More on rural water woes

A few days ago I wrote a post featuring a New York Times story about water shortages in northern rural Chile, and yesterday an NPR story (from New Hampshire Public Radio) discussed rural water woes closer to home, in central New Hampshire. In Chile, one of the culprits is the law, which respects private water rights without consideration of the public interest. In New Hampshire, part of the problem is an aging water infrastructure. Residents in one community in the central part of the state did not reliably have water every day. Yet, when a private company revamped the water system for that town at a cost of millions, water rates soared to three times their prior level. This left many on fixed incomes unable to pay the rates and seeking to sell their homes and move as a consequence.