Human Rights Report Claims Race Affects Access to Clean Water in America

A report entitled, "Closing the Water Access Gap in The United States" released by the human rights non-profit organizations Dig Deep and U.S. Water Alliance claims that "race is still the strongest determinant" when it comes to access to safe drinking water.

According to the report, more than two million people in the U.S. and Puerto Rico don't have access to running water and basic plumbing in their households.

Dig Deep chief executive George McGraw, who is also the co-writer of the report, said the lack of water access is a "silent crisis," especially in minority areas. He added that Latino and African-American households are twice as likely as white households to lack indoor plumbing. Meanwhile, Native Americans are 19 times more likely to be found without an indoor water source.

The report claims that the crisis must be treated as a national issue which must be addressed through a combination of government funding, flexible funding methods, as well as partnerships with groups in order to provide households with the necessary infrastructure.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unsafe drinking water and limited access to water sanitation systems contribute to about 88 percent of deaths from diarrheal diseases in the country.

A century ago, the U.S. government swiftly addressed the public health concerns by investing in water systems that provided safe drinking and wastewater services to Americans, after waterborne illnesses such as cholera were among the nation's leading causes of death.

However, mainly white Americans benefitted from the said initiative. According to McGraw this did not include many poor, indigenous, or immigrant communities.

McGraw cited multiple reasons as to why different communities still don't have water supply.

One of these is the location. Texas-Mexico border residents use unsupervised private wells without the assurance of water quality and availability. In the town of Cochran, families spend $250 a month to purchase trucked water, others haul water by car or foot. The trucked water does not even include the 50 to 100 gallons of potable water these households consume a month. It is mainly used in bathing or cleansing.

Moreover, the lack of access to safe potable water is even worsened by climatic factors. The same report says that high bacteria rates in Puerto Rico's surface water indicate the widespread wastewater issues. Residents in Guayabota, a community in the town of Yabucoa, told researchers that wastewater regularly floods the streets of their neighborhoods due to the droughts and extreme rainfall which cause the sewer systems to constantly back up and overflow.

Another issue identified by the researchers is the agricultural and industrial production. Since 2013, domestic wells and municipal systems of California in the Central Valley have been unsafe due to contaminants such as nitrates and bacteria, as well as arsenic, uranium and other harmful industrial chemicals from the farm and dairy plants.

Even though there are some rural areas that have come up with small drinking water systems that treat contamination with chlorination, there are still a number of low-income communities that cannot afford updating their water systems.

There is also an issue of limited federal and local government support. According to the report, in a data from the Congressional Budget Office, 63 percent of total capital spending for water and wastewater systems in 1977 came from federal agencies. However, over the years the spending has decreased by 10 percent.

McGraw worries that if proper investments and coordinated efforts are not made, more people could lose reasonable access to clean water in the next decade.