent pollution have been a success, but face new challenges. |
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 | | Photo © Kolkata Society of Cultural Heritage |
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| Storms are growing stronger as the planet warms. India must focus on an integrated approach after Cyclone Amphan, researchers say. |
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The volume of Covid-19 news can be overwhelming. Our live blog, updated throughout the day, helps you sort through it. It's a library for how water, sanitation, and hygiene connect to the pandemic — in the US and around the world.
Featured Covid-19 + water coverage from this week include: |
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A warming climate was already making life difficult in Chad, a landlocked country squeezed against the encroaching sands of the Sahara. Now, the coronavirus pandemic and a years-long conflict between government forces and the terrorist group Boko Haram are stoking tensions and imperiling livelihoods. |
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What's Up With Water - August 10, 2020
For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and SoundCloud.
This week Circle of Blue published the first story in a series on the debt that American households owe to their water departments. Most Americans give little thought to water bills, paying them on time and in full. But for some homeowners and renters, water debt is relentless and menacing.
This week's episode features coverage on India, where a severe monsoon season is inundating one of country’s largest cities.
For news in the U.S., in North Carolina, small, rural water systems had financial problems even before the new coronavirus emerged.
Finally, this week Circle of Blue published the first story in a series on the debt that American households owe to their water departments. Most Americans give little thought to water bills, paying them on time and in full. But for some homeowners and renters, water debt is relentless and menacing. You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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 | | Marvin Edwards, 62, applied for Philadelphia’s new income-based water rate in July, but his application was returned because of missing financial information. Edwards is still waiting for acceptance into the program. Photo © Brett Walton / Circle of Blue |
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| On July 1, 2017, the Philadelphia Water Department stepped into unexplored territory for a U.S. water utility. The department became the first to set the monthly water, sewer, and stormwater bill for its poorest residents according to their income.
Called the Tiered Assistance Program, or TAP, the groundbreaking aid program was ordered by City Council as a way of matching the cost of household water service with residents’ ability to pay. The need is significant. As many as 60,000 households — one in eight residential customer accounts — meet the eligibility threshold of earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty line, according to a Water Department estimate. |
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