Imagine a Day Without Water

On a day without water, there is no water to drink, and you have not had a drink all day. Your hands are grimy, and there is no water to wash your hands. You just walked home from work, and despite your dusty, hot walk, there is no water to shower. We all like indoor plumbing, but there is no water to flush the toilet or do laundry. Hospitals are closed because there is no water. Firefighters can’t put out fires, and farmers can’t water their crops. 

Imagine a Day Without Water is led by the Value of Water Campaign to educate about and raise awareness of the vulnerability of the 68,873 drinking water and waste systems in the United States. This year, the event was on October 21, 2021. The campaign brings together diverse stakeholders to highlight how water is essential, invaluable, and in need of investment. It will include events, resolutions, student contests, social media engagement, and more.

This year, The Value of Water is taking a deeper dive into the impact drinking water and wastewater providers have within communities. Among those working towards improving water leak detection and reducing environmental risk is ASTERRA (formerly Utilis). ASTERRA saves over 9000 million gallons of potable water and 22,000 MWH of energy per year in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They do this faster and more efficiently by using satellite-based leak detection technology and can be found in use across the globe.

ASTERRA products include Recover— their initial product for water leak detection and infrastructure analysis across potable and wastewater systems— and MasterPlan for pipe deficiency assessment. EarthWorks Rail and EarthWorks Property assess underground soil moisture conditions for multiple applications as it relates to ground infrastructure. This technology uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from satellites and turns it into large-scale tools for detecting soil moisture below ground, preserving and sustaining our water supply.

ASTERRA’s mission is to deliver actionable intelligence to advance Earth’s resource resilience, making it so we never go a day without water.