Despite living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, many communities across the U.S. do not have basic access to reliable and safe drinking water. Access may be undermined by poor water quality (either from chronic or acute pollution), faulty or nonexistent infrastructure to deliver services, and lack of affordability. These issues are persistent in both rural and urban communities, and those most likely to be impacted by lack of access to safe and reliable drinking water services are low-income and Indigenous communities and communities of color. 

Source: California State Auditor

In the West, these issues can be even more pronounced because of the region’s unique economic, cultural, and environmental landscape. Immigrant farm worker communities, Indigenous communities, and low-income rural communities all face unique barriers and threats to safe and reliable drinking water. In many cases, these communities do not have the infrastructure to provide basic access to water and water treatment and suffer from higher levels of water contamination. Some of the region’s most vulnerable populations are Indigenous Americans living on reservations and immigrant farm worker communities in agricultural regions such as California’s Central Valley and Arizona’s Yuma Valley.

“Water is essential for life. Safe water is a human right that should not be determined by what you look like or where you live.” ~ Angela Guyadeen, Director, Safe Water Initiative, NRDC

Climate change will compound the water challenges that exist in the already arid and drought-prone West through increased evaporation, unpredictable precipitation, reduced snowpack, and decreased groundwater recharge. Looking forward, we can expect increasingly depleted aquifers and severe highs and lows of water availability. Meanwhile, rising temperatures and population growth, especially in the region’s urban areas, may increase demand. 

At the same time, water quality is projected to decline. Wildfires, floods, and extreme weather events can all increase pollution and sedimentation in surface waters. Drought can worsen groundwater pollution. These extreme weather events are projected to increase with climate change and are on top of existing threats to water quality including agricultural and stormwater pollution. As a result of these and other impacts, it is expected that climate change will increase public exposure to pathogens and pollutants and raise water treatment costs.

From the New York Times: Bottled water at a home in East Orosi, Calif. The failing water systems in the state are most heavily concentrated in the small towns of the Central and Salinas Valleys, the key centers of agriculture. Photo credit: Rozette Rago for The New York Times

The drinking water challenges that vulnerable communities across the West already face will get worse with these compounding pressures. There is a big risk that water prices will rise, further undermining affordability. Increased water scarcity will likely affect tribes’ longstanding battles over water rights. Moreover, these communities are less likely to have the political influence to drive necessary attention to alleviate these challenges, and limited financial resources will make it challenging to invest in alternative water sources or technologies to adapt to water scarcity. 

We have the solutions to ensure every household has access to safe and reliable drinking water—we need only the political will to make it happen. Key solutions to the problems of water scarcity, quality, and equity include the following:

• Flexible supply. Across the West, a combination of strategies to capture, retain, and increase available water will be critical to ensuring flexible and diversified water portfolios. These include, but are not limited to, wastewater reuse, stormwater capture, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, and desalination. These strategies all come with varying trade-offs, and there is no silver bullet.  
  
• Reduced demand. The old adage, “waste not, want not”, is still true. Time and time again, communities have been able to improve water efficiency through new pricing structures and other conservation incentives. There is still plenty of low-hanging fruit available through water efficiency measures. 

Source: Southern Nevada Water Authority 

• Improved infrastructure. To build the resilience of our drinking water infrastructure, solutions include long-term, sustainable funding to maintain and improve infrastructure; innovative technologies that improve water efficiency, reduce losses, and help utilities better manage resources; and green infrastructure in urban areas, to help slow down and retain precipitation while reducing flooding and pollution.
  
• Innovative management. Utilities, municipalities, and state and regional government bodies will need support to be able to appropriately manage and allocate resources. Preparing those decision-makers for the future will require capacity building, training, and project planning and design support at the local level. 
• Monitoring and enforcement. Protecting drinking water starts with knowing what’s in it. While we have laws that regulate certain standards for our drinking water, in many places water quality monitoring is insufficient or nonexistent. Where contamination exists, enforcement of regulations may be weak and can be improved through advocacy and even litigation.

How Philanthropy Can Help

Philanthropy can drive sustainable, equitable outcomes across the West by supporting:

• Community organizing and advocacy for the human right to safe, clean drinking water. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Grassroots community organizations have been advocating for these issues in their communities for decades—we will support and uplift their work, as well as enable them to tell their stories and elevate their key issues in the media.

From KVPR: Fresno resident Araceli Sanabria protests at the steps of the state capitol to demand better access to affordable, clean water. Photo credit: Esther Quintanilla/ KVPR

• Advocacy for the policies and funding needed to ensure a sustainable supply of water and make infrastructure more resilient. Philanthropy can help by supporting organizations that advocate for critical policies and implement resilient and innovative projects. Small organizations need core support to enable them to apply for large pools of federal funding set aside for these projects. 
• Capacity building and support for innovation. Capacity building and training for water resource managers can equip them with the knowledge they will need to manage and allocate water resources sustainably in the future. Philanthropy can also support the research, development, and implementation of innovative technologies and business models that improve drinking water service delivery and water treatment, improve the efficiency of use and transport, and enable more precise management of resources.