The terrain just outside the town of Ocotillo in California’s Imperial County is rugged. With volunteers from a humanitarian group, we recently drove alongside an old railroad track path tasked with servicing and repairing large barrels of water meant to keep people lost in the desert alive. … For 24 years, Water Station, an all-volunteer organization, has been installing large blue barrels containing water in Imperial County’s deserts to prevent people from dying from environmental exposure during March to October, the hottest months of the year.
-Written by Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S./Mexico Border program and a longtime human rights advocate.