2 SOURCE ENTRY DRAFTS

First Entry –

My first entry journal has to do with why we pay for water . The article I used is called “clean water should be a basic human right. Why are we charging so much for it ? This article is by Ben Adler and was published in June 2016. In has article to summarize he makes excellent points as why are we paying for water If its a necessity . He has a lot of factual information and made his article gravitate a lot of people eyes. When reading his article one point that stuck out to me is this quote The fundamental problem: Municipalities treat water as a pay-as-you-go product, rather than a public good supported through tax revenue, such as police or public schools. But water is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. You can’t just stop drinking or bathing if you lose your job. And yet failure to pay the water bill comes with real consequences: More than 33,000 Detroit water accounts were cut off in 2014, for example.” This point that he makes in excellent because he also goes on in including a chart showing how much the nation increased the prices for water. He shows that electricity and gas stayed stagnant while water shoot up. He also questions why the nation can’t regulate water instead of making us pay for water, its not like its a luxury its something we need, he makes a point by saying that a lot of families have other bills to worry about , a water bill is not important , we have families to feed and Cars that need gas . The United Nations also told congress that they need to adopt a national affordability for water for all houses doesn’t matter if they are low income or not, congress disregarded that information and did nothing . Something also that make me very curious is another thing he says “The committee also calls for adopting water access as a human right in federal law, which would force local governments to create water access for the homeless at clinics or other public facilities. (There are more than 500,000 homeless Americans, and most of them lack reliable access to clean water and sanitation.) Again, Congress has failed to even consider such action — although a new coalition of environmental justice groups plans to push for federal policy along those lines.” This makes me curious because if other levels of power are saying these things and congress is disregarding it why doesn’t someone say something . They are saying that its a basic right and everyone has access but that’s not the truth because that’s not happening . For example if you go in New York City the homeless rate is actually very sad you will see a homeless person on every block almost or mostly they will ask you to buy them water which is always the case . They shouldn’t have to beg for water which is something they need to survive . I would love to really look into this topic and read more articles talking about this topic so we get more points

2nd Entry

This second entry is called “Revealed:millions if Americans can’t afford water as bills raise 80% in a decade “.  Its published by The Guardian . This article is more recent but It was very eye opening because its only 3 months old . This article also talks about amid the covid cases us cities show emergency affordability of water. We just went through a pandemic and were still facing some challenges and water was a discussion for debate . During the very beginning of the pandemic a lot of people couldn’t file for unemployment because they either didn’t have a citizenship or couldn’t because they didn’t qualify. A lot of people were forced to stay home and not work which created a lot of conflict because they had all these bills they needed to pay for and didn’t have the funds to pay for it .”Exclusive analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills”. This statistic also shows that a lot of cities have been having this problem for along time for over 7 years and its still something a lot struggle with. Something also that they say are “America’s growing water affordability crisis comes as the Covid-19 pandemic underlines the importance of access to clean water. The research shows that rising bills are not just hurting the poorest but also, increasingly, working Americans.” Even through a pandemic our nation couldn’t make a decision that would help millions. A lot of people have to work over 60 hours a week just to be able to give to their family or pay a bill, they have to over work just to pay a simple bill that means nothing to someone else. Other countries have fresh water available to everyone and you won’t see a homeless person in the street. For example look at Switzerland you have free water and a amazing government that Is for helping the people and giving us our necessities for free. America should open their eyes and maybe mirror other countries and see their techniques or things they did to make water affordable.”In Austin, Texas,if prices in the city continue to go up at the current rate, more than four-fifths of low income residents – defined as people living under 200% of the federal poverty line (FPL) – could face unaffordable bills by 2030.” This quote also made me realize that its not just Texas that will be going 200% under the poverty rate it will be Arizona, New Orleans, Cleaveland that will also go down a dark rode. The article also tells us that a truck driver in Cleaveland had to borrow from his family to pay his 30,000 water bill. This article is very interesting and their are many eye openings and graphs and statistic to back up why water should not be a burden for Americans when its our basic right.