From Texas Public Radio:
More than half a million people, mostly Latinos, live in the over 2,000 colonias that exist across Texas.
These neighborhoods and communities in unincorporated areas along the border are marked by poverty and can lack proper infrastructure.
Many colonia residents do not have access to clean drinking water. Water in colonias is often stored in tanks, making it prone to contaminants like arsenic and lead.
A two-year project conducted by a group of researchers from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health and Methodist Healthcare Ministries examined the presence of these contaminants in colonias in South Texas border communities.
Texas A&M researchers Garett Sansom and Taehyun Roh contributed to the study.
Sansom, an assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said the study found there was a threefold increase in conditions like hypertension and diabetes in colonias.
“Many folks began to mention and talk about stories about … their family who have these conditions,” he said. “We have evidence of reduced physical health and increased chronic conditions within the colonias, as well as the presence in 100% of our water samples of arsenic and uranium.”
Clockwise, from left to right: Christine Yanas, vice president of policy and advocacy at Methodist Healthcare Ministries; Taehyun Roh, an assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health; Garett Sansom, assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health.
Courrtesy / Methodist Healthcare Ministries / Texas A&M University School Of Public Health
The effort to take action and improve water quality often falls on the colonias themselves.
Christine Yanas, vice president of policy and advocacy at Methodist Healthcare Ministries, said the study aimed to highlight the issues these communities face and bring change.
“We’d like to make sure there’s water resources going to these places that need it,” Yanas said. “We want to make sure that if there’s any regulatory piece that can change the level of arsenic, the level of lead, zero is a safe level.”
The results of the study were presented at a community meeting in McAllen in January, and will be published soon. See the powerpoint presentation below:
