When The Water We Have Isn't Clean Enough For Our Health & Livelihoods
Water insecurity affects us when there's not enough water or when the water we do have isn't clean enough for our health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and production. This issue also brings significant risks to people, environments, and economies. A key part of water security is ensuring both the quantity and quality of our water resources.
Take, for instance, the Torres Martinez Indian Reservation in Southern California's desert. Water is always in short supply, and the little they do have is contaminated with arsenic. To tackle this, the Farmworker Institute, founded by labor leader Cesar Chavez, started a project to install filters to remove arsenic from the water wells serving thousands of agricultural workers' homes in places like Mecca, Thermo, and Oasis in the Coachella Valley. Arsenic naturally occurs underground, but it's dangerous when ingested through water. Dr. Ilan Shapiro, a public health expert, warns that long-term exposure can cause nausea, vomiting, headaches, skin conditions, and in severe cases, it can affect the heart, kidneys, lungs, and even lead to cancer.
Water issues go beyond agriculture, affecting public water supplies nationwide. Tools like the Environmental Working Group’s website can help us check our area's water contaminants and related health risks by entering our Zip Code. Communities of color, including Black and Latino communities, are hit hardest by poor water quality. Rural community water systems, in particular, often face more contamination problems than urban ones. These rural systems usually lack the technical, managerial, and financial resources to address ongoing water quality issues effectively.
A study by The Guardian in February 2021 highlighted various contaminants found in public water systems across the U.S., from nitrates in agricultural areas like California and Texas to radioactive substances in West Virginia. The health impacts are severe and varied, including increased cancer rates, oxygen supply issues due to nitrate fertilizers, hormonal disruptions in women, premature births, and lower IQs in children because of herbicides like atrazine. The Latino community often lives in economically challenged counties and faces these issues disproportionately. Counties with 25% or more Latino population violate drinking water contamination rules at twice the rate of the rest of the country.
Key findings include:
Unequal access to clean drinking water influenced by race, income, and location.
Poorer counties experience twice the violations compared to wealthier areas.
Rural counties report 28% more violations than metropolitan areas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency standards.
J.D. Power's June report on water quality ranked the states with the worst and best water quality. States with the worst water quality included Alabama, Maryland, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mississippi, Arizona, and Indiana. Meanwhile, states with the best water quality were Kentucky, Washington, New York, Oregon, Kansas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, Virginia, and Hawaii.
Effective governance of water security is crucial. It means balancing the needs and claims on water resources while addressing inequities in access. This governance framework helps manage water-related challenges and ensures water resources are used sustainably to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Achieving universal water security requires a comprehensive strategy that goes beyond just having enough water. It involves ensuring safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water for everyone, taking into account the complex relationships between human activities, environmental preservation, and economic development.