Community Water Center

Ending the Drinking Water Crisis In California

Model and Strategy

Nearly one million Californians do not have access to safe drinking water -- a public health crisis that disproportionately affects rural, low-income Latino communities in agricultural regions. Community Water Center (CWC) partners with farmworker communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast to ensure that these communities have access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water through:

  • Building Grassroots Power. CWC coordinates and supports coalitions of community residents and allied nonprofits to share information on drinking water problems and opportunities; engage in advocacy campaigns and push for policy solutions; serve on water decision-making boards and governance agencies; and advance local drinking water projects.
  • Communications. CWC is a leading voice and go-to expert on drinking water issues impacting low-income rural communities of color in California. Policymakers and larger environmental organizations rely on CWC’s relationships with impacted communities to ensure their perspectives are considered in key water policy agendas and decisions..
  • Advocacy. CWC supports California state legislation that plans, prepares, and protects water access for vulnerable communities. Its legislative agenda includes funding for emergency water needs, long-term drinking water projects, and debt relief; regulation of health-harming contaminants; improvements to agricultural practices to protect water from contamination; drought planning and preparedness; and sustainable groundwater management.
  • Long-Term Drinking Water Projects.CWC is currently working on five long-term drinking water projects impacting ~3,700 households to find the best safe water solution in the long-term and aims to grow that number in the coming years. As long-term solutions are pursued, they also connect residents with resources like bottled water delivery so they have safe drinking water now.

"Water flows toward money and power in California, and we aim to change that by amplifying the voices and power of residents to demand systemic change." – Susana De Anda, Executive Director and Co-Founder

CWC puts building community power at the forefront of its work because it sees this crisis afflicting more than one million people, not as a technological or feasibility issue, but a political one. CWC’s affiliated 501c4 organization, the Community Action Water Fund (CWCAF), aims to raise civic participation by the historically disenfranchised and support leaders to obtain elected office who will protect water resources and secure safe drinking water for all Californians. CWCAF utilizes integrated voter engagement, candidate training and endorsement, and strategic lobbying across critical groundwater basins to redistribute political power to the communities bearing the burden of groundwater pollution, over extraction, and climate change.

Impact

Over the past 17 years, CWC and its partners have made significant progress towards realizing the Human Right to Water for all communities in California through education, organizing, and advocacy. Examples of CWC’s impact include:

Community Power

  • Coordinates and provides staff for the AGUA Coalition (la Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua, or the Association of People United for Water) a regional, grassroots coalition of impacted community residents and allied non-profit organizations.
  • Supported Sandra Meraz, a long-time drinking water activist, in her appointment to the regional agency responsible for protecting water from contamination.
  • Supported Ruth Martinez, long-time community activist, to serve on the Ducor (CA) water board. Ruth is currently fighting to protect her community's drinking water supply from deeper agricultural wells which threaten to dry up their well.
  • Supported West Goshen community leader Lucy Hernandez to become president of her local water board. As President, she oversaw the consolidation of contaminated domestic wells to a nearby public system with safe water.

Polluter Accountability

  • Served as legal counsel for the AGUA lawsuit which successfully challenged the permit for 1,600 dairies. This also set legal precedent for better groundwater protection.
  • Held agricultural growers accountable for nitrate pollution. Growers now must test domestic wells and provide replacement water where contamination is found.

Key Legislation and Public Funding. Successfully organized and advocated for passage of key California laws:

  • 2012 - AB 685, the “Human Right to Water” bill in CA in 2012, which made California the first state in the nation to declare that clean water is a human right.
  • 2014- Sustainable Groundwater Management Act - the first law to regulate groundwater pumping in California history
  • 2019 - SB 200, establishing a dedicated funding source for Disadvantaged Communities drinking water needs. Investment will be approximately $1.4 billion dollars through 2030.
  • With community residents, successfully advocated for billions in public investment for emergency water planning studies, long-term infrastructure needs, technical assistance, and debt relief.

Safe Water Access

  • Supported many communities in obtaining safe water, including Ducor, Plainview, Seville, Monson, Sultana, Cutler, Orosi and East Porterville.

Electoral and Voter Engagement (CWCAF)

  • In 2022, endorsed six candidates in midterm elections with five out of six winning their race. Supported the re-election campaign for the first Latino to serve on the Tulare Board of Supervisors, and influenced 549 voters in a race that determined by 646 votes.
  • In 2018, successfully endorsed seven candidates for local office, all of whom joined CWC’s Community Water Leaders Network once in office.

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Leadership

  • Susana

    Susana De Anda

    Executive Director & Co-Founder

  • Janaki

    Janaki Anagha

    Director of Community Advocacy

  • Kyle

    Kyle Jones

    Policy and Legal Director

  • John

    John Erickson

    Technical Director