Citizens of Flint, Michigan have been left reeling after the regrettable water crisis which has plagued the city for more than 18 months now. For those unaware of what happened, the city’s administrators switched its water source to the Flint River in a cost-cutting measure, failing to consider the detrimental effect it could (and ultimately would) have on its residents. As many as 12,000 children are feared to have been exposed to lead contamination from the river’s water supply, while 10 fatal cases of legionnaire’s disease have occurred since the crisis began in September 2015.
These figures aside, the Flint Water Crisis has been made all the harder to bear because of the crookedness of federal and state officials, who essentially put the health of Flint’s citizens at risk by switching its water source to save $5 million, a measly figure in the context of a city’s administrative budget.
It wasn’t lost on many people, either, that Flint has a comparatively large ethnic minority population. It certainly wasn’t lost on the mayor of a neighboring city, who accused Michigan state of mistreating Flint’s residents because of its diverse population. This is hard to quantify as it is subjective, but it’s understandable why this viewpoint prevails in some quarters.
Thankfully, the city’s residents stood tall in the face of shambolic treatment from the authorities and forced remedial action to be taken, when the easy option would have been to accept their fate as unfortunate when it wasn’t the case. A united, vociferous community collective can achieve an awful lot.
This infographic from The Water Filter Men charts the timeline of the Flint Water Crisis and points out what other cities can do to make sure that they don’t suffer the same fate as this Michigan metropolis.
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