Shut Off: Washing Hands Without Water During a global pandemic, people in smaller communities are at greater risk of having no water at all in their homes if they canât pay their bills. Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP Photo Detroit water shutoff protests, 2014. The city announced a shutoff moratorium during the pandemic, but some cities and towns plan to disconnect water for nonpayment. Like many small towns in pandemic America, Duquesne, Pennsylvania, is at rock bottom. The mill city near Pittsburgh never regained its footing after the collapse of the steel industry. Its 6,000 residents, mostly poor and Black, have been left behind in jobs, education, and medical care. COVID-19 has brought with it more paralysis. Duquesneâs only grocery store has closed. There are no doctors with offices within the city limits. And now water bills, huge ones, have started going out to residents again after an early-spring pause.