CBC News - Climate change could cost municipalities $700M more a year to maintain pipes, sewers, report says
Click here to read the article on CBC News.
A new report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario begins to shed some light on the financial impact that climate change will have on the storm and wastewater infrastructure of Ontario communities. Throughout Ontario, more than 440 communities maintain storm and wastewater assets (e.g. drains, pipes, ditches, culverts and sewer mains) that are valued at over $124 billion, with annual maintenance costs of approximately $3.0 billion. The report finds that in the absence of any climate change adaptation or mitigation efforts, the costs to maintain this infrastructure will increase by approximately $6.2 billion dollars between 2023-2030, representing a 27% cost increase during this time period. A short review of the article has been published by CBC News.
This report highlights the critical importance of the Canada1Water project, and the evaluation of climate change impacts on ground/surface water sustainability across not only Ontario, but all of Canada. Understanding the nature of any problem is the first step in successfully adapting to it, and the results of this project will provide a baseline understanding of groundwater and surface water trends for communities across this country as they begin to implement climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.
Click here to read the article on CBC News.
“When you don’t adapt your infrastructure, then you leave it vulnerable to things like overland flooding, as a result of the infrastructure not being able to get the water out of there,. ”
Figure 4-1 from the FAO Report on Costing Climate Change Impacts to Public Infrastructure.
“Proactively adapting linear storm and wastewater infrastructure to withstand more extreme rainfall will cost less than not adapting over the long term. Proactively adapting public storm and wastewater infrastructure [...] will add between $71 billion to $127 billion to infrastructure costs relative to the stable climate scenario by 2100. This represents a cost increase between 29 and 53 per cent. While significant, these additional climate-related costs are lower (in real dollars) than those incurred in the absence of adaptation or if adaptation was undertaken at a more gradual pace. This is due to the avoidance of higher climate-related operations and maintenance costs.”
A woman walks along a flooded roadway in Toronto, ON during the 13 July 2013 storm (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)