Elected officials and board members are rarely the ones inspecting a lift station or reading a hydraulic model, but they are often the ones deciding whether a project moves forward. That makes clear communication about infrastructure risk part of a utility's job, not an afterthought.
Deferred investment does not usually show up immediately. It shows up later - as more frequent breaks, more emergency repairs, more customer complaints - and eventually a cost that is higher than the original project would have been. Explaining that connection plainly is often more persuasive than an engineering report on its own.
Utilities that can point to organized asset and risk information tend to have an easier time explaining, in a council meeting, why a project is needed now rather than "someday."