For the Chavez family and many others in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, bottled water is the toilet paper of their coronavirus pandemic — an everyday necessity that vanished from supermarket shelves.

In the Navajo Nation, where about a third of the population lacks indoor plumbing, volunteers are creating public hand-washing stations by repurposing detergent bottles as makeshift faucets.

And Jessica Endicott, who lives in the tiny community of Turkey Creek in eastern Kentucky, said the virus has exacerbated distrust of the local water, which leaves her skin red and itchy every time she bathes.

Having plundered several major cities, the novel coronavirus is taking root in marginalized rural communities. Many of them lack clean water, making it impossible for residents to shelter at home or wash their hands frequently.

The pandemic is highlighting the yawning racial and socio-economic disparities in access to clean water and intensifying […]