Fresno State student shares his experience of growing up without safe water at home
Growing up in Dinuba, my family and I worried about whether the water coming out of our tap was safe to drink. We knew that our groundwater was likely contaminated by nitrates and other toxic chemicals from agriculture. Like many other immigrant families, we would fill up three 5-gallon containers of water at a vending machine station on a weekly basis. To this day, we still don’t trust that the water in our home is safe to drink.
My experience of growing up without clean, safe drinking water is not, unfortunately, a unique one. In California, over 1 million people are without access to clean drinking water. In the Central Valley, about 100,000 people have a contaminated water supply in their homes. As a student at Fresno State and as an ambassador with California Environmental Voters Education Fund. I’ve made it my mission to raise awareness about inequitable access to clean, safe drinking water in our region and to encourage and organize our community to take action on this issue.
Americans rely on the Central Valley to produce 25% of the nation’s food supply. But our residents — particularly our agricultural workers and their families — have drinking water at home that is unsafe and a danger to their health. Heavy use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture, along with excessive groundwater pumping, have contributed to a contaminated water supply and depleted water sources. In addition to nitrate levels in water that exceed the EPA standard, residents in Tulare County also face a crisis of drying wells that has only been exacerbated by the ongoing drought and the climate crisis. Local and state officials do little to regulate our groundwater and hold polluters accountable.
Through my work with EnviroVoters Education Fund, I’ve been talking to community members about what issues they want to see their elected officials address. Consistently, I’m hearing that the drought, water scarcity, and the need for clean drinking water are on people’s minds. This matches with recent research that EnviroVoters Education Fund conducted to understand the top environmental concerns for residents in the Fresno region. A poll conducted this spring found that 62% of voters are extremely concerned about water protection and drought. And 89% of voters say that they support investing in technologies to conserve water and strengthening laws to protect access to safe drinking water.
So, what can we all do about this? First, if you care about access to clean and safe drinking water, make sure you’re registered to vote and participate in the civic process. Sixteen and 17-year-olds can even pre-register to vote in California; they will be able to vote once they turn 18. We need to make our voices heard and demand clean and safe drinking water.
To our leaders who work on water issues, listen to the communities you represent and their urgent need for clean drinking water. It’s time to prioritize the people who live in this region, not just the interests of the agriculture industry. We need to invest in new surface and groundwater conservation technologies to conserve water and strengthen laws that protect access to safe drinking water for all Californians.
I also hope to see our elected leaders work to make information about water policy more accessible. The Central Valley is diverse and I’ve seen how language barriers can keep people from engaging in the civic process. Water codes, policies, and information pertaining to drinking water should be accessible to residents in multiple languages besides English. There should be more opportunities for residents to voice their concerns to the agencies and water boards making decisions about the future of our drinking water.
I believe that clean water is a human right. No person should have to worry about whether the drinking water in their home is safe for their family. I know that this problem can feel insurmountable, but I have faith in our ability to organize, mobilize and make change happen from the grassroots up. Together, we make our voices heard.