Today, more than 2.2 million Americans live without access to basic water or wastewater services. Children and adults across the United States are forced to haul water for miles, flush sewage into local streams or their yards, and face staggering challenges to health, wealth, and well-being. Communities of color are significantly more likely to face water and sanitation inaccessibility, with Indigenous households 19 times more likely, and Black and Latinx households twice as likely than white homes to lack basic safe water access and adequate plumbing. This is the water access gap — a growing crisis in which millions of people living in one of the wealthiest countries on Earth struggle every day to meet their basic needs. 

As it stands, the United States is not on track to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6, which ensures the “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." In addition to communities living without taps and toilets, tens-of-millions more people face affordability or quality issues that make it impossible for them to rely on their water. US-based WASH organizations have an important role to play in the promotion of universal access to reliable, sustainable, and safe water and wastewater services, both abroad and in our own communities.

As leaders in this space, we know we will not close the water access gap until US WASH organizations work together as a unified force for change. We recognize the scope of this challenge; we are deeply connected to impacted communities; and we believe that together, as a coalition - The Vessel Collective - we can solve this crisis in our lifetimes.

Vessel Collective

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