A drought has forced Californians to ask themselves how much water their lawns and gardens truly need.

A money shortage has Baltimore and Detroit pondering a different water question: whether the poor are entitled to any at all.

A couple of dozen protesters rallied outside City Hall on Monday to call on officials to reverse a decision to begin turning off service for water customers who are behind on their bills. Sharon Black, a Waverly woman who helped organize the protest, called on the city to delay any water shut-offs. The protesters want the City Council to investigate the reasons why the delinquent water customers are late in paying.

Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings.

The people of Detroit are vowing resistance after a federal bankruptcy judge on Monday ruled that the city can continue shutting off water to its poorest residents if their bills cannot be paid.

Saying there is no such thing as a legal right to clean running water, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes dismissed a request from Detroit residents to impose a six-month moratorium on water shutoffs by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) on Monday.

A new mass rally in Detroit is planned for Friday, August 29, the day the state-enforced city bankruptcy trial begins. Democracy activists throughout the Midwest are again urged to come demonstrate against the water shut-offs and the hostile takeover of Detroit's assets.

Racism does not only come in the form of bullets fired by a police officer. Detroit’s socio-political problems are furthered by blatantly racist, ALEC sponsored, Koch brothers–backed Tea Party candidates and legislation, which have lead to gentrification and cutting off of water to minority residents in predominantly African American communities.