© 2024
Virginia's Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

SERCAP's Indoor Plumbing Challenge

In the United States, there are more than 500,000 households without complete indoor plumbing – including 11,000 homes in Virginia. Lauren Mason is with the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, or SERCAP. She says this is less of a problem in developing nations, where communal infrastructure can provide outdoor sources to address indoor plumbing needs.

“In the U.S. we expect people to have indoor plumbing. So when somebody doesn’t, there’s a greater challenge for them because the community is not set up for it.”

SERCAP has launched a year-long campaign to raise awareness for those living with this issue, challenging people who do have indoor plumbing to a day without it.

“They would get a 5-gallon bucket, and they would fill up hat bucket, and they would use the water out of that bucket throughout the 24-hour period. And then once all the water is used up, they would need to get additional water from an outside source."

You can find more information about the challenge and SERCAP here.

Related Content