You spent 15 minutes this morning in the shower or maybe more taking up some extra time to wash your hair. You spent five minutes with the water running to brush your teeth and wash your face. Every morning you get up you know you are guaranteed clean running water.
The average American uses about 150 gallons of water per day. Millions of Americans are forced to use as little as four liters a day or 400 gallons a month. For some Americans, mostly poor people and Natives living on reservations, water is a luxury. It means wealth – it is the reason behind every action taken. Their days are planned out accordingly to the amount of water left in their barrel.
Water poverty is something you don’t hear about in the media. It is something put in the back pages of newspapers for you to accidentally come across. For millions of Americans, they are deaf to the cries of those suffering from water poverty. It is nothing like the average day poverty, this is far worst. Not only do these families not have adequate water cleaning services or access to water at all, they also lack money. No water means no work for some of these families.
Fortunately, there are non-profit organizations willing to help solve the problem, but that help just isn’t enough to rid families of this silent killer. An organization such as Digdeep, which was founded by George McGraw, believes that clean water should be a human right. They work to make sure places without access to clean water get it and to ensure that places with water, keep getting it.
One of their newest projects is the Navajo Project. This is a reservation in New Mexico where the habitants are forced to ration their clean water based on their needs. Not only are these Americans facing water poverty, but there is also no running electricity. The only hope that these families have is a water lady that comes once a month because of limited resources.
Could you imagine only having 400 gallons of water per month and that water being given to you once a month? Just in recent news the coal ash infested water in Richmond, Flint Michigan, and the Dakota access pipeline have all given people a shock of reality. While these situations received uncensored attention in the media, families that face this struggle daily are left in the shadows.
Most of the Natives rely on surface water and shallow aquifers, as stated by McGraw, but these aquifers and surface water has been poisoned by uranium mining. It was been evident that I many water poverty situations, mining companies go into an area and disrupt the natural water and don’t take responsibility for their actions.
When the water lady comes, families bring out buckets, tubs, bottles, anything they can find to hold water. The same water used to brush their teeth and shower is also poured into a pot for cooking, then pour into the toilet.
Digdeep created a community led program that brings water and electricity into the homes of many Navajo families. The families themselves learn how to manage and maintain the new systems implemented. The organization built a well in the middle of the area where water is treated and pumped into trucks onsite. They made the water truck even more efficient by getting a second truck to double the delivery capacity. Cistern systems were installed to bring water into homes and solar energy systems were installed to homes without electricity to power the water and give them light. By the end of 2018, Digdeep hopes to have install water and electricity into every home in Navajo.
For these families, clean, safe water is finally becoming a reality. For those of us who can afford to waste water, we do it so carelessly not thinking about the families struggling to get by on a couple gallons a day. We live in complete luxury. Do not take it for granted.
