This page is a summary of recode’s research, findings, and outreach relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion to date . It’s under construction and will continue to be updated over time as our understanding evolves. If you have a story of your own lived experience or feedback to share to improve this page, please contact us.
Recode’s Definitions
Diversity: People with different lived experiences are contributing together.
Inclusion: People with different lived experiences have different needs that are recognized, welcomed, and accommodated to facilitate their contributions.
Equity: Everyone has what they need to be successful, recognizing historic and present disparities.
Who Needs Equitable Water Systems
To perform our work in an equitable way, we need to recognize who lacks privilege in water systems in the United States by looking at group memberships and understand the ways in which they lack privilege:
Impacted Community Members: For the purposes of this work, impacted community members include (but may not be limited to) people who self-identify with one or more of the following group memberships:
| Impacted Community Membership | Water-specific equity considerations and antidotes |
| People Living with Low Income(s) | May be targeted for development, gentrified, then involuntarily displaced. Likely to have difficulty paying their utility bills, which can lead to houselessness or losing any children they might have to state custody (after the water is turned off and a structure is deemed uninhabitable without water service per the State Plumbing Code regulations).
Antidotes: |
| People of Color (POC) |
POC communities are often located in places where access to clean air, water, and/or land is limited, often as a result of historic redlining and bias in the banking and loan industry. They may also be concentrated in these areas because systemic and individual racism dictates what jobs they can have (e.g. Latinx community concentrated in the Central Valley of CA). Sometimes, they choose to move into more polluted places in order to access culturally relevant community and services. Historic and present disinvestment in POC-dominated communities may result in limited or no access to a public piping network, making water and sanitation management more expensive. In addition, racism is “literally bad for your health“, which lowers immune resistance to water borne disease. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidotes: |
| People who are Indigenous/Native American |
While many indigenous/Native American people may not live on reservations, those indigenous/Native American people in the United States choosing to live on reservations are confined in way that makes self-determination and control of natural resources difficult. Historical treaties and the US Constitution define how indigenous/Native Americans agreed (and continue to agree) to share land they traditionally used for survival in return for sovereignty, access to historic lands for survival, and specific support from the federal government but are poorly implemented. Today, water quality and availability on tribal lands is impacted by limited budgets and long waiting lists for the U.S. Indian Health Service to fulfill their obligations to assist financially and technically with water systems. Water quality on tribal lands is also regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which also has limited funding for implementing programs. Many tribal communities receive water and wastewater services from cities and states outside their reservations with non-indigenous governments that have little understanding of the historical and current context of the lived experience of indigenous and Native American people or the (poorly met) obligations of the federal government. Because tribes historically often accessed areas significantly greater than their own reservation areas, tribal members continue to hold an interest in environmental quality outside their reservation. As with communities in any watersheds, surface and groundwater resources are also impacted by upstream and in-watershed development, and unlike communities in all watersheds, tribal communities are disempowered to change laws because reservations are considered a separate country (i.e. sovereign nation) from the United States and/or Canada and Mexico. This is complicated by the fact that they are also recognized as U.S. citizens and numerous laws have been passed by the U.S. government without the input or consent of Tribal peoples. Income disparities on an international level exist and indigenous/Native American people everywhere also share in the experience of the impacts to People of Color above. Antidotes: |
| People who are Female-bodied and/or Women | Women and female-bodied people are currently society’s primary care givers, taking care of family members when they are disabled or become sick from tainted water, which can endanger their ability to keep jobs. Lack of access to clean water can impact the health of pregnant female-bodied people and cause premature births and miscarriages. Groundwater tainted with nitrates causes a life-threatening condition called blue baby syndrome. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidotes: |
| People who are Transgender | Access to sanitation is a safety issue when someone else decides they’re not in the “right” bathroom. As a result, transgender people report they refrain from using bathrooms in public at all causing an array of health impacts including urinary tract infections and dehydration, which can lead to many other poor health outcomes. Income disparities on a national level exist (e.g. “One study found that the average earnings of transgender women workers fall by nearly one-third after transition“).
Antidotes: |
| People who are Houseless | Access to water and sanitation is limited or non-existent. Access to water is likely to be surface water, which is low quality for drinking. Houseless people experience a higher rate of waterborne diseases such as Hepatitis A as a result of not being able to wash their hands. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidotes: |
| People whose Second Language is English (ESL) | Important signage and alerts regarding the safety of water for drinking or recreation, assistance programs, and other information is often only available in English. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidotes: |
| People who Rent their Housing | Renters have no control over replacing old pipes or installing filters for health reasons, such as lead poisoning.
When landlords pay a renter’s water bills and stop, the renter is the person who suffers a water shutoff. “In some cases this leads to displacement of tenants, hardship, disruption of family life and potential homelessness for those who cannot afford either the cost of their landlord’s old water bills or the cost of renting and moving to other premises.” Income disparities on a national level exist. Antidote: |
| People with a Physical Disability | Access may be physically limited to water and sanitation due to spatial designs of kitchens, bathrooms, and public buildings, sidewalks, and the toilets themselves (e.g. steps to a riser for dry toilets to access nutrient material below), which can lead to health impacts such as urinary tract infections and dehydration, which can lead to more problematic disease. May have a digestion-related illness (e.g. Irritable Bowel Syndrome) that requires them to plan their day around access to sanitation. May lack physical capability for maintenance of decentralized systems. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People with a Cognitive Disability | May lack capability for use or maintenance of decentralized systems. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People with a Visual Disability | May lack capability for maintenance of decentralized systems. Wayfinding is most often in the form of written signage, forcing a person with visual limitations to ask for and memorize directions. Lighting may be inadequate to navigate restroom. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People who are Immigrants | May lose ability to use culturally relevant practices (e.g. rainwater harvesting). Information about opportunities is often only provided in English, which may or may not be an immigrant’s first language (see English-as-a-Second-Language above). Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People who live in Rural Areas | “Last mile” residents have no access to a public piping network, making water and sanitation more expensive for rural people than it is for urban people or causing a public health crisis (e.g. Alabama’s “Black Belt”). Access to high quality drinking water may be more limited than other areas because of polluted groundwater (e.g. nitrates, fracking chemicals) or surface water. Groundwater tainted with nitrates causes a life-threatening condition called blue baby syndrome. Income disparities on a national level exist; however, the poverty rate for rural dwellers is lower than for urban dwellers.
Antidote: |
| People who Live in Coastal Areas | Access to high-quality drinking water may be limited by polluted groundwater (i.e. saltwater intrusion).
Antidote: |
| Youth | Youth have little to no control over where they live and how much money their parents or guardians make. Most youth are prohibited from getting a job that might help alleviate poverty. All of these make them more vulnerable from a water access perspective. Children are more susceptible to health effects of tainted water (e.g. blue baby syndrome, lead poisoning, acute respiratory problems, inflammatory bowel disease) future access to water likely to be limited.
Antidote: |
| Seniors | Seniors are on a fixed income, so a “small” increase in any of their bills may have significant impacts on their ability to pay. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer | Income disparities on a national level exist. A gay/male couple make less money on average than a heterosexual couple. A lesbian/female couple makes less money than a gay couple.
Antidotes: |
| People who are not College Educated | Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidote: |
| People with a Auditory Disability | May not hear alarms intended to alert people when decentralized systems need maintenance. Income disparities on a national level exist.
Antidotes: |
| All | As a result of biased institutional policies throughout our social systems, many people in these groups are disempowered to make decisions about their own health and welfare as it relates specifically to access to water and sanitation and generally, as it relates to many other issues. |
Some Sources of Inequity in Water Systems
In addition to understanding the people who lack privilege, we want to understand the systems that drive inequalities in water systems.
There are many different sources of historic and/or current systemic inequities to consider:
- Bank lending practices limit who can contribute their vision of sustainability by limiting who can expand their business services or become a developer (e.g. people of color, women). For example, from the Oregon Department of Transportation Civil Rights Department disparity study of 2011: “Majority-owned construction firms” — in Oregon, this means White-owned construction firms — receive more than 50 times as many loan dollars per dollar of equity capital as Black firms with the same borrowing characteristics.
- Drinking water supply quality and sanitary sewer service availability varies across the country. Poor quality and service are more often correlated with low-income and/or people of color communities.
- State funding allocations are often less for rural versus urban for jurisdictional program management, which is likely to result in different water quality and availability outcomes.
- Combined sewers are usually older and/or less wealthy communities versus separated storm and sanitary sewers that are usually in newer and/or wealthier communities.
- There is a lack of holistic regulatory authority (e.g. groundwater is often regulated by water quality jurisdictions who have no authority over the agricultural practices that pollute groundwater).
- Facilities with air quality/odors are located in low-income neighborhoods to avoid backlash from people with enough time and money to oppose its location.
- In some places, non-gendered bathrooms are illegal per the building code.
- Industry pollutes and the community pays (e.g. PVC pipe manufacturers)
- Privatizing utilities changes the distribution of income and expenses (e.g. shifting costs & income for water treatment to site-scale projects takes away revenue from the municipalities shared systems).
- There can be a lack of accountability when choosing utility alignments (One oil utility related example that would pollute drinking water is the Dakota Access pipeline currently being constructed through Standing Rock Sioux disputed land against the wishes of that community).
- Hazardous/toxic sites are often located in people-of-color dominated and/or impoverished neighborhoods AND POC and impoverished people move to those neighborhoods after the facilities have been sited there because this all they can afford or they crave the cultural benefits of being with people who share similar values or look like them.
Bibliography
Making Sustainable Sanitation Inclusive for Persons with Disabilities. Jun 2011. Published by United States International Council on Disabilities.