USHRN members release new report on sanitation and wastewater in the US

May 24, 2019

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USHRN members and partners Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University recently released their report titled “Flushed and Forgotten: Sanitation and Wastewater in Rural Communities in the US,” co-authored with the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise. The report examines the structural causes of inadequate sanitation and wastewater failures in the US.

Discussing her research, co-author of the report and lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University Dr. Inga Winkler explains, the “impact of the sanitation crisis falls disproportionately on Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities and people living in poverty. What emerges is a picture of extreme inequalities. While the large majority of people across the United States flush and forget, many rural communities lack access to one of the most basic services: sanitation[1].”

View the full report here

View a summary of the report here

[1] Institute for the Study of Human Rights