Rising water prices in the U.S. are forcing many households to choose between rationing water or risking shutoff due to unpaid bills. A new study shows that government agencies and water utilities may be underestimating the number of households at risk of losing affordable access to water and offers new methods for better assessment.
Sarah Fletcher, a senior study author and assistant professor at Stanford University, highlights the growing problem of water affordability exacerbated by aging infrastructure, climate change, droughts and rising costs of water quality maintenance.
The traditional method of assessing water affordability, the "affordability ratio" — which compares total monthly water bills to household income — fails to capture individual household needs and is often inaccurate, according to the researchers. The new Stanford research proposes delinquency metrics, which are based on past payment behavior, to provide a clearer picture of water affordability.
The study analyzed 13 years of water billing data from 40,000 households in Santa Cruz, California, and developed three delinquency metrics: frequency (how often a household falls behind on payments), duration (how long a household remains behind) and severity (the amount of debt incurred). These metrics aim to better gauge a household's ability to pay based on actual payment patterns.
The findings suggest that delinquency metrics can reveal more about water security than the traditional affordability ratio, offering a more nuanced approach to ensuring access to water, a fundamental human right. This new method could better inform utility rates, assistance programs and policy decisions to address water affordability more effectively.
Read more about the study online via Stanford University.
