Given the frequent occurrence of urban water crises, it is critical to document how COVID-19 pandemic response management affects natural processes and surface water quality in the short term. It is equally important to determine how we can better optimize the natural function of water supply areas (Sun et al. 2018) once economic recovery is underway. The current challenge, though, is that economic sectors and industries that contribute to pollution (e.g., energy, consumer, pharmaceutical, and other industries) receive little incentive to promote urban water quality beyond what the law requires. They are chiefly evaluated in terms of total returns to the shareholders; however, an important collateral benefit of economic performance is the creation of jobs and public wealth (i.e., taxation revenue). To improve the sustainability of water supplies and cover the associated cost, it will be necessary for the public, by way of governance, to improve laws and direct public wealth toward outcomes that simultaneously support environmental and economic goals (Claassen et al. 2018).