Vessel Releases National Roadmap to Close the U.S. Water Access Gap by 2040

Sector-wide effort sets a 2040 goal of safe running water and working sanitation in every American home, with a 5x economic return; 130+ organizations gather May 5–7 in D.C. to put the plan into action

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Vessel Collective released the National Roadmap to Close the U.S. Water Gap, the first sector-wide strategy to bring safe, running water and working sanitation to every home in the United States by 2040. The Roadmap will be the centerpiece of the second annual U.S. WASH Convening, taking place May 5–7 in Washington, D.C., where more than 130 organizations from across the country will gather to put the plan into action.

More than two million people in the United States still live in homes without running water or a working toilet. Reliable estimates place the true number as high as nine million.

Every state has communities living in the gap, from rural towns to urban neighborhoods just beyond municipal service lines. Tens of millions more Americans have water and wastewater service that they cannot afford, cannot rely on, or that is already failing. And the number is growing. America's hidden water crisis costs the U.S. economy $8.58 billion every year.

The U.S. has solved problems like this before. In less than two decades, the Rural Electrification Act brought power to more than 90 percent of rural homes that had been left in the dark. A $42 billion federal investment is doing the same for broadband. The Roadmap argues that closing the water access gap is the next great American infrastructure challenge, solvable on the same kind of timeline.

The price tag: $18.4 billion upfront. The return: nearly five dollars for every dollar invested, unlocking close to $200 billion in value over the next 50 years.

"The priorities are clear. What we need now is commitment," said Kabir Thatte, Executive Director of Vessel. "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."

The Roadmap is an action plan with a deadline. It identifies three mutually reinforcing pillars, names what each level of government, the WASH sector, philanthropy, and industry must do, and lays out near-term, mid-term, and long-term steps from now through 2040. Vessel and its partners are already executing year-one work in each pillar.

• Visibility builds the will to act by creating the public understanding, decision-maker champions, and sector alignment that turn a hidden problem into a national priority.
• Government Commitment enables action at scale by securing the funding, legal frameworks, and coordinated action across federal, state, and local government that no community can deliver on its own.
• Capacity sustains results by building the workforce, regional partnerships, and management models that keep water and sanitation systems working, year after year.

The Roadmap has been endorsed by more than 25 organizations spanning rural technical assistance providers, nonprofits, philanthropy, the private sector, academia, Indigenous community organizations, and the trade associations that set water and sanitation standards, including DigDeep, Engineers Without Borders, IAPMO, LIXIL, Moonshot Missions, the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association, the Osprey Foundation, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, UCLA Water Resources Group, Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities, the US Water Alliance, Water For People, and We the People of Detroit.

The National Roadmap to Close the U.S. Water Gap and the full endorsement list are available now at vesselcollective.us.

About Vessel
Vessel is a collective of national WASH organizations dedicated to addressing the water and sanitation crisis in the United States. Formed with the belief in collective action, the coalition aims to close the U.S. Water Gap through collaboration, community engagement, setting actionable targets, knowledge exchange, policy advocacy, and raising public awareness. By uniting organizations with a shared mission and forming the foundation of the domestic U.S. WASH sector, Vessel strives to ensure every individual's right to clean and reliable water services. For more information, please visit www.vesselcollective.us.

Endorsing Organizations
Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program (BBUWP)
C4W Collective Action for a Water Secure World
Center for Water Security and Cooperation (CWSC)
Consortium for Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management
DigDeep
Elevate
Engineers Without Borders USA
GreenLatinos
IAPMO
International Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH)
Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health
LIXIL
Millennium Water Alliance
Moonshot Missions
National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association (NOWRA)
Osprey Foundation
Pacific Institute
Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC)
Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP)
UCLA Water Resources Group
Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities
US Water Alliance
WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations
Water For People
We the People of Detroit

SOURCE Vessel Collective