Report: The State of Water Security and other Indicators of Protections for Public Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism

The Ready or Not report from the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) examines the country’s level of public health emergency preparedness on a state-by-state basis using 10 priority indicators. “Water Security” is one of these indicators, which measures the “percentage of the population who used a community water system that failed to meet all applicable health-based standards.” In its discussion of how states and the nation fared overall for this indicator, TFAH emphasizes, “Nothing is more critical to human life than safe drinking water.” It notes that across the nation, on average, only six percent of state residents use a community water system that do not meet all applicable health-based standards, according to data from the EPA. However, percentages were much higher for some states. TFAH has tracked public health emergency preparedness in the U.S. since 2013 in The Ready or Not series, which also includes indicators for incident management, countermeasure utilization, and health security surveillance.