This story is part of a larger project led by Sarah Macaraeg, a 2019 Data Fellow who is investigating the disproportionate number of asthma diagnoses and severe symptoms among Memphis children.
An unprecedented and fledgling statewide effort to shore up hundreds of struggling drinking water systems could face intense pressure from the novel coronavirus pandemic as the program is rolled out in coming months.
Drinking water have been contaminated with lead. Chicago residents and property owners are expected to deal with the problem. Experts are pressing the city to make some changes and take action.
In communities without running water and flush toilets, 11 times more children develop pneumonia than other Alaskans, and some develop complications that can lead to lifelong respiratory problems.
What if you didn’t have piped water and sewer, and the government wasn’t picking up the tab to extend such resources to you in rural Alaska? How would you go about finding a low-cost system that you could keep running through the winter?
You don't have to go to a foreign country to find Third World conditions. You can find more than six percent of Alaskans living in those conditions — without modern running water or sewer systems.
Using a bucket as a toilet, hauling water or chopping ice to melt for daily use are daily facts of life for thousands of Alaska natives. Meanwhile, the state is flush with cash, prompting the question of why such conditions persist.
For the past ten years, the 180 tribal members who live on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation in Southern California have been without safe drinking water.
What got me interested in San Lucas was contaminated drinking water there, but my reporting revealed deeper issues like the ability of local government to function, how to do business in a town without water, and tense dynamics between government and the private sector.
Where you live—and who you are—plays a big part in how long you’ll live. If you live in poverty in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and you're Latino, you’re twice as likely to die prematurely as someone who is white and lives in an upper-class community.
