Everyday our country finds itself in another problem. In this article from the New York Times, Washington seems to have a water issue. The water pipes are very old and continue to break every day. When we have a huge rain fall, the water from the damaged sewer pipes seep into the city’s drinking supply. Studies show that the sewer pipe breaking is a reoccurring problem in the country that happens every 2 minutes each day. Mr. Hawkins, head of Washington Water Department, has now decided the only solution is to increase water rates to help replace the damaged pipes.
This would seem like a pretty reasonable solution, but the citizens of Washington don’t want to pay for the damages. The pipes were put in many years ago, and the question raised is why wasn’t this resolved earlier? When the city knows how old the pipes are and they are clearly too old to last any longer, why should they pay for damages that are irrelevant to their generation. I agree with them completely. Some of these pipes are so out of date they were put in during the Civil War according to the article. That seems like the city has been ignoring the age of these pipes and are not fixing it until one of them breaks. Now, their solution is to increase the water rates in the city on the citizens because they have ignored a problem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/us/15water.html
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I totally agree with your opinion completely. With times being tough now a days, people are not going to want another tax increase to pay for something they did not cause. The local government should have anticipated this type of opposition.
ReplyDeleteIf the Washington Water Department had knowledge of the horrible condition of the pipes in the past, why didn't they do anything to fix them or start raising money to fix them in the past?