2.2 million people in U.S. live without access to running water, basic plumbing: report

NEW YORK, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Obtaining running water at home is a struggle for many people in the United States, and those who lack clean water overwhelmingly come from communities of color, non-profit DigDeep said in a report on Tuesday.

More than 2.2 million people in America still live without running water and basic plumbing in their homes, and tens of millions more without adequate sanitation, said the Los Angeles-based organization devoted to bringing clean, hot and cold running water into American homes.

The millions of people who are adversely affected by the water access gap are overwhelmingly from communities of color, with indigenous households 19 times more likely than white households to live without running water and Black and Latino households twice as likely, it said.

"These people spend a significant amount of their monthly income just getting the water to survive," DigDeep's founder and chief executive officer George McGraw was quoted by Insider as saying. "The lack of access to water leads to health issues like diabetes, cases of mental health and a pileup of bills for buying bottled water."

The water access gap impacts communities in all 50 states, urban and rural, but the largest impacts are felt at the rural level in communities that are generally isolated, not treated by the news and not seen, according to McGraw.