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Warren County is a generous community. When disaster strikes another state or hardship affects people across the country or overseas, our residents collect supplies, donate money, and look for ways to help.
Yet here at home, residents of Tidioute have been living without dependable potable water from their taps for months.
The boil-water advisory began March 18 and has now been extended to Noc. 1. If it continues until then, Tidioute residents will have spent 228 days boiling water for drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth, and preparing food.
Imagine living with that burden every day.
Then ask yourself: If this were happening in your community, would this be the speed and level of attention you would expect? Would you accept months of uncertainty, limited public information, and no clear end to the disruption?
Older residents, families with children, people with disabilities, and those without reliable transportation face even greater challenges. Individuals and organizations have provided bottled water, and those efforts matter. But bottled-water donations do not replace a safe public water supply or the need for clear public accountability.
Many people I speak with have no idea this is happening in Warren County. That lack of awareness tells me this crisis needs far more public attention.
Where are the regular updates from the officials and agencies responsible for protecting public health? What work has been completed? What remains unresolved? What funding has been secured? What is delaying a permanent solution? How are residents expected to manage until November?
The Times Observer should provide regular, visible reporting on this crisis until safe water is restored. Residents deserve a weekly accounting of the progress made, the obstacles remaining, and the actions being taken by local, county, state and federal officials.
This is not about assigning blame before all the facts are known. It is about asking questions, expecting answers, and refusing to let a small community's hardship go unnoticed.
Tidioute is part of Warren County. Its residents are our neighbors. The compassion we so readily extend to people elsewhere should also reach the people living within our own county.
This problem belongs to all of us because the next failing water system could serve any one of our communities.
The people of Tidioute deserve safe water. They deserve answers. Most of all, they deserve to know they have not been forgotten.
Kimberly Slocum is a Tidioute resident.