The majority of US residents — including ourselves — have a tendency to forget about and take for granted the fact that we have safe, clean running water at our fingertips each and every day.
Thirsty? Get up and get a glass of water. Dirty? Hop in the shower. Lawn turning brown? Turn on the irrigation system.
But… what will happen when all that lovely water we have grown accustomed to suddenly goes away? How will we survive? CAN we survive?
Crisis aborted
Thousands of people in the Maryland nearly found themselves in a situation where they would have had to answer that question… for as many as five whole days due to problems with a critical water main installed a long time ago that started to show signs of its age (i.e. the thing is breaking down) and now needs to get replaced.
Thankfully engineers claim to have devised a plan that will allow water to flow to the community while the repairs take place. Granted certain water use restrictions will exist for the duration of the repairs, but at least people will have the ability to enjoy a cold glass of water and flush toilets.
What have we learned?
Wise people learn from good times, bad times, and times that could have gone either way… or at least they SHOULD.
A good amount of the United States’ infrastructure has remained in place and virtually untouched (except for urgently needed repairs) and now the time has come for 1 of 2 things to happen: 1) We can sit and do nothing while it all falls apart and crises like the one narrowly avoided start happening with regularity; or 2) Take a long, hard look at the condition of our water systems and start performing repairs BEFORE things break to the point where the water must get turned off (or shuts itself off!).
