TFTT Report
One Million Calif. Residents Lack Access to Safe, Reliable Water 12 Years After State Law Recognizing Water as a Human Right
The California State Water Resources Control Board recently released an assessment showing that nearly one million Golden State residents lack access to safe and reliable water. Further, the five-year price tag to address the state’s massive infrastructure needs could top $16 billion.
All of this bad news is against the backdrop of the fact that, 12 years ago, California became the first state to sign into law a measure recognizing a human right to water. So, despite declaring water a human right more than a decade ago, a million Californians still can’t count on safe water coming out of their taps.
Ironically, many of the most vocal voices calling for water to be declared a human right – groups like Food & Water Watch – are the same ones who oppose the private sector helping to fill this enormous infrastructure gap.
They are also the same voices that base much of their advocacy on faulty rate comparisons, blindly criticizing rate increases – even those that are necessary to ensure clean drinking water and reliable infrastructure. These activists call for water rates to be kept artificially low and ignore that the result is often deferred infrastructure maintenance and upgrades. They are then up in arms when communities can’t count on quality drinking water because the infrastructure is failing or the system lacks operational expertise (such as in Jackson, MS; Baltimore, MD; Newark, NJ; etc.).
Water that is unsafe to drink is unjust at any price. What activists fail to acknowledge is that rates support infrastructure investment and ensure that systems are operated by professionals with the necessary expertise to ensure water is treated properly and delivered reliably. And if rates are kept artificially low, these investments are not made and water quality and reliability suffer.
The experience in California clearly shows that, while talking about a human right to water may play well in a sound bite or on a campaign sign, it doesn’t solve any of the actual looming challenges that inhibit access to safe, reliable drinking water.
What is needed is an all hands-on-deck approach that understands that both the public and the regulated, private sector play a crucial role in reaching the goal of all Americans having safe and reliable water.