Amongst water engineers, Benjamin Franklins statement, We will only know the worth of water when the well is dry. is fairly well known.  On the same theme, Lord Byron stated Till taught by pain, men know not waters worth.  Many parts of the world are now proving the accuracy of these aphorisms. 

Population growth, especially when coupled with urbanization, is creating new concentrated demands for increased water supplies throughout much of the world.  As the new population centers grow, sooner or later they reach a point where the most readily available high quality water sources are no longer sufficient for the growing water demands.  It then becomes necessary to use water sources that are harder to treat and/or located further away from the population center.

The environmental impacts of a growing population are also creating many water management challenges.  Such impacts include increased flooding from urban runoff and/or manmade alterations to natural drainage systems; water intakes for human consumption that reduce the remaining flows in natural water systems to levels that are environmentally damaging; municipal and industrial wastewater discharges that contaminate natural receiving water systems; and pollutants that are carried by stormwater drainage from agricultural and urban lands to adjacent waterways.

Even areas with stable populations and land uses often face problems with water.  In some cases we find that current water management practices are having unacceptable long-term environmental or public health effects, and that changes are required.  Even where current practices are acceptable, there is the problem that nothing lasts forever.  Many older cities face severe problems with maintenance of aging water infrastructureespecially buried water and sewer pipes that are deforming and/or corroding so that they leak or cannot carry the flows for which they were designed.

Many government agencies have responded to the changing conditions by creating increasingly stringent regulation of water management practices, and clients in the water sector seek services that will help them to solve the new range of water problems and comply with the new regulations.  This is where we return to the value of water.  The increasing difficulty of maintaining water services at the performance standards we expect while simultaneously protecting the environment obliges us to consider the question of how much we are willing to pay for water.  Most urban populations have been accustomed to receiving highly reliable water services at comparatively low cost. Now we increasingly face choices between reduced quality of service, limitation of urban growth, environmental degradation, and increased cost for water services.  In most areas, people eventually choose continued urban growth and renewal with provision of highly reliable water management services, even if that means substantial increases in fees, taxes, and utility rates.

The water industry is responding to these opportunities and challenges through technical innovations that range from increasingly sophisticated data collection and analysis methods to new design philosophies and development of completely new water technologies.  PB is an active participant in the water industry, and this issue of PB Network provides examples of our innovative water projects all over the world.  It represents a snapshot of our progress in fulfilling the target of significant growth in the water sector-one of the key elements of PBs Strategic Plan.