From the polluted groundwater in California to the toxic tap water in Flint, barriers to safe water access are everywhere. But the true scale of the issue is invisible, as communities across the country bear hidden burdens of contamination, shut-offs, and water debt.

On the gritty streets of Detroit, community organizer Sylvia Orduño has been working to help the city’s most vulnerable residents for over twenty years. “There’s one family that sticks in my mind,” she says. “He was a disabled former police officer. He had so many health problems that they couldn’t keep up with the bills, so their water was shut off. His wife and daughter were hauling water in bottles to bathe him.”

The story Orduño shared should be an isolated, tragic occurrence — but it’s not. The struggle of life without water is a daily reality for many households throughout the United States, a problem highlighted by the pandemic: A study by Cornell University estimated that water shut-offs may have contributed to 9,000 additional deaths in the United States during the COVID-19 crisis. Shut-offs by local utilities, water laced with lead or other contaminants, and crushing water debt have left people across the country without access to a substance essential for survival.

In Detroit, a city known in advocacy circles as ground zero for water shut-offs, Orduño works with the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and the People’s Water Board Coalition. They have been engaging in water access and affordability issues for decades – but they’re fighting an uphill battle. While there are many government aid programs aimed at helping at-risk households access food, power, and even telephone and internet plans, there are currently no permanent national or state-wide aid programs for water. Somehow, water has been left out of the basic social safety net.

Read the full article about the growing lack of water access at Grist.