Without water

https://news.yahoo.com/without-water-141533091.html

CBSNews
,CBS News•July 26, 2020

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After "Sunday Morning" aired its report on the lack of running water in the Navajo Nation in 2015, McGraw said, "We were getting calls and emails from people across the country saying, 'Oh, like, I live in this town in Mississippi,' or, 'I live in this town in California, and I thought we were the only ones. I thought we were the only town without running water in America.'"

No one even knew just how bad the problem was – no government agency keeps track – so DigDeep, along with the U.S. Water Alliance, conducted their own survey. The results showed that two million Americans – and probably more – are suffering today with no safe running water, or even plumbing, in their homes.

McGraw said, "There was one finding from the report that is, I think, truly terrifying, and that's that in six states, and in Puerto Rico, during the time we were studying in the report, those states went backwards in access. The problem got worse. And I mean, how can that be?"

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Take East Orosi, a mostly Latino community surrounded by the fertile orchards of California's Central Valley. To look around you'd think that water is pretty plentiful … and it is, for big agriculture. But in a neighborhood where most of those who work those fields live, there's no central water main.

What there IS is a huge irrigation canal that runs right through their backyards.

"This is all contracted water," said Ryan Jensen, a water-rights organizer. "All of this water is spoken for. It essentially belongs to somebody."

Jensen said residents rely on water stored in tanks above two underground wells. But both have tested positive for dangerous chemicals.

Cowan asked, "Nothing in there is really safe to drink?"

"No, it's not safe water," Jensen replied.

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