Guaranteeing safe, clean and available water supplies should be a top priority when lawmakers assemble for their regular legislative session next month.

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about big-ticket infrastructure issues — whether lawmakers will approve any of them and where they might look for money. 

Some Texans in rural areas face double- or even triple-digit rate increases from private water providers. On Wednesday they urged the Senate Committee on Natural Resources to address the problem, and lawmakers seemed receptive.

At our Oct. 29 symposium on the future of water at Texas State University, Terrence Henry of NPR's StateImpact Texas talked to Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, David Langford of the Texas Wildlife Association and Laura Huffman of The Nature Conservancy of Texas.

At the Trib's Oct. 29 symposium on the future of water at Texas State University, Kate Galbraith talked to former state Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, Myron Hess of the National Wildlife Federation and Bob Huston of the Environmental Flows Science Advisory Committee.

At the Trib's Oct. 29 symposium at Texas State University on the future of water, I talked with state Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, and state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, a member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

The Legislature failed to fund a state water plan in the last session. And with a price tag pegged at $53 billion and lawmakers pledging not to raise taxes, finding the money is sure to prove tricky in 2013.

Things are starting to move on the water policy front, with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and others saying water will be a focus of the upcoming session. Meanwhile, West Texas keeps getting drier.

At the 2012 Texas Tribune Festival, University of Texas at Austin professor Danny Reible talked about the future of water with Rebecca Motal of the Lower Colorado River Authority, Andy Sansom of Texas State University, Amy Hardberger of the Environmental Defense Fund and state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio.

Speaking to a cattle raisers' group on Tuesday, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus promised that water "will be at the center of the discussion."

The drought that began in October 2010 has continued into 2012, and it has taken a toll on Texas' water supplies. This map shows communities that are at risk of running out of water within 180 days.

Texas State University in San Marcos on Friday will announce a major gift from the Meadows Foundation. The $1 million donation will help launch the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.

Desalination, the process of removing salt from water, may bring to mind a plant on the coast sucking in salty seawater and dispensing fresh water. But Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has a plan to bring desalination hundreds of miles inland, to thirsty Central Texas.

While advocates worry particularly about heat conditions in a prison unit with recent water shortages, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering arguments in a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice alleging that the sweltering living quarters constitute cruel and unusual punishment. 

The historic Texas drought caused the Ogallala Aquifer to experience its largest decline in 25 years across a large swath of the Texas Panhandle, new numbers from a water district show.

Much of the discussion at a Wednesday House committee hearing centered around efforts by drilling companies to recycle water or reduce their water consumption. Environmentalists questioned whether they are doing enough.

Later this year, a plant in Big Spring will become the state's first facility to process wastewater and send it back into the drinking water system. This is the ultimate use of "reclaimed water" — a source crucial to Texas' future.

The ultimate use of sewage water is converting it into drinking water — and a plant in the West Texas town of Big Spring will do exactly that when it begins operations at the end of the year. This is a slideshow of the plant, currently under construction.