Adequate, resilient and sustainable: how to run a water utility in a pandemic

ABSTRACT Water utilities, be they public companies, state owned or departments inside city halls, are famously stolid businesses. Processing tap water or treating wastewater is just not very exciting stuff. The still raging Covid global pandemic, though, has cast a spotlight on water utilities all over the world. As producers of a commodity and purveyors of a service essential to the upkeep of public health, water utilities large and small are suddenly the centre of attention. The smooth running and assured continuation of their operations, usually taken for granted, is also under extra scrutiny.