NRDC Releases Report on Data Sharing for Water Affordability Programs

On Tuesday, June 24, the National Resource Defense Council released their report, titled Turn on the Tap: Increasing Water Affordability Programs Through Data Sharing. This report can be found on their website, or linked here.

This report explored the different ways in which other affordability programs can help increase participation in the water affordability programs. Through data sharing and the removal of a complex application process, affordability programs can increase participants by tens of thousands and reduce the workload of the staff meant to review the applications.

Some of the successful ways data sharing can increase participation and involvement in affordability programs is through leadership and a commitment to finding ways to streamline the enrollment process; identification of other programs with similar goals and a better enrollment rate that serve substantially the same population; finding partners in agencies willing to collaborate and commit to a process of working through the details; and looking for opportunities to take advantage of system upgrades or other opportunities to improve the data sharing process over time