The Vessel Collective, a backbone organisation coordinating the U.S. water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, has released the National Roadmap to Close the U.S. Water Gap, the first strategy of its kind to unite the sector behind a shared plan to bring safe running water and working sanitation to every American home by 2040. More than 130 organisations from across the country are gathering this week in Washington, D.C. to put the plan into action.
A crisis hiding in plain sight
The figures are striking for a country currently investing $42.45 billion in broadband connectivity and that brought electricity to over 90% of rural homes in under two decades. At least two million Americans have no running water or working toilet at home, with some estimates placing the true figure as high as nine million. The economic toll reaches $8.58 billion annually, an average of $15,800 per unserved household, encompassing 219,000 cases of waterborne illness each year, approximately 610 deaths, and 68 million hours of work lost as families haul water instead of earning wages.
The communities behind those numbers are spread across every state. On the Navajo Nation, families drive hours to collect water in barrels. In Alabama's Black Belt, dense clay soils make conventional septic systems impossible, leaving raw sewage surfacing in yards. In Texas colonias, parents pay hundreds of dollars a month for trucked water they cannot be certain is safe. Native American households are 19 times more likely to lack indoor plumbing than the national average, despite the federal government holding specific trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations that the roadmap states have never been fully met. Beyond those without any access, a further 40 million Americans have water or wastewater services they cannot afford or cannot rely on.
A governance problem, not a resource problem
The roadmap's central argument is structural. Responsibility for water and sanitation is distributed across federal, state, Tribal and local authorities, with no single entity accountable for universal access. When a household lacks service, the document states, there is often no clear authority responsible for closing the gap and no automatic mechanism to ensure it stays closed. Federal investment in water infrastructure fell from 63% of capital spending in 1977 to just 9% in 2014, and the programmes that remain were designed to rehabilitate existing systems rather than extend first-time connections. Even where funding exists, navigating multiple agencies with differing eligibility rules falls hardest on the communities least equipped to do so. The scale of the problem is further obscured by a data void: the U.S. Census Bureau removed its flush toilet question from its national survey in 2016, leaving the country without reliable federal figures on household sanitation access.
A roadmap with a deadline and a return
The roadmap responds to these conditions through three mutually reinforcing pillars: Visibility, which builds the public understanding and political will that have so far been absent; Government Commitment, which seeks dedicated funding, legal frameworks and coordinated action across all levels of government; and Capacity, which develops the workforce, regional partnerships and management models needed to sustain systems over time. The investment case is set out plainly: $18.4 billion upfront against nearly $200 billion in projected economic value over 50 years, a return of nearly five dollars for every dollar invested.
Kabir Thatte, Executive Director of Vessel, said: "The priorities are clear. What we need now is commitment. For the first time, the United States has a unified strategy that is owned by the field and built from the ground up by the people doing this work. The Roadmap doesn't belong to any one organization. It will take all of us – every community, agency, funder, utility, and partner – to close this gap, forever."
