Consider Steven Cryos’ words, “When disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed.” Witnessing domestic water insecurity in events such as Hurricane Katrina, the instability in Flint, Michigan, and most recently the winter storms affecting millions across Texas, we decided to take action. The period between a water supply’s disruption and restoration is filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and distress -- particularly since there is no clear indication of when, exactly, restoration comes. It is for this reason that Water Works now exists. As a team of students from diverse backgrounds, what started as an honors project with the Founders Lab at Arizona State University became the seed that will continue to mature into an economically sustainable business model supporting the optimistic visions and tenants of humanitarianism. By having conversations with community members, conducting market research, competing for funding and fostering progress amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our team’s problem-solving traverses the disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to educate our readers about a unique solution to emerging issues of water insecurity that are nested across and within systems who could benefit from the introduction of a personal water reclamation system, showcase our team’s entrepreneurial journey, and propose future directions that will this once pedagogical exercise to continue fulfilling its mission: To heal, to hydrate, and to help bring safe water to everyone.

The threat of global climate change to the world’s water resources has jeopardized access to clean drinking water across the world and continues to devastate biodiversity and natural life globally. South Africa operates as a useful case study to understand and analyze the effectiveness of public policy responses to the perils of climate change on issues of water access and ecosystem preservation. After the new South African Constitution was enacted in 1997, protecting water resources and ensuring their equitable distribution across the nation’s population was a paramount goal of the young democratic government. The National Water Act was passed in 1998, nationalizing the country’s water infrastructure and putting in place programs seeking to ensure equitable distributive and environmental outcomes. Thus far, it has failed. Access to South Africa’s water resources is as stratified as access to its economy; its aquatic ecosystems remain in grave danger; and many of the same problems of South Africa’s Apartheid era still plague its efforts to create an equitable water system. Decision-making power continues to be concentrated in the hands of the wealthy, at the expense of historically marginalized groups, whose voices are still not adequately heard. Corporate actors still exert undue influence over legislative policy that favors economic growth over environmental sustainability. The looming threat of climate change is exponentially increasing the chances of disasters like Cape Town’s 2018 feared ‘Day Zero’. The National Water Act’s noble intentions were never actualized, and therefore the people of South Africa remain in serious danger of acute and chronic threats to their water supply.

Water affordability is a critical issue for rural and tribal communities in Northern Arizona. However, measuring affordability in these communities can be extremely challenging due to a lack of accessible data and several unique, structural, barriers. This thesis evaluates both the challenges and opportunities for measuring water affordability in the City of Show Low and the Hopi Nation and explores potential solutions to improve measurement accessibility. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study found that data necessary to measure water affordability is often unavailable or difficult to collect in rural and tribal systems, and limited resources, personnel & capacity, as well as sociocultural and political factors within these areas further hinder their ability to assess affordability. Additionally, analysis of existing resources and initiatives for assessing water affordability in these communities revealed several limitations that must be addressed to improve measurement accessibility. The study suggests that several actions can be taken at the state and federal levels to improve the ability of small and rural systems to study water affordability in Northern Arizona. These actions include conducting a state-wide water affordability assessment, improving existing guidebooks and resources specifically for rural and tribal systems, providing low-cost consultants to assist in utility management, detailed federal review of SRF funding application requirements, and oversight on new allocations following the recent historic investment in the SRF. Overall, this thesis highlights the challenges faced by rural and tribal communities in measuring water affordability and provides recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to improve measurement accessibility. By advocating for policy changes and addressing limitations in existing resources, this research aims to improve water affordability in Northern Arizona and beyond.

Water markets are a promising method for adapting to water scarcity in the western United States, and the Colorado-Big Thompson Project (CBT) market is often held up as a prime example of their potential. While much has been written about the CBT market, the current academic literature tends to eschew structural modeling of supply and demand in favor of fitting hedonic price equations, which ignore many of the market’s unique characteristics. This paper proposes a model of supply and demand for CBT water which accounts for these unique features, including transaction supply, municipality stockpiling, and differences in behavior across different types of water users. The estimation of this model is made possible by novel administrative records data on both transfers and ownership of CBT water, the processing and features of which are described in detail. While the voluminous and messy nature of the data has prevented complete estimation of the model at this point, some preliminary results are presented along with a plan for future work.