(Photo by Andrea Jaramillo Valencia/News21) Phoenix residents Dora Godinez, 54, and her daughter Diana Garcia, 26, refill their five-gallon water jug every week because they don’t trust their tap water.
Often, reusable water bottles that aren’t properly cleaned can affect the quality of the water.
(Photo by Andrea Jaramillo Valencia/News21) PHOENIX — Dolores Escobar takes a 30-minute bus ride every Sunday from her house to the closest water-vending machine and carries eight empty gallon jugs with her to refill them.
The Phoenix resident said she didn’t like the taste of the tap water at her home, which she said has as a “metallic taste.” Numerous studies have found that Latinos’ consumption of tap water is significantly lower than non-Latinos’ consumption in places with predominant or growing Latino populations such as Northern California, Denver, Salt Lake City and Milwaukee.
These studies indicate that many Latinos believe their water is unsafe, don’t like the taste or the odor, or repeat the cultural patterns from their home countries, where tap water isn’t safe to drink.
Beamer’s research indicated that 73 percent of the people surveyed said they would drink the tap water if they knew it was safe – even if they didn’t like the taste.
Beamer’s team also did water-quality tests during their home visits in Nogales and found no significant difference between the tap water and the bottled or vended water Latino residents drank, except in cases where they found water stored in reusable containers that weren’t properly cleaned.
Latinos also spend more money on bottled water.
Beamer said that not drinking tap water increases Latinos’ risk of developing diabetes because they tend to consume sugary drinks instead of water.
This report is part of the “Troubled Water” project produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative, a national investigative reporting project by top college journalism students and recent graduates from across the country and headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.