New York City is the water-scarce capital of the United States, with 56,900 residents living without access to running water in 2021, according to a study citing census data.

Los Angeles was second with 45,900 people, followed by San Francisco with 24,400. In Chicago and Houston, more than 22,000 residents do not have access to running water.

The study found that an estimated 1.1 million people in the United States currently live without running water or sanitation.

The study did not focus on water quality and pollution, but only on residents’ access to running water in their homes.

“It’s absolutely crazy,” Meehan said, explaining what was “really alarming” that the problem mostly affected people of color and that the problem was happening “in some cities where we would least expect it, like Portland in Oregon.” are otherwise known as nice places to live.”

Meehan is originally from Portland and described the city as one that has experienced a “renaissance” of growth, technology development and prosperity.

“It was also accompanied by an increase in the absolute numbers and racial dimensions of plumbing poverty,” she said. “In 2000, fewer than one in 250 Portlanders who were black lived in homes without running water, but more than a decade later, that number had nearly quadrupled.”

The study found that in 12 of America’s 15 largest cities, people of color were disproportionately affected by rising poverty. In Los Angeles, 82 percent of affected people were people of color, compared to 79 percent in Miami, 74 percent in San Francisco and 71 percent in Houston.

“The compounding pressures of high housing costs and spending means more people with low incomes and limited assets are living in these expensive cities without running water,” Meehan said in a statement. “Too many people, especially those of color, are now in such extreme poverty that they are forced into homes that do not meet basic standards for human dignity and life.”

Dr. Jason R. Jurjevich, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Arizona, said in a statement: “Our results underscore the uneven poverty reduction success of plumbers in selected US cities over the past 20 years, often leaving households of color behind. for.

“In Philadelphia, for example, people of color made up 40 percent of the total population, but in 2021 they represented 66 percent of people without access to running water.”

The researchers concluded that inequalities like this prevent the U.S. from meeting the United Nations’ development goals for everyone to have access to safe drinking water.

The study was the first to track the problem of plumbing poverty over a 51-year period in America’s 50 largest cities. Published Thursday in the journal Science Cities of natureit was a collaboration between King’s College London and the University of Arizona.

Link

Meehan, K., Jurjevich, JR, Everitt, L., Chun, NMJW, Sherrill, J. (2024). Urban inequality, the housing crisis and deteriorating access to water in America’s cities, Cities of nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00180-z