Water Realities... Where?

There are few, if any, commodities more precious than water. But in our fast-paced, breakfast-on-the-run, age of electronic communication the accessibility of water tends not even to show up on our high-tech radar screens. The truth is, however, that while perhaps you or I do not need to worry about pure water spilling plentifully into the kitchen sink whenever the faucet is turned, a disproportionately high number of people in the world do. In fact, some one billion do not have access to clean drinking water and nearly three billion do not have sanitation services (National Public Radio Online). Additionally, the World Health Organization has estimated that 80% of diseases are related to unsanitary water sources and substandard sanitation (BBC Online). The lack of access to clean water is in fact such a critical issue that many predict it will be the cause of the next World War.

Imagine waking up in a one room home, surrounded by five children, all still asleep. The house has been meticulously constructed from an amalgam of materials: wood, tin, plastic, and anything else that will help to maintain the simple, rectangular structure. The water is brought in by truck each week (Federal Reserve Bank of Texas 11) and is then stored in a discarded barrel formerly used in an industrial plant that is adorned with the phrase “not to be used for water” (Borderlines 1). Somehow, it seems ironic that you should need to have water brought to your home when your community is subject to frequent flooding (Border Low Income Housing Coalition), the unfortunate reality of living on a flood plain.

Do these conditions conjure up images of life in a distant, “third world” country? Guess again… this is a reality that can be seen even before crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The colonias, as they are commonly known, constitute a series of communities on the the southern border of the United States. The highest concentration of these colonias is found in Texas and is defined by the Handbook of Texas Online as “unincorporated and unregulated settlements along the United States-Mexico border.” Colonias have been around for more than half a century. They were created in the 1950s by developers who constructed communities of “unincorporated subdivisions” without access to basic services. These lots were then sold to families in search of affordable housing (Federal Reserve Bank of Texas 3). Because these tracts of land were unincorporated (meaning that they did not officially form part of any municipality) they received no federal funding, no basic services, and had no local government. In these conditions, poverty levels climbed and substandard living conditions thrived.

In recent decades steps have been taken (most often in Texas) to provide basic services to these communities. But poverty and issues related to water persist. Per capita income in the colonias tends to range between $7,000 and $11,000 annually for a family of five or six, as compared with $51,000 a year for a family of four in the state of Texas, and a national per capita of $56,000 for a family of four (Public Broadcasting System). The conditions in which these families live are often comparable to those living in “underdeveloped” countries. Fifty percent of people living in colonias do not have access to a toilet (Public Broadcasting System), as compared to 62.6% in Nicaragua (INEC and MINSA 20). An estimated 70% of rural Nicaraguans do not have access to clean drinking water (Save the Children Online) and in El Paso Texas, half the colonias lack clean running water (Mauleon and Ting). Another study of El Paso colonias showed that 98% of the wells in the colonias were “too contaminated with sewage to be fit for any sort of human use” (Borderlines 4).

What does this mean for us as United States citizens? As members of the Project Minnesota/León community? As people wanting to act in solidarity with the global community? Join the global movement for clean water and the fight against international agreements that promote free trade at the cost of the health of the environment and world citizens.