ABSTRACT
The ascendancy of the US as a major agricultural and industrial nation in the modern world has always been guided by the ability to supply adequate amounts of water for human consumption and growth. The nation also has a long tradition of recognizing the importance of proper sanitation and suitable waste management practices to ensure sustainability of its water supplies. While incidences of improper management of water due to overexploitation or loss in the quality due to pollutant discharges can be found in US water history, they have provided valuable lessons for conservation. Compared to many populous nations in the world, the urban centres of the US provide continuous water supply and high-quality sanitation services to even its poorest residents. However, the rise of major cities such as Los Angles and San Antonio has come at the cost of endangering sensitive ecosystems such as Mono Lake, Owens Lake and the Edwards aquifer. The US has learned many lessons from these failures and responded by developing a comprehensive socio-political and technological framework that continues to evolve even today. Health risks arising from improper waste disposal practices, such as those documented at Love Canal, New York, and Woburn, Massachusetts (Harr, 1996), have provided the impetus for developing comprehensive environmental legislation. While the US has made great strides to provide access to adequate amounts of high-quality water to over 95 per cent of its population, it will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rehabilitate its ageing infrastructure and reach out to economically distressed communities (Ward, 1999; Melosi, 2004). This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of the US experience on water supply and sanitation, with particular reference to the interaction between technical and social sciences.
