(Photo: Gann Matsuda/Wikimedia Commons) Over the years, cities and large metropolitan areas have been able, through their sizeable customer bases and economies of scale, to finance and build drinking water and wastewater systems that meet the needs of growing populations, serve growing economies, and satisfy an array of environmental and public safety requirements.
Unlike their urban counterparts, however, rural communities have small and dispersed populations.
As a result, they often do not have large enough customer bases to be able to make adequate investments in drinking water and wastewater systems.
This can create hardships in terms of human health and well-being, as well as the ability to attract new businesses and grow jobs.
Elevate Rural CA has identified such water infrastructure challenges as a key “solution space” in which rural areas, as well as the state as a whole, can be strengthened and lifted through strategically targeted community, workforce and economic development activities.
California’s rural areas contain beautiful mountains and forests, lakes and streams, rolling hillsides and stretches of coastline.
As such, they constitute desirable vacation destinations, second-home locations and potential sites for business expansions.
The exact scope of water infrastructure needs for rural areas is difficult to pinpoint.
California’s rural areas also face challenges in managing and sustaining the watersheds that originate in remote forested areas and sustain activities throughout the state, including food production, hydropower and recreation.
The California Economic Summit’s Elevate Rural CA initiative has identified the need to bolster both local water infrastructure and management of forest headwaters as a top priority, along with forest resiliency and broadband access.