Drought-stricken communities slowly getting help

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- People living without water in some of the state's most drought-stricken communities are slowly getting some help.

Parts of Farmersville, Terra Bella and east Porterville are some of the worst areas in Tulare County affected by the drought. Thursday, some people who've been without water for months-finally got a little relief.

After going four months without this precious resource, water is finally coming out of the kitchen faucet at the Lopez home in Farmersville.

No, their well doesn't magically have water in it again. The H2O is coming from this large 1,500 gallon tank parked in their driveway.

Paul Boyer with Self-Help Enterprises said, "This way you can have water in your home like normal would be and have your hot water heater working, too."

The pilot system is expensive, $1,100 to install. PVC pipes connect the tank to a pump, which links directly to the house. For a normal family of four, they could blow through all the water in about a week and it can cost more than $100 to refill but it's a temporary solution that's helping families feel a little bit back to normal.

"The communities have been good to us," said Kevin McPhail with the Bank of the Sierra. "We've been here since 1977 so this is a way for us to give back and help our community."

At the same time, Bank of the Sierra gave a surprise $50,000 donation to Self-Help Enterprises to aid in the nonprofit's helping of people suffering from the drought. The money will help install systems like this temporary water tank, and more.

Tom Collishaw with Self-Help Enterprises added, "Sometimes it may be drilling a new well or lowering the pumps in an existing well."

"It takes about two and a half gallons to barely flush a toilet," said Farmersville resident, Mary Shafer. "Three to really get it to flush."

News of help on the way is a relief for Mary Shafer...who's been without water since April. Sometimes she connects to her neighbor's well through a hose dragged across their yards. She drives to another town to shower and spends a lot of money buying water for basic needs.

Shafer said, "We use paper plates and do dishes like little house on the prairie, warm up the water and now we know how they lived back in the day and we took a lot of things for granted when we had them."

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack just visited this area back in July, promising money to help connect the 134 people with dry wells to the city's water system. That project though, will take a year.