Food & Water Watch • Food & Water Action • 2021 Annual Report
IN THE PRESS “New research from Cornell University, which Food & Water
On the Water Front Water Shutoff Moratoria Saved Lives When the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a national emergency, hundreds of localities and states suspended water shutoffs to ensure households had water for handwashing and sanitation. But these protections were never applied nationally, leaving millions vulnerable to service disruptions during the pandemic. Food & Water Watch worked to keep as many people as possible from losing access to water. In New Jersey, Governor Murphy extended the moratorium on all utility shutoffs through July 2021 with a grace period until the end of the year. In New York, then-Governor Cuomo extended the state’s shutoff moratorium until the conclusion of the COVID-19 state of emergency or until the end of 2021. In California, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power extended its shutoff moratorium to March 2022, the longest in the nation. To understand the impact water access had during the pandemic, we conducted a study in collaboration with Cornell University. Our research found that had a
national shutoff moratorium been in place during the study period (March through December 2020), it could have spared 480,715 people from infection and 9,052 people from death. Water shutoff moratoria saved lives.
Watch helped produce, estimates that a national moratorium [on water shut-offs] might have saved 9,000 lives nationally and prevented half a million people from being infected with the coronavirus.” The Washington Post “White House faces new pleas to avert ‘tidal wave’ of water shut-offs as state bans
continue to lapse” MARCH 26, 2021
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