After Tragedy, a Dallas County Community Still Holds Out Hope Running Water Will One Day Come

In the Texas heat, bottled water is a lifeline for Betty Bivens, one of the last holdouts in Sandbranch, a Dallas County community that lacks the most basic necessity: running water.Relatives from Mesquite bring cases of water to Bivens, so the 69-year-old can cook and bathe. She and her neighbors in the unincorporated area in southeast Dallas County used to rely on wells, but the water that flows from them is contaminated, they say."I don't drink this water. I don't cook with this water," Bivens said, tapping the well on the side of her yellow, one-story home. "The only thing I do with this water is mop my floors."The predominantly black area has fewer than 100 residents, and has gone decades without clean water. Like Bivens, many depend on bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing.Every so often, new hope creeps in that running water and a sewage system will come to Sandbranch. That hope reached new heights in 2016 when a pastor from outside the community brought national attention to the area.  Continue reading...

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