Most people have been taught at a young age that human beings need three things to live: food, water, and shelter. Unfortunately, in the United States, citizens have been taught that profit regardless of cost is the most important principle guiding the country. This leads to a rise in the cost of living as people are expected to pay more for food and shelter. Now, government entities are relinquishing their responsibility for their constituents to have clean water, and no one is holding them accountable.
There are no exceptions to this rule: without water, people will die. Certainly, there are permutations of water, like juice and soda, which will allow people to survive for a while, but without water, people will eventually die. Deciding that water is a privilege instead of a necessity means that some marginalized communities are forced to pay more for water, since their water is non-potable or nonexistent. Bottled water for daily use is often more than what most people take home in pay. Understanding this should motivate government entities to reduce the tax on poverty which is currently being maintained.
No one will invest in areas where there is no potable water because that would be seen as too risky an investment. The flip side of this problem is that government entities only pay attention to people with enough money to make it worth their time. This leaves constituents with an inability to function within their homes and an inability to attract funds which would allow them more resources to build up their homes. Untenable situations like this are the reason that communities remain marginalized for years.
Finally, there is danger in the population decrease of cities with non-potable water. At first glance, this looks like a reasonable consequence, but one should consider that not everyone has the resources to leave a town or a marginalized area. Education is an escape plan only if one is able to acquire work after leaving the training programs; otherwise, graduates may have to return home to struggle with their families. More importantly, political power requires numbers, so if the population of an area decreases, politicians may continue to disregard those communities.
With the increase in population, people are going to have less potable water, but if the water and waste water systems are obsolete, even fewer people will receive that necessity. Government at all levels must improve its attention to water availability because by not doing so, it is effectively sentencing people to death. No one has been elected nor should anyone be appointed who does not value all constituents.
