California Needs Clean Water
Pollution and supply problems are putting a million people at risk. Now is the time to act.
Keep it clean.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In 2012, former California governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Human Right to Water Act, recognizing that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.”
At least 1 million Californians are still waiting to exercise that right, according to Brown’s successor, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has called the state’s water crisis a “moral disgrace and a medical emergency.” Although the vast majority of the state’s water remains clean, some areas are struggling to solve serious supply and pollution problems. Without sustained action by the state, these dire challenges threaten to grow worse.