California’s drought is all but over, but some wells are still dry.
Despite a wet California winter, six years of drought have left thousands of dry wells in the state’s Central Valley.
It’s one of four counties that still receive emergency drought funding.
Today, her yard is dried up, her family stays inside, and she doesn’t even have enough water for her garden.
They are helping Okieville residents organize the community and obtain state and federal funding for a new well.
“So now, people are spending what little money they have on water, because without water everything stops, you can’t cook you can’t grow food.” Coyne says the state and county provide bottled water and household tank deliveries, which run about $400,000 a month.
For houses without tanks, residents have made do by stringing hoses between houses.
“The drought is, just people don’t have money to drill the wells, he said, “and that’s the biggest problem.” The large-scale farms surrounding Okieville can afford to drill deeper but most farmworkers can’t.
A lot of families who could afford to walk away from their homes have left, but many can’t do that or don’t want to.
“Yes, without water, Marquez said, [we] can’t do anything.”