The water industry is essentially everything that goes into delivering water to residents. The industry will include public and private water utilities. The water these utilities get, and deliver could consist of groundwater, surface water, and recycled water.
There may be other water sources that others would add but let’s stick with these three. This industry should not include companies that bottle water. This industry should be treated as its own industry.
Private and public water utilities have similar structures. They both require employees and infrastructure to operate. They must pay salaries and invest in their organization. Their employee structure or hierarchy will be similar. Most organizations have someone at the top by themselves and have people reporting to them and those people have their own reports. It is sort of like a pyramid.
The equipment, pipes, reservoirs, and wells will be very similar. Their technologies and engineering could even be similar for some. However, in the water industry there are various sizes to utilities. There are very large water utilities with 1500 employees, and there are some with less than 30 employees. Therefore, not all water utilities are able to have the same technology and engineering.
In some cases, it may not make sense to have everything a large one has. A small water utility also may not be able to afford everything a large one has. However, they still do have some of the same positions. After all, most organizations need operations, finance, engineering, IT, human resources, and customer service departments.
They may have different names, but they perform the same tasks to accomplish goals. The last very important thing about these water utilities is they are basically monopolies. They do not have competitors and people cannot get water from someone else.
Now let’s dig into a private water utility. A private water utility is basically a utility that is not operated by a government. This water utility should basically be thought of as any other company. The company operates like Disney and is trying to make a profit. These private water utilities could have shareholders and board of directors, but you may find some that are owned by families. Again, the key here is they are trying to make a profit. They operate the water utility to ensure they have financial gain.
A public water utility to put it simply is an organization that is owned by a government. This may not always mean that the government operates the system. There are cases where the work is outsourced, or the utility leased. The key to public water utilities is they are not in it to make a profit. They operate for the sole purpose of providing water to their residents. This does not mean they do not have money leftover after subtracting their revenue from their expenses. Afterall, organizations could fail quickly if they were operating at a loss.
All this means is they are not in it to make a financial gain. The last thing about public water utilities is that you should be able to have a say in how they operate and spend money. This does not mean you live in Texas and can tell California how to operate. It means that if the water utility where you live is public you can voice and see what they are doing. You vote for someone to represent you in matters that come up.