The Impact of COVID-19: Digital Solutions to Mitigate Infrastructure Costs & Public Health Risks

By Greg Baird

Overnight, our worldview on public health has changed. The global threat of COVID-19 has forced all of us – as individuals, as families, as communities and as water operators – to re-evaluate our priorities. Water and wastewater facilities are re-examining emergency plans, standard operating procedures (SOP) and Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans. Often, these plans assume earthquakes and pandemics are unlikely events. The last major emergency incidents that many utilities responded to were the Avian Influenza virus H5N1 (bird flu) and the swine flu more than a decade ago.