United States: The latest reports reveal that the counties with substantially poor water quality standards cluster mostly in four American states: West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
Wyoming County in West Virginia took first place in a list of top 10 regions because its public water utility maintained the maximum number of infractions within a single water system based on research findings published in the Risk Analysis journal on Tuesday.
Millions Lack Access to Safe Drinking Water
The study authors determined that the population without running water includes 2 million people who represent all residents of Nebraska, and this basic drinking water service deficiency occurs in multiple locations.
“This high number is neither equally nor proportionally distributed across the population,” they noted.
The researchers examined the problem because approximately 30 million people receive their drinking water from systems that break federal safety regulations.
Water privatization stands as a suggested remedy for experts who aim to enhance both the security and purity of US water resources through private company management of public water systems.
The authors noted that critics maintain businesses might turn away from serving the public if private entities manage public water systems.
Water quality and accessibility became the main focus of investigation when the researchers studied public versus private system operations.
Debate Over Water Privatization Intensifies
The researchers created detailed maps that illustrated both the system ownership distribution and violations and water injustice, as well as the residents’ perception of water accessibility across the country.
According to the study, the violations included drinking water facility operators failing to satisfy the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act by exceeding maximum contaminant thresholds, neglecting water treatment obligations, and skipping monitoring duties while sending no water quality information to customers.
“Our results suggest that privatization alone is not a solution,” according to the lead author, Alex Segrè Cohen, an assistant professor of science and risk communication at the University of Oregon.