Over the hills of northern Nebraska and along the banks of the Missouri River lies the village of Santee on the Santee Sioux Nation Reservation. Home to fewer than 1,000 residents, it’s isolated from Nebraska’s major population centers and almost an hour from the nearest Walmart in Yankton, South Dakota. For the past four years, the reservation has not had access to safe drinking water. And for four years, the tribe has been unable to afford the necessary infrastructure to fix the problem. … While the Santee are experiencing an especially dire situation, dozens of other tribes across the country also have water access issues, from the Navajo Nation’s battle for water rights in the desert southwest to the Apsaalooke Nation’s wastewater contamination in Montana.

Related article: 

• The Conversation: Opinion – When communities face drinking-water crises, bottled water is a ‘temporary’ solution that often lasts years − and worsens inequality