The ongoing crisis has left the city without safe drinking water for over two years, but the state claims water deliveries are too much to ask.
A drought has forced Californians to ask themselves how much water their lawns and gardens truly need.
A money shortage has Baltimore and Detroit pondering a different water question: whether the poor are entitled to any at all.
A couple of dozen protesters rallied outside City Hall on Monday to call on officials to reverse a decision to begin turning off service for water customers who are behind on their bills. Sharon Black, a Waverly woman who helped organize the protest, called on the city to delay any water shut-offs. The protesters want the City Council to investigate the reasons why the delinquent water customers are late in paying.
Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings.
Saying there is no such thing as a legal right to clean running water, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes dismissed a request from Detroit residents to impose a six-month moratorium on water shutoffs by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) on Monday.