AWWA JAW64264

The AWWA Water Utility Council commissioned a study in 2005 to help utilities begin thinking about asset management. The primary objectives of the study were to articulate the need for infrastructure stewardship via asset management and to help utilities convey this need to governing bodies, customers, and other stakeholders. This article is derived in part from the resulting report, Water Infrastructure at a Turning Point: The Road to Sustainable Asset Management, published by AWWA in 2006. The authors dispel the common barriers utilities face in starting an asset management program by relating the principles of asset management to the familiar processes of maintaining a personal vehicle. Many people adopt intervention strategies to manage the economic life of their cars to get as much value as possible out of them. These car management strategies are the same as those used in traditional asset management. Includes 3 references, figures.