I gained this understanding from the powerful personal stories shared by the diverse group of 24 water professionals in my cohort. We were tasked with developing recommendations for implementing California\u2019s 2012 Human Right to Water law<\/a>.<\/p>\n To mark World Water Day, it seems fitting to reflect on California\u2019s progress on some of our recommendations and share two stories that highlight why they are important.<\/p>\n Increase community input<\/strong><\/p>\n Our cohort wove our stories and recommendations together in a Google Earth<\/a> map (open link in Google Chrome browser).<\/em><\/p>\n In her story \u201cWhat is my role?,\u201d<\/a> my Water Solutions Network colleague Adriana Renteria, now director of the State Water Resources Control Board Office of Public Participation, recalled some questions she asked as a child while visiting her uncle in an unincorporated part of Kern County: \u201cWhy does my uncle\u2019s toilet and shower sometimes run out of water? And why does my t\u00eda (aunt) use big jugs of water to cook when my mom uses water from the sink?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer that Adriana received: \u201cThat\u2019s just the way that things are.\u201d<\/p>\n Uncomfortable with this answer, Adriana is now helping to make water decision-making more inclusive of underrepresented voices. While there are still challenges, including the digital divide, she is working on practical solutions.<\/p>\n For instance, instead of relying on Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, staff from her office are talking with community members by phone. For meetings, they offer two call-in phone numbers, one in English and one in Spanish. And they work with a local water system to print out presentations in advance of some meetings for residents without Internet access.<\/p>\n Adriana has applied these community engagement strategies in her work helping the state consolidate small water districts, which is one important solution to provide clean and affordable drinking water to more Californians.<\/p>\n Facilitate consolidation of water districts<\/strong><\/p>\n California is on track to consolidating water districts, but the path can be bumpy, as another Water Solutions Network colleague, Pedro Hernandez, has experienced firsthand.<\/p>\n In his story \u201cA look to the past, a look to the future,\u201d<\/a> Pedro shares his experience growing up in a small mobile home park with arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Pedro\u2019s father had a kidney disease that required him to stay hydrated \u2014 but his father couldn\u2019t drink the water from their kitchen faucet.<\/p>\n \u201cI was scared as hell because I didn\u2019t want my father to become a victim of this, or my mother or my dog,\u201d recalled Pedro, who now works at Audubon California leading efforts to establish the human right to nature in the Legislature.<\/p>\n More recently, Pedro helped the two-street, largely Spanish-speaking community of Tooleville, where water has been contaminated since at least the 1970s, get annexed by a larger town with a proper municipal water system one mile away. That effort was featured in a documentary \u201cThe Great Divide,\u201d<\/a> which won third place in the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest.<\/p>\n \u201cMany communities like Tooleville exist because there were restrictive rental covenants that prevented people of color from living within city boundaries,\u201d Pedro notes in the film.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2021\/03\/adriana.jpg\")
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