Whether you thought about it or not, you drank clean water today. For many, it’s an instinctive cycle to turn the knob of the tap, fill a glass and instantly have access to fresh drinking water. For 2 billion people worldwide, it’s an everyday predicament. 700,000 of them live right here in California.
In Central Valley communities like Kern County, California, drinkable water is a scarce resource. Over 213,000 people are affected by water insecurity in this area alone. Communities like Kern are home to a multitude of native and tribal nations that are historically ignored when it comes to having proper water infrastructure.
According to an assessment from the California Water Board, 22 out of 88 tribal water systems are currently violating California water sanitation codes or are at risk of violating them in the future. Repairing water infrastructure is an incredibly expensive undertaking, and many of the individuals residing in the Central Valley are extremely underpaid farmers. Due to this, water-scarce communities are in a difficult position to address the issue.
Kimery Wiltshire, advisor at the Marin Coalition for Water Solutions, describes the predicament that water-insecure communities throughout California’s Central Valley find themselves in.
“Poor, brown and powerless. That pretty much sums it up. We’ve known about the lack of water coming into Navajo homes for a long time, yet the issue continues,” Wiltshre said.
To many, this issue may not appear to be an immediate threat, as Marin County members have access to consistently clean and drinkable water. Unfortunately, this speaks to the cultural disconnect that allows this problem to continue to affect hundreds of thousands of California residents and millions of Americans every day. When privileged individuals feel that these issues only affect ‘outsiders’ or ‘others’, it hinders their ability to empathize and take action.
“If there was a significant population of white Marin County residents that didn’t have access to clean drinking water, all hell would break loose,” Wiltshire said.
It’s not only cultural boundaries that are making it difficult to solve this issue. The infrastructure required to mend this issue is extremely costly. In 2018, the California government spent over $1.2 million to assist the tribal advocacy group, Trinidad Rancheria, in constructing a single water system for a tribal community in the Central Valley. This is not an issue that can be addressed by small community governments.
Redwood students who feel concerned for these communities should take a more active role in encouraging awareness for more powerful groups like Sacramento’s Community Water Center that support the effort to improve water access in affected communities.
“Being concerned, writing to your legislators and showing up to rallies is important,” Wiltshire said.
This issue is not only one that affects underprivileged California residents. Outside of California, the drinkable water crisis is affecting 2.2 billion people every day. That’s nearly 25 percent of the world’s population. Countries in Northern Africa, as well as the Middle East, face some of the most dire water stress in the world, with up to 83 percent of the population living without access to clean water.
This matter is an even more demanding and costly crisis than the one threatening American lives, as many of these struggling areas have more extreme and cost-demanding water scarcity. Consequently, they require much larger steps to solve it.
A new threat to the water crisis is also on the rise following the election of the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump. Organizations like The Regional Water Authority (RWA), which helps contribute millions of dollars to water infrastructure for central California, now face a concerning issue with President Trump’s administration.
The Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) federal layoffs are leaving organizations like the RWA without access to experts with the knowledge necessary to bring about water infrastructure improvements. Global infrastructure support groups like the U.S. Agency for International Development, which supports countries in need of clean water access, has had over 10,000 grants and contracts dismissed by DOGE this month alone.
According to Ranjiv Khush, a board member at Marin Water, the path to large-scale water reform is a massive undertaking, and could potentially be threatened by current government funding cuts.
“Our largest contributor to solving this issue on a large scale has been defunded by the new administration. In order to reach such a scale, our government needs to continue to take the proper steps towards helping these areas that are most lacking in clean water, ” Khush said.
It’s not just government funding that is an issue contributing to the water crisis. The primary government utilities that transport water throughout communities also have a lot of room for improvement.
Jamie Workman, founder of AquaShares, a leading organization in water conservation and infrastructure, points out a considerable problem within government-funded water utilities.
“Almost every [water] utility loses about ten to 15, [occasionally] 20 percent of the clean water it produces before it ever reaches anyone’s meter,” Workman said.
Students have the power to encourage large water companies to innovate their water systems to become more efficient than the ones the government provides. This forces our federal and state governments to make the necessary changes to their failing systems as well, in order to meet the higher standards.
“The action that has the most potential is encouraging water utilities to ask: ‘What if we go off grid?’ to government water sectors to let them know that they are not taking our needs seriously. That threat scares them,” Workman said.
As funding continues to be threatened, and desperate communities continue to dry up, our community must express concern with our legislators’ actions, given the authority they have. We must see our neighboring communities as fellows, rather than viewing these affected individuals as outsiders. Experts make it clear that what’s most important in combating this issue is using our voices.
There are many different ways Redwood students can get involved in fighting water scarcity. Sacramento’s Community Water Center, for example, is an organization dedicated to combating the drinking water crisis and is an outlet for individual advocacy. The organization works throughout California, hosting rallies outside of government offices and raising money for water system construction projects in areas where they’re needed. Students can donate on their official website today.
Students can also write to our state senators to encourage them to advocate for global and national water reform. By rallying support, donating and raising awareness for innovative groups and holding our government accountable, it’s possible for communities just like Redwood to rehydrate the world.
