One Third of Americans Can’t Afford Safe Running Water

By Daisy Luther

According to a new report, more than a third of the population of America has no access to clean, reliable drinking water. We don’t generally think of the United States as being a country where people just cannot afford to access safe water, but this is becoming more common every day.

  • When we think about homes without running water, we usually have a picture in our minds of third world countries.
  • When we think of water-borne diseases killing babies and those whose systems are just not robust enough to cope with drinking water from creeks and contaminated streams we aren’t thinking about people right here at home.
  • When we think about the spread of cholera and typhoid due to lack of clean water and sanitation, we think of squalid destinations far away.

But the kind of extreme poverty that puts people in these straits is occurring right here in America and in vast, increasing numbers. (Go here to get a free download about the economic collapse of Venezuela. This information can help you get more prepared for the economic collapse that seems to be hurtling toward America.)

A third of Americans can’t afford public water.

A report by Elizabeth Mack, an assistant geography professor at Michigan State University, says that a third of Americans can’t afford public water. It goes on to predict that within 30 years, 36% of Americans will be unable to afford to pay for public water to be piped to their homes. Mack analyzed water consumption, pricing, demographic and socioeconomic data for the study.

Water rates have increased 41 percent since 2010, and if they continue at that pace over the next five years the number of households that cannot afford water and wastewater services could soar to an estimated 40.9 million, or 35.6 percent of all households.

Further, shrinking populations in major cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia means fewer people to pay for the large fixed cost of water service. Some 227,000 customers in Philadelphia, or 4 out of 10 water accounts, are past due, while 50,000 delinquent customers in Detroit have had their water service terminated since the start of 2014, the study says. Households in Atlanta and Seattle are paying more than $300 a month for water and wastewater services (based on a family of four).

Can you imagine that? More than a third of Americans being unable to afford running water and sewer services?

This lack of services could cause horrible illnesses and death.

Even more chilling, can you imagine the kind of diseases that will spread through towns and cities if people cannot effectively dispose of their waste?

Typhoid: Not to confused with typhus, typhoid is caused by the bacteria salmonella typhi and is spread by contaminated food and water. It spreads quickly in overcrowded and/or unsanitary conditions. (source)

Food Poisoning: There are many forms of food poisoning, the most lethal of which is Listeria, though it’s closely followed by E.Coli 157. The incidence of food poisoning will rise almost immediately there’s a grid down situation. The lack of refrigeration coupled with the possibility of food not being cleaned or cooked properly will guarantee an uptick in these debilitating and often fatal conditions. (source)

Cholera: In any situation that prevents adequate water treatment we will be in the same position as countless millions of others who live with dirty water. Just one person with mild cholera could unknowingly spread the disease…which sickens more people and then their waste spreads the disease further. Before you know it you have an epidemic on your hands. (source)

These aren’t the only conditions that can be spread by dirty water. A few of the more common diseases are:

Then, of course, there are parasitic conditions such as dracunculiasis (Guinea worm) and (as they’ve discovered in Flint, Michigan) lead poisoning and chemical poisoning can be caused by drinking contaminated water that contains toxins. I’ve gone into great detail about some waterborne illnesses in my book, The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide. As well, you can learn how to handle water and dispose of waste safely in the book.

How have we reached a place in the 21st century in which millions of American families are facing a future where running water and sewer services are unaffordable?

Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com , where this article first appeared. She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest,  and Twitter.

Image Credit: TheFreeThoughtProject.com


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15 Comments on "One Third of Americans Can’t Afford Safe Running Water"

  1. All the more reason to become familiar with Spectro-Chrome Metry by Dinshah Ghadiali.

  2. NJguy - Proudly Deplorable | January 17, 2017 at 8:30 am |

    As long as it’s limited to the urban demonrat shiittewholes, no issue.

  3. About ninety percent of Americans don’t get clean water to drink. To “fluoridate” our drinking water, our overlords add fluorosilicic acid, a toxic waste from the smoke stacks of Chinese fertilizer plants, containing about 23% sodium fluroide (man-made rat poison), mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, barium and polonium. Most of these poisons are also carcinogens. The latter three are known radioactive carcinogens. Ah, ya gotta love those overlords.

  4. As in many third world nations, the US infrastructure is crumbling and disintegrating before their eyes. But somehow there is always money and more money for the military! That never changes.

  5. The answer to the authors final question is simple…GREED

    • Yes, there’s a report here about the School Budget going up but none of the increase is for any programs in the Schools!! It’s ALL for Teacher raises and Benefits!! GREED

  6. Clean fresh water? Pumped into apartments? What is fresh water?

  7. My water is so heavily chlorinated that it stinks like a swimming pool and it has used up the carbon pre-filter on my reverse osmosis and so even filtered it’s coming out with bleach smell.

    I’m winter camping with no plumbing except the spigot and hose, so I have to haul and stove heat my bath water so I have not even paid over the minimum for water. I can’t imagine how someone just one county over in Seattle could have a $300 bill. They must have some serious leaks.

    I had a 880 gallon a day underground leak and the bill was still only $160 for a month.

    • Just a thought.
      Isn’t it a danger when you DO NOT smell the chlorine in your drinking water?

      • I’m a super-smeller so I think it’s dangerous how almost everyone is so saturated with toxic chemicals that I can’t even go into their houses without getting sick, but they breathe INSANE amounts of chemical fumes 24/7 completely oblivious…and then wonder why they got cancer.

        My last residence didn’t have clorine stink in the water.

        • That means if that residence is using that water for drinking water it might be not so healthy to drink, for there is now none or less chlorine in the water.
          Chlorine, apart from the doses, has a function in drinking water of course.

          • BigMamaCougarPurr | January 18, 2017 at 7:56 pm |

            Chlorine is toxic. What do you think happens to the beneficial bacteria in your colon when you drink chlorinated water? It dies. Less beneficial bacteria means compromised immunity and a perfect environment for malevolent bacteria and Candida/mold to take over the body.

            I understand that without boiling water before drinking, chlorine may be necessary for preventing some disease but it should be used as little as necessary. Chlorine exposure also leads to iodine deficiency, which pretty much everyone now has.

  8. IMO.
    All the years that America exists, the highest priority all these governments gave was spending billions of your taxed moneys into weaponry and military and secret services.
    So, if you knew that The Banksters, The Cabal, have a fortune of 500 trillion dollars, all stolen and gathered through times from us.
    I repeat 500 trillion USDollars!

    This means that every person on this godforsaken planet can have a peaceful, worry free and healthy life, not rich, but enough to live in that way. Can you imagine that about 10 people are the “owner” of these hugh mountains of money all for themselves.
    But that is not enough for them. They want it all.

    Back to water and more specific “drinking water”.
    The Banksters create situations, according to their plans (Agenda21, Agenda 2030) to make important items to live like water, scarce. They want to own our drinking water, not only in USA but all the water on the planet. They even want laws which says that even the rain water is their property.

    Water is a human right.
    Of what I read and hear about the water situation in America, I only can advice you need more Bikers.
    They are great people they are going to inauguration day to protect their new president!

  9. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. ‘the Fluoride Deception’ by Cristopher Bryce is an eye opener. The disgusting junk they say is good for our teeth is another agenda.
    “Unexpected,” the researchers said, “was the injurious effect exerted by calcium fluoride in the lungs and lymph nodes of the dogs.” …”These data appear to confirm beyond all question the efficacy of pulmonary absorption of fluoride,” Brust told Irwin. (pg 189 as an example).
    Fluoride in the water is another ruse brought to the plebes from the goat worshipers that WtP send our forced labor in the form of the demonic green backs.
    Sacrifice the goat(s). It’s a movement.

  10. According to the neo-natal mortality statistics – USA is a third world country !
    No, it’s not a rich and devloped country ! Now, your satanic elite want European Union to be as poor as you are – Muslims refugees are paid to overflood EU and low EU living standard that is very high – no GMo are allowed, education is FREE, health is almost free… !
    Here, below, you may find reasons why there is no money for your clean waters, health, free education… you Americans, you could have all for FREE if you consent it to be so … but your satanic elite want you to pay for wars, terror, killing innocent all around the world :

    The indiscriminate use of bombs by the US, usually outside a declared war
    situation, for wanton destruction, for no military objectives, whose
    targets and victims are civilian populations, or what we now call
    “collateral damage.”

    Japan (1945)
    China (1945-46)
    Korea & China (1950-53)
    Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967-69)
    Indonesia (1958)
    Cuba (1959-61)
    Congo (1964)
    Peru (1965)
    Laos (1964-70)
    Vietnam (1961-1973)
    Cambodia (1969-70)
    Grenada (1983)
    Lebanon (1983-84)
    Libya (1986)
    El Salvador (1980s)
    Nicaragua (1980s)
    Iran (1987)
    Panama (1989)
    Iraq (1991-2000)
    Kuwait (1991)
    Somalia (1993)
    Bosnia (1994-95)
    Sudan (1998)
    Afghanistan (1998)
    Pakistan (1998)
    Yugoslavia (1999)
    Bulgaria (1999)
    Macedonia (1999)

    US Use of Chemical & Biological Weapons
    The US has refused to sign Conventions against the development and use of
    chemical and biological weapons, and has either used or tested (without
    informing the civilian populations) these weapons in the following
    locations abroad:

    Bahamas (late 1940s-mid-1950s)
    Canada (1953)
    China and Korea (1950-53)
    Korea (1967-69)
    Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (1961-1970)
    Panama (1940s-1990s)
    Cuba (1962, 69, 70, 71, 81, 96)

    And the US has tested such weapons on US civilian populations, without
    their knowledge, in the following locations:

    Watertown, NY and US Virgin Islands (1950)
    SF Bay Area (1950, 1957-67)
    Minneapolis (1953)
    St. Louis (1953)
    Washington, DC Area (1953, 1967)
    Florida (1955)
    Savannah GA/Avon Park, FL (1956-58)
    New York City (1956, 1966)
    Chicago (1960)

    And the US has encouraged the use of such weapons, and provided the
    technology to develop such weapons in various nations abroad, including:

    Egypt
    South Africa
    Iraq

    US Political and Military Interventions since 1945
    The US has launched a series of military and political interventions since
    1945, often to install puppet regimes, or alternatively to engage in
    political actions such as smear campaigns, sponsoring or targeting
    opposition political groups (depending on how they served US interests),
    undermining political parties, sabotage and terror campaigns, and so forth.
    It has done so in nations such as

    China (1945-51)
    South Africa (1960s-1980s)

    France (1947)
    Bolivia (1964-75)

    Marshall Islands (1946-58)
    Australia (1972-75)

    Italy (1947-1975)
    Iraq (1972-75)

    Greece (1947-49)
    Portugal (1974-76)

    Philippines (1945-53)
    East Timor (1975-99)

    Korea (1945-53)
    Ecuador (1975)

    Albania (1949-53)
    Argentina (1976)

    Eastern Europe (1948-56)
    Pakistan (1977)

    Germany (1950s)
    Angola (1975-1980s)

    Iran (1953)
    Jamaica (1976)

    Guatemala (1953-1990s)
    Honduras (1980s)

    Costa Rica (mid-1950s, 1970-71)
    Nicaragua (1980s)

    Middle East (1956-58)
    Philippines (1970s-90s)

    Indonesia (1957-58)
    Seychelles (1979-81)

    Haiti (1959)
    South Yemen (1979-84)

    Western Europe (1950s-1960s)
    South Korea (1980)

    Guyana (1953-64)
    Chad (1981-82)

    Iraq (1958-63)
    Grenada (1979-83)

    Vietnam (1945-53)
    Suriname (1982-84)

    Cambodia (1955-73)
    Libya (1981-89)

    Laos (1957-73)
    Fiji (1987)

    Thailand (1965-73)
    Panama (1989)

    Ecuador (1960-63)
    Afghanistan (1979-92)

    Congo (1960-65, 1977-78)
    El Salvador (1980-92)

    Algeria (1960s)
    Haiti (1987-94)

    Brazil (1961-64)
    Bulgaria (1990-91)

    Peru (1965)
    Albania (1991-92)

    Dominican Republic (1963-65)
    Somalia (1993)

    Cuba (1959-present)
    Iraq (1990s)

    Indonesia (1965)
    Peru (1990-present)

    Ghana (1966)
    Mexico (1990-present)

    Uruguay (1969-72)
    Colombia (1990-present)

    Chile (1964-73)
    Yugoslavia (1995-99)

    Greece (1967-74)

    US Perversions of Foreign Elections
    The US has specifically intervened to rig or distort the outcome of foreign
    elections, and sometimes engineered sham “demonstration” elections to ward
    off accusations of government repression in allied nations in the US sphere
    of influence. These sham elections have often installed or maintained in
    power repressive dictators who have victimized their populations. Such
    practices have occurred in nations such as:

    Philippines (1950s)
    Italy (1948-1970s)
    Lebanon (1950s)
    Indonesia (1955)
    Vietnam (1955)
    Guyana (1953-64)
    Japan (1958-1970s)
    Nepal (1959)
    Laos (1960)
    Brazil (1962)
    Dominican Republic (1962)
    Guatemala (1963)
    Bolivia (1966)
    Chile (1964-70)
    Portugal (1974-75)
    Australia (1974-75)
    Jamaica (1976)
    El Salvador (1984)
    Panama (1984, 89)
    Nicaragua (1984, 90)
    Haiti (1987, 88)
    Bulgaria (1990-91)
    Albania (1991-92)
    Russia (1996)
    Mongolia (1996)
    Bosnia (1998)

    US Versus World at the United Nations
    The US has repeatedly acted to undermine peace and human rights initiatives
    at the United Nations, routinely voting against hundreds of UN resolutions
    and treaties. The US easily has the worst record of any nation on not
    supporting UN treaties. In almost all of its hundreds of “no” votes, the US
    was the “sole” nation to vote no (among the 100-130 nations that usually
    vote), and among only 1 or 2 other nations voting no the rest of the time.
    Here’s a representative sample of US votes from 1978-1987:

    US Is the Sole “No” Vote on Resolutions or Treaties
    For aid to underdeveloped nations
    For the promotion of developing nation exports
    For UN promotion of human rights
    For protecting developing nations in trade agreements
    For New International Economic Order for underdeveloped nations
    For development as a human right
    Versus multinational corporate operations in South Africa
    For cooperative models in developing nations
    For right of nations to economic system of their choice
    Versus chemical and biological weapons (at least 3 times)
    Versus Namibian apartheid
    For economic/standard of living rights as human rights
    Versus apartheid South African aggression vs. neighboring states (2 times)
    Versus foreign investments in apartheid South Africa
    For world charter to protect ecology
    For anti-apartheid convention
    For anti-apartheid convention in international sports
    For nuclear test ban treaty (at least 2 times)
    For prevention of arms race in outer space
    For UNESCO-sponsored new world information order (at least 2 times)
    For international law to protect economic rights
    For Transport & Communications Decade in Africa
    Versus manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction
    Versus naval arms race
    For Independent Commission on Disarmament & Security Issues
    For UN response mechanism for natural disasters
    For the Right to Food
    For Report of Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination
    For UN study on military development
    For Commemoration of 25th anniversary of Independence for Colonial Countries
    For Industrial Development Decade in Africa
    For interdependence of economic and political rights
    For improved UN response to human rights abuses
    For protection of rights of migrant workers
    For protection against products harmful to health and the environment
    For a Convention on the Rights of the Child
    For training journalists in the developing world
    For international cooperation on third world debt
    For a UN Conference on Trade & Development

    US Is 1 of Only 2 “No” Votes on Resolutions or Treaties
    For Palestinian living conditions/rights (at least 8 times)
    Versus foreign intervention into other nations
    For a UN Conference on Women
    Versus nuclear test explosions (at least 2 times)
    For the non-use of nuclear weapons vs. non-nuclear states
    For a Middle East nuclear free zone
    Versus Israeli nuclear weapons (at least 2 times)
    For a new world international economic order
    For a trade union conference on sanctions vs. South Africa
    For the Law of the Sea Treaty
    For economic assistance to Palestinians
    For UN measures against fascist activities and groups
    For international cooperation on money/finance/debt/trade/development
    For a Zone of Peace in the South Atlantic
    For compliance with Intl Court of Justice decision for Nicaragua vs. US.
    **For a conference and measures to prevent international terrorism
    (including its underlying causes)
    For ending the trade embargo vs. Nicaragua

    US Is 1 of Only 3 “No” Votes on Resolutions and Treaties
    Versus Israeli human rights abuses (at least 6 times)
    Versus South African apartheid (at least 4 times)
    Versus return of refugees to Israel
    For ending nuclear arms race (at least 2 times)
    For an embargo on apartheid South Africa
    For South African liberation from apartheid (at least 3 times)
    For the independence of colonial nations
    For the UN Decade for Women
    Versus harmful foreign economic practices in colonial territories
    For a Middle East Peace Conference
    For ending the embargo of Cuba (at least 10 times)

    In addition, the US has:
    Repeatedly withheld its dues from the UN
    Twice left UNESCO because of its human rights initiatives
    Twice left the International Labor Organization for its workers rights
    initiatives
    Refused to renew the Antiballistic Missile Treaty
    Refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty on global warming
    Refused to back the World Health Organization’s ban on infant formula abuses
    Refused to sign the Anti-Biological Weapons Convention
    Refused to sign the Convention against the use of land mines
    Refused to participate in the UN Conference Against Racism in Durban
    Been one of the last nations in the world to sign the UN Covenant on
    Political &
    Civil Rights (30 years after its creation)
    Refused to sign the UN Covenant on Economic & Social Rights
    Opposed the emerging new UN Covenant on the Rights to Peace, Development &
    Environmental Protection

    Sampling of Deaths >From US Military Interventions & Propping Up Corrupt
    Dictators (using the most conservative estimates)
    Nicaragua
    30,000 dead

    Brazil
    100,000 dead

    Korea
    4 million dead

    Guatemala
    200,000 dead

    Honduras
    20,000 dead

    El Salvador
    63,000 dead

    Argentina
    40,000 dead

    Bolivia
    10,000 dead

    Uruguay
    10,000 dead

    Ecuador
    10,000 dead

    Peru
    10,000 dead

    Iraq
    1.3 million dead

    Iran
    30,000 dead

    Sudan
    8-10,000 dead

    Colombia
    50,000 dead

    Panama
    5,000 dead

    Japan
    140,000 dead

    Afghanistan
    10,000 dead

    Somalia
    5000 dead

    Philippines
    150,000 dead

    Haiti
    100,000 dead

    Dominican Republic
    10,000 dead

    Libya
    500 dead

    Macedonia
    1000 dead

    South Africa
    10,000 dead

    Pakistan
    10,000 dead

    Palestine
    40,000 dead

    Indonesia
    1 million dead

    East Timor
    1/3-1/2 of total population

    Greece
    10,000 dead

    Laos
    600,000 dead

    Cambodia
    1 million dead

    Angola
    300,000 dead

    Grenada
    500 dead

    Congo
    2 million dead

    Egypt
    10,000 dead

    Vietnam
    1.5 million dead

    Chile
    50,000 dead

    Other Lethal US Interventions
    CIA Terror Training Manuals
    Development and distribution of training manuals for foreign military
    personnel or foreign nationals, including instructions on assassination,
    subversion, sabotage, population control, torture, repression,
    psychological torture, death squads, etc.

    Specific Torture Campaigns
    Creation and launching of direct US campaigns to support torture as an
    instrument of terror and social control for governments in Greece, Iran,
    Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama

    Supporting and Harboring Terrorists
    The promotion, protection, arming or equiping of terrorists such as:

    . Klaus Barbie and other German Nazis, and Italian and Japanese fascists,
    after WW II

    . Manual Noriega (Panama), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Rafael Trujillo
    (Dominican Republic), Osama bin Laden (Afghanistan), and others whose
    terrorism has come back to haunt us

    . Running the Higher War College (Brazil) and first School of the Americas
    (Panama), which gave US training to repressors, death squad members, and
    torturers (the second School of the Americas is still running at Ft.
    Benning GA)

    . Providing asylum for Cuban, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Haitian, Chilean,
    Argentinian, Iranian, South Vietnamese and other terrorists, dictators, and
    torturers

    Assassinating World Leaders
    Using assassination as a tool of foreign policy, wherein the CIA has
    initiated assassination attempts against at least 40 foreign heads of state
    (some several times) in the last 50 years, a number of which have been
    successful, such as: Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican
    Republic), Ngo Dihn Diem (Vietnam) Salvador Allende (Chile)

    Arms Trade & US Military Presence
    . The US is the world’s largest seller of weapons abroad, arming
    dictators, militaries, and terrorists that repress or victimize their
    populations, and fueling scores of violent conflicts around the globe

    . The US is the world’s largest provider of live land mines which, even in
    peacetime, kill or injure at least several people around the world each day

    . The US has military bases in at least 50 nations around the world, which
    have led to frequent victimization of local populations.

    . The US military has been bombing one Middle Eastern or Muslim nation or
    another almost continuously since 1983, including Lebanon, Libya, Syria,
    Iran, the Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq (almost daily bombings since 1991)

    This, then, is a sampling of American foreign policies over the last 50
    years. The FBI uses the following definition for Terrorism: “The unlawful
    use of force or violence committed by a group or individual, who has some
    connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national
    boundaries, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a
    government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in furtherance
    of political or social objectives.” This sounds like the terrorism we just
    experienced. It also sounds a lot like the US policies and actions since
    1945 that I’ve just described.

    Sorry, for you ! No clean water !

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