One would think that access to clean water should be a basic right for any American citizen, considering how “great” this country is.
But here it is, more than two decades into the 21st century, and millions of U.S. residents still do not have access to clean, drinkable water. Most — if not all — of the individuals negatively affected by this crisis come from low-income or minority backgrounds, studies show.
A recent study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that an overwhelming percentage of Americans share the belief that improving clean water accessibility should be one of the country’s leading priorities.
“The focus on clean water and reducing hunger is also evident in opinions about priorities for U.S. efforts to improve health in developing countries,” says a KFF report on a survey of Americans on the U.S. role in global health.
“Topping the list, 69 percent of Americans say that improving access to clean water should be one of the top priorities.”
Among the most notable occurrences in the nation at the moment is what many are referring to as the Jackson Water Crisis. Tens of thousands of residents in the Southern predominantly Black town of Jackson, Miss., are without clean water.
Mississippi’s capital city has made national and international headlines over the past week due to ongoing issues with its aging water line infrastructure, cloudy quality to the water and alarmingly low pressure.
Jackson, a town made of more than 80 percent of Black residents, also has about a fourth of its residents living at or beneath the poverty line. The city is grappling with the harsh reality that it is nearing a collapse of its water system, now joining a long list of cities with unsafe water for drinking, bathing and cooking.
A shortage of certified operators to work at water plants is a noteworthy challenge facing Jackson, notes an Associated Press report, which also cited an Environmental Protection Agency notice issued in January that the town’s water system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Additionally, the city’s water quality does not meet minimum standards, was detected to have unacceptably high lead levels and remains out of compliance with federal water quality laws. These problems did not come about out of happenstance, but resulted from years of neglect, mismanagement and what some call environmental racism. Jackson now joins places like Flint, Mich., Brunswick County, N.C., and Newark, N.J. — and several others — with dreadful water crises that will and have affected thousands of Black lives.
“As tens of thousands of residents of Jackson, Miss., remain without clean water, some advocates say the situation stems from years of environmental racism,” says a Sept. 3 report by The Hill.
“Although there have been cases dubbed examples of environmental racism that involve active wrongdoing, advocates say it can also apply in situations where issues affecting nonwhite communities are simply considered less urgent or more acceptable.”
Mississippi is slated to receive $429 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to repair its water and wastewater systems over the next five years, highlights an NBC News story by Bracey Harris and Daniella Silva. That piece of funding in particular will reportedly be dispersed mostly through loans – some of which are forgivable – and grants provided through the EPA.
“In a state where financial windfalls are rare, the federal package could be transformational for Jackson, which desperately needs funds to fix a brittle system in which sewer lines often break and residents regularly experience outages and notices to boil their water,” says the article.
“But as the city remains under a state of emergency, it could face a lengthy wait for some of these funds — and a battle for the city’s share. One of two state agencies responsible for pushing out millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds said it could be at least mid-to-late 2023 before any allocations roll out.
However, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has pointed out that the cost of restoring the city’s failing water infrastructure could be billions of dollars. Local organizations, like Garrett Enterprises and Repairers of the Breach, are leading the fight in the water crisis but of course much more reform is needed.
“More federal funding alone will not solve everything,” accentuated Joseph W. Kane of the Brookings Institution.
“Federal, state, and local leaders are in a crucial implementation phase to figure out what types of priorities and projects they are going to act on,” he wrote in reference to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
“Implementing the IIJA is shining light on several long-standing challenges the water sector has faced: highly fragmented and localized needs; ongoing fiscal, technical, and staffing challenges; struggles to address climate concerns; and more.”
For what seems like the longest, Black people have been in the center of an ongoing water crisis in numerous urban and rural communities. And perhaps, there may be an end in sight — presuming local, state and national leaders stand behind their pledges of combating environmental racism by any means possible.
Organizations on the front lines of the environmental justice movement include the National Black Environmental Justice Network, the Climate Justice Alliance, the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and many others.
