Must See Web TV: American Town in 2009 Without Running Water

With nearly 1 trillion dollars in stimulus money out there, the state of Miss. can't figure out how to get hold of a mere 1 million to get water to its citizens? Would seem to me this is truly a shovels ready job - trenchers, pipes, labor are probably all readily available. The US government wants everybody to have health insurance - how about supplying a basic necessity like water to everybody first.

IN America we p-ay for water....You have public water or a well. Either way you pay. Shame o9n ABC for using the race card.

It is a race card ! who are we kidding.
We who pay for water, at least have the choice to do so, access is the effort here. Our government could cough up one million and give these people the opportunity to $$$ for drinking water.
Shame, shame, shame....

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI SHOULD BE ASHAMED.

ASHAMED.

My family has been waiting for clean drinking water for over 10 years. We are not poor, and we are not black. There are over 300 people in my community without rural water. The problem lies in finding enough available money to go around. There are many rural communities in Arkansas waiting for water. Each year, a few get lucky. You would think some of the stimulus money would be available to us, but I can't get the people paid to write the grants for this money to even return a phone call.

I live in the wealthiest county in PA. Public waterlines are being placed right now. I can hook up for 40 thousand dollars. Then pay 600 dollars quartly for the actual water. As homeowners we have a well, well pump, and softner/filtration system, yes purchashed by the homeowner! In America ,you have to pay for water! This is not a poor black issue. If my well has problems, I will PAY MONEY! Does anyone think i'm ENTITLED to stimulous money? Move to a socialist county if you think yes.

I just think that when we brag and boast about getting water to places like Equador, Sudan, Afghanistan, and we look at areas in Mississippi, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and other rural areas in the continental United States and the first thing out of everyone's mouth is "You pay for water", I personally think that is pathetic.........If you think they won't pay for the water, think again....the issue is the state not running the lines to the homes....then you can get them to pay....we drop 2 million dollar bombs daily.........OH, by the way.....if you listen the wells have dried up.

Tracie, curious. How do you get proper drinking water? Do you drive 5 miles to get it.

and to the PA man, you HAVE money to pay for your well issue, your personal well. No one in this community has access to water! ever been to Mississippi? temperture is no comparison to Penna.

Then you dig another well. They don't last forever. People seem to think Stimulus=Entitlement programs. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

And the temperature has to do with what?

Shame on ABC for not telling the whole story and making this about race. There are a lot of Americans of all races that do not have running water. Check out AZ and NM where residents have large water tanks in their pick ups that they fill up at the local convenience stores. I have relatives in TN and NC that do not have running water. For years, all cousins passing by would deliver jugs of water to a blind cousin whose town could no longer provide water. Hum, and he was white and many in NM and AZ are Native Americans and Hispanic. This is not just a poor, Black issue! Shame on ABC for not telling the whole story.

To answer you question, Fred--
For drinking water, I filled water bottles at Wal-Mart at the Culligan water station and at homes of friends. A few years later, my mother moved to town 25 miles away, and I filled water bottles at her house as well as did my laundry there(I did that at a laundromat before that--saw three close down during that period as more and more apt. owners built units with w/d units included). Clean drinking water out of a tap is a luxury that only people who have lived or who live without it know all too well. What's insane is that Americans pump clean drinking water into toilets as standard practice. Routing grey water from shower, laundry room, and dishwasher would be a much less costly option!

I've already e-mailed Barry Bryant with some ideas for reducing water need, like waterless toilets. I urged him to send a copy of this ABC-TV story to Obama with an appeal for help. Maybe a modern windmill would raise water from a deeper new well. I'm disappointed to not find a transcript so far, with that map shown; also some mapped information about the hydrology of Sunflower County. Where exactly are these 40 residents?

This is stupid. Typical media frenzy, fueled by people looking for a cause.

My dad doesn't have running water. And neither does my wife's mother. Both white, making good money, etc. But they have wells, and they are fine.

Further... if you really wanted running/city water, why not move to a town that has it?!?!?!? Seems like an obvious thing to do.

But most of the comments here are correct... in that entitlement replaces common sense and the notion of work -> get paid -> buy stuff.

Uh, dig wells.

It makes no sense that the rest of us should have to pay $40 million bucks to get 40 people public water.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

I think that the point of the story was to maybe point out that there is a place where there is no running water. Why the race thing was brought into it I don't know.

The people who say "move to another town" obviously have it better than most of us. With the current job market and economy, you just can't pack up and ship out like back in the old days.

Seems to me like what is missing is a little compassion and a less soap boxing. We are all America, lets live like it.

They can't drill a well? Very poor report, what happened to the well? Why cant it be drilled deeper??? very few questions raised or asked!!!!

Excuse me? Institutional racism? I know this may be difficult, but - just for a moment - attempt to complete a thought without resorting to a 1960s history book or your own misconceptions.

The subsequent blog post makes note that the USDA - the federal government - was the one balking on supplying funds to help set up the infrastructure. This may be a surprise, but a number of terribly rural areas of Mississippi may not have the tax base to install such a system on their own. Institutional racism? If it was the '60s, I'd listen to you - but now, that's just ludicrous...

I used to check groundwater levels for the feds in this area. You wouldn't believe how many public water association wells were vandalized, debilitated, run down and not maintained by the residents. Where is the pride in ownership? Why move to an area that doesn't have a good water supply? Why not take personal responsibility and help maintain a public well or drill a personal well? Why tinkle in your corn flakes?

Uh, I guess living in NYC it seems unthinkable, but go to any rural area in America and you'll find that most people - black or white - don't have a sewer hookup and conventional running water. They either use a well or have a water tank and pay a company to deliver them large quantities of water. It's just part of living that lifestyle.

Also, notice how they don't name this community of 40 people *anywhere*? That's because it doesn't have a name and it isn't a community... it's 40 people with houses out in the boonies.