Many Americans do not have access to basic sanitation facilities and must grapple with problems such as sewage flowing into their yards or homes and waste in the streets of their communities.
The Guardian is partnering with Catherine Coleman Flowers, the award-winning sanitation researcher and author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, to investigate just how widespread this problem is.
We’d like to hear from you, as this will help us to raise awareness of sanitation problems you or others are experiencing, and to look at ways of developing fair access to sanitation infrastructure. Please contact us if you face any of the following issues or know of them in your area.
Sewage problems in your home or community.
Poorly functioning septic systems.
Poorly operating municipal sewage systems
Share your experiences
You can get in touch by filling in the form below. Your responses are secure, as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian and its partner – the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, a non-profit set up by Flowers – have access to your contributions.
Our journalists or a member of Flowers’ team will be in touch, so please provide contact details. We hope to bring attention to these problems by publishing stories and research – but we will not reveal your information without your permission.
If you know of community groups working on this issue, or if your organization or media outlet would like to partner with us to examine this problem, we would love to hear from you at sanitation.project@theguardian.com.
If you’re having trouble using or seeing the form, click here. Read terms of service here.
