Considerations for Studying the Impacts of COVID-19 and Other Complex Hazards on Drinking Water Systems

Abstract

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Risk management during the Covid-19 crisis: business responses in the Polish water utilities

“…Water utilities are essential for maintaining public health, and need to keep operating even during times of crisis (Sowby & Lunstad 2021). Therefore, it is important to identify and address the elements of risk management that water utilities need to be prepared for.…”

“…Water utilities are one of the most crucial sectors of industry, and the importance of water services means that they face various types of risk during unexpected crises (Sowby & Lunstad 2021). Protecting public health during a pandemic is essential, and the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the importance of risk preparedness for the water utilities (Sowby 2020), as well as the need for them to develop crisis resilience and future preparedness plans as part of their risk management strategies (Gude & Muire 2021).…”

“…Covid-19 and other serious epidemics, risks or hazards have an influence on the water utilities. Since safety and stability are vital to the water utilities, pandemics that differ in frequency, duration and scale affect the water sector heavily (Sowby & Lunstad 2021). During the recent Covid-19 crisis, 61% of researched water utilities indicated that they did not have a specific pandemic plan (American Water Works Association 2020).…”

“…The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the significance of risk preparedness for the water utilities (Sowby 2020) and demonstrated the need to develop crisis resilience and future preparedness in the sector (Gude & Muire 2021). While governments in many countries introduced lockdowns, temporarily closing businesses that were not considered essential (Zechman Berglund et al 2021), the water utilities, which are crucial for sustaining public health, needed to keep operating even during the crisis (Sowby & Lunstad 2021).…”

Small Drinking Water Utilities’ Resilience: The Case of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…20 The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to explore the relationship between customer size and resiliency as it is a unique large-scale disaster that impacted DWUs globally, regardless of their customer size. 24 For example, some small DWUs face more detrimental consequences on their revenue due to minimized financial reserves and relatively smaller customer bases. 25,26 On the contrary, very large DWUs (i.e., customer size of over 100,000) may have more extensive financial reserves due to their location or customer size and can fund new capital projects more easily than smaller DWUs (i.e., economies of scale).…”