Running water and sewage is a basic of living in the developed world, their absence one of the defining features of underdevelopment. So its shocking to see that, thanks to the economic crisis and local government corruption, poor people in the US are now going without these basics:
Tammy Lucas is the human face of a financial and political scandal that has brought one of the most deprived communities in America's south to the point of what some local people believe is collapse.So, the US is now a place where ordinary people can't afford even to drink from the tap or shit in their own toilet. Meanwhile, of course, the people at the top hiked their pay by 30 - 40% last year. No wonder people are occupying Wall Street...She says: "If the sewer bill gets higher, my light might get cut off and if I try to catch up the light, my water might get cut off. So we're in between. We can't make it like this."
Mrs Lucas's monthly sewerage rate bills - the amount levied by the county to flush away waste and provide water for baths and showers - has quadrupled in the past 15 years. She says it is currently running at $150 (£97) a month, which leaves little left out of her $600 social security check for food and electricity.
