Sacramento, CA – Today the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund Coalition released the following statement from Dan Howells, California State Director of Clean Water Action, on the inauguration of Gavin Newsom as Governor of California:
“Governor Gavin Newsom takes office at a time when California’s moral leadership and unparalleled potential are clouded by our failure to deliver the essential human right of safe and affordable drinking water to one million Californians.
“The fact that communities of color face the highest risk from unsafe water is a situation Governor Newsom recently and strongly declared is ‘unbecoming of who we are and what we stand for.’ Representing a broad coalition of community water advocates and economic justice groups, we stand ready and willing with proven solutions. What is needed to implement those solutions – indeed, what is long overdue – is a permanent funding commitment from the state towards providing universal access to safe drinking water.
“Seven years after California declared access to safe and affordable drinking water is a human right, 2019 must be the year we meet this mandate and Governor Newsom’s challenge, ‘We own this, we’ve got to fix this.’ We look forward to working with the Governor and new Legislature to make the right to safe taps and school drinking fountains a reality.”