Americans without water - CBS Sunday Morning

The Navajo Nation occupies nearly 30,000 square miles of territory across parts of three Western states, bountiful in its beauty but often barren of the most basic needs. COVID hit this community especially hard; infections per capita were higher than even New York's at its peak.

While health officials warned the nation to wash our hands frequently, here that basic protection is a luxury. In more than a third of the homes, the taps are bone dry. Not a drop.

"Most Americans take it completely for granted; they thought this problem was solved a long time ago," said George McGraw, founder and CEO of the non-profit DigDeep. After "Sunday Morning" aired its report on the lack of running water in the Navajo Nation in 2015, McGraw said, "We were getting calls and emails from people across the country saying, 'Oh, like, I live in this town in Mississippi,' or, 'I live in this town in California, and I thought we were the only ones. I thought we were the only town without running water in America.'"

No one even knew just how bad the problem was – no government agency keeps track – so DigDeep, along with the U.S. Water Alliance, conducted their own survey. The results showed that two million Americans – and probably more – are suffering today with no safe running water, or even plumbing, in their homes.

For the past eight years, Keystone, West Virginia has been under a boil water advisory. It's so common it doesn't even make headlines anymore. At West Virginia's State Capitol, local politicians, like Delegate Ed Evans, know that water is a problem. But he says there seems to be little political will to fix it. "We should be writing laws that make sure that money is available to implement water systems all over West Virginia," Evans said.

Cowan asked, "Is there a sense of urgency about it?"

"Unfortunately, no."

But it's pretty urgent for those hit the hardest; Black and Latino Americans are twice as likely as White Americans to live without running water.

Take East Orosi, a mostly Latino community surrounded by the fertile orchards of California's Central Valley. To look around you'd think that water is pretty plentiful … and it is, for big agriculture. But in a neighborhood where most of those who work those fields live, there's no central water main. What there IS is a huge irrigation canal that runs right through their backyards.

"This is all contracted water," said Ryan Jensen, a water-rights organizer. "All of this water is spoken for. It essentially belongs to somebody." Jensen said residents rely on water stored in tanks above two underground wells. But both have tested positive for dangerous chemicals. Cowan asked, "Nothing in there is really safe to drink?" "No, it's not safe water," Jensen replied.

The water main stops in the next town over. "All it would take is three-quarters of a mile of pipeline from this on down to East Orosi to supply safe drinking water," Jensen said.

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How can the CA governors - Brown and Newsome - both very liberal, let such a situation exist? Brown ended his term with a surplus or, at least, no major deficit. Why not get water into East Orosi?