Drinking Water Crisis in California

Each year, over one million Californians are exposed to unsafe drinking water from the taps in their homes, schools, churches, parks and community centers. Water systems serving predominately Latino and low-income communities have disproportionately high occurrences of arsenic and nitrate contamination, leading some families to pay up to 10% of their monthly income on safe bottled water.

I have this challenge

the problem

The problem of drinking water in California is both urgent and chronic. Approximately 300 small public water systems have been unable to supply safe drinking water to their communities for several years or even decades. As many as 1,688 California public schools (over 16% of CA public schools) were impacted by unsafe drinking water between 2003 and 2014. Water systems serving predominately Latino and low-income communities have disproportionately high occurrences of arsenic and nitrate contamination, leading some families to pay up to 10% of their monthly income just on safe bottled water. This is an issue of justice, of equity, of health and safety.

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