For nearly a week earlier this month, the sixth largest city in one of the world's wealthiest

nations told its residents to boil the tap water because it may have been contaminated.

That city was Atlanta. U.S. drinking water is among the world's safest and most reliable, but an aging infrastructure is posing challenges.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that there's a water main break every two minutes.

Earlier I spoke with Shannon Marquez, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia

University's School of Public Health.

I asked her why these problems are so common in the

United States. Well you know there are a combination of things that are happening now

John aging infrastructure from years of neglect,

under finance systems, and having to make decisions

that are more like band-aid approaches

to addressing these challenges as opposed to comprehensive rehabilitation.

That coupled with what we are seeing with extreme weather events and climate change are also really putting our water systems in jeopardy.

Many of these systems were constructed for a capacity that is really outgrown now at this point.

Why the neglect, why the band-aid approach?

Is this just out of sight out of mind?

Well, in fact, if you think about what it's going to take to overhaul these systems, the amount of finance,

the reality is that water utilities are faced with just being able to do what they can,

patch the holes as they come, patch the main

breaks as they come, and there's not enough resources. It really is going to

require federal level efforts and although we have the infrastructure bill it's not nearly enough to really overcome these challenges.

One of the other challenges is the diversity of water systems.

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