Day Zero by decay: leakage and underinvestment collapse urban supply without drought
#00175
Some cities run dry not from drought but from decades of underinvestment. Johannesburg loses ~45% of its water to leaks and illegal connections and endures rolling outages even when reservoirs hold water; Mexico City loses ~40%.
#00190Run water as a public utility with a reinvestment mandate and a standing leak-reduction program
Reform water governance so operating margins are locked into a reinvestment mandate—pipe renewal, leak detection, and repair—rather than extracted as profit or dispersed by weak management. A public regie has a structural advantage in drying climates: it is not penalized by selli
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