Permanent, year-round moratoria should be widely adopted to make water affordable and accessible to all in our region. Most responsive water systems have some type of moratorium on water shut-offs, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is not clear how persistent these moratoria will be in the future as COVID-19 risk mitigation practices ease.

Instead of shut-offs, a wide range of readily accessible affordability protections (such as grace periods or tiered income assistance programs) should be implemented to ensure access to affordable drinking water. These programs are in place in several systems in the region and provide an important example that should be adopted by other water systems that lack affordability protections.

Affordability protections should be easily accessible through system websites and other communications (e.g., email notification and paper billing).

Future efforts should include increasing and easing access to these important affordability programs through multiple enrollment options and community driven engagement.