Martin Chavez, the Executive Director of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, was talking with Planet Forward and let drop the tidbit of information that NYC is losing 30% of its water supply to unknown leakages. Say what?
Chavez claims that NYC's underground infrastructure is in shambles and needs an overhaul. He recommends that the city install meters at each manhole to find and fix these leaks. Water, he points out is important to a city and offers up some sage advice to NYC Mayor Bloomberg, "Providing water may not get you elected, but not providing water will get you fired."
This leakage is apparently a problem faced by a lot of cities. It's not cheap, either. The World Bank estimates these slow leaks cost us over $14 billion a year. [Planet Forward via Huffington Post]