As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presented a lecture titled, "Water Infrastructure: Diving Into Needs and Recent Policy Developments" by Brookings fellow in Brookings metro, Joseph Kane.

Whether providing drinking water, treating wastewater, or managing stormwater, water infrastructure in the United States spans a wide range of human-made and natural systems. In turn, the enormous scale and variety of these systems is leading to an array of challenges: aging and vulnerable infrastructure; fragmented governance and siloed planning across different geographies; a lack of financial, technical, and managerial capacity; difficulties adapting to new industrial and environmental demands; and more.

In this lecture, Brookings Metro Fellow Joseph Kane explored challenges to our regional and national water infrastructure with a focus on how federal, state, and local leaders—including utilities, policymakers, and other stakeholders—are coordinating to launch more proactive water infrastructure plans and investments in recent years.