Everyone deserves access to safe, affordable, and reliable clean water, and water infrastructure is vital to our nation’s well-being. But decades of underfunding and poor management have pushed America to the brink of an infrastructure and human health crisis. As people of faith, we are called to protect our environment and our vulnerable neighbors.
Much of our water infrastructure – including pipes to distribute clean drinking water and move dirty water to treatment systems – is crumbling. In many parts of the country these critical systems were built over a century ago, and today are in desperate need of repair.
The impacts of outdated water infrastructure and water resource management cause the most harm to lower income neighborhoods and communities of color already suffering from a lack of investment and opportunity.
Clean water and reliable water infrastructure can and should be bipartisan issues. Healthy rivers are economic engines, and water is an excellent investment: every $1 spent on water infrastructure generates nearly $3 in private economic output, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Investing in water infrastructure – and specifically in nature-based solutions — will strengthen our country and pay dividends for generations to come.
Call our members of Congress to urge them to increase funding for our nation’s water infrastructure needs. Find contact information in the following locations:
- Senator Robert Casey: http://casey.senate.gov
- Senator Pat Toomey: http://toomey.senate.gov
- Your Representative: http://www.house.gov
Sample message: As a person of faith and your constituent, I urge you to support increased funding for water infrastructure to meet environmental protection and public health needs while protecting environmental, health and safety standards and keeping water affordable for our most vulnerable neighbors. While sewage, stormwater and drinking water systems need work, much can be done through nature-based solutions such as tree-planting, efficiency and conservation. Please do what you can to project our water resources.
Following up with an e-mail or letter is helpful as well—you can use the contact form on the senators’ and your representative’s website, but you can also send a message to the staffer responsible for environmental issues. Find names and follow e-mail instructions at http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq.
Finally, letters to the editor are also helpful. Check out your local paper’s website for submission information, including length. For help in writing a letter, go to https://www.pachurchesadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Letters_to_the_Editor.pdf.
Please act now— Call our members of Congress to urge them to increase funding for our nation’s water infrastructure needs.
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