Dry, Old, and Overcrowded

In Statesville, North Carolina washing your car at home is now prohibited due to a water crisis. Droughts are naturally occurring, but climate change has increased the intensity. The water conversation infrastructure in North Carolina has not been updated since the 60’s; making the ability to mitigate the effects of the drought harder. Not only has population boomed in North Carolina, but resource draining data centers have been placed across the state; putting an even bigger strain on the infrastructure. Statesville is not a majority Black community but its population is 26% Black. Thats the largest in the county and higher than the statewide average. They are under a water restriction(things aren’t coincidences). However, data centers are being brought into our neighborhoods by the week. If we talk about and educate ourselves; once we lock in we can start to fix this issue and have a better quality of life. 100 years ago North Carolina had a severe drought that devastated parts of the state. 16 percent of farms in North Carolina between 1925 to 1926 failed. Water conversation became a major issue of the times and part of the new deal initiative focused on water conservation efforts in the area by creating reservoirs. This offsets the damage of droughts for decades. In 2007-2008 a drought struck North Carolina once more but this time reservoirs were not enough to prevent water restrictions like the ones placed today. What changed? The severity of the drought was more intense. This drought came after Hurricane Katrina one of the first openly acknowledged storm that was brought on by climate change. Climate change has been playing a role in natural disasters for over 20 years now and this drought was no different. What else was different? Well from 1960 when the final reservoir was finished the population in North Carolina has boomed which when the drought hit put a higher strain on the infrastructure because more people were using the water supply. In retrospect this should have been seen as a warning. We are the better part of 20 years removed from 2007. The infrastructure has remained untouched, the population has continued to grow and climate disasters have escalated across the country. If those 3 things weren’t a terrible enough cocktail, in comes data centers. Data centers drain communities of their resources the major one being water. Both of Statesville’s major water sources have data centers near them. The truth is that no one really knows how this will end up. Maybe the El Niño year brings water to the area later in the year or maybe a hurricane, thats what ended the drought in 2008. However, we can conclude that if the drought becomes bad enough Statesville and towns like it will have little to no options. Statesville is an example. Corpus Christi is facing its own water crisis this summer. Last year during the LA fires water conservation became a talking point when it came to how to fight the fire. We all know about Flint and their decade long water crisis. Water crisis are becoming more prevalent across the country. Flint has shown us that Black communities are not receiving any assistance when the water runs out. Even with a Black president Flint could not get clean drinking water. In 2026 there is no doubt the government would rather watch us die of thirst. It’s time to wake up as a community because we have to win against data centers and update our drinking water infrastructure. If a data center is coming to your community talk to your neighbors and create activist groups against it. Talk about the story of Statesville; whatever you do it is not a time to sit by ideally with important information. Stay woke, Loc Sources