Water is an essential need necessary for human survival. Lack of or poor quality of water leads to many sorts of crises, key among them, public health concerns. It has now been shown that water problems aren’t only experienced in less developed countries. A considerable number of people in the developed world also go through water crises of different nature, ranging from water shortages to the consumption of contaminated water. The story of Flint, Michigan regarding water crisis is a perfect example which shows that the problem is indeed a global one.
Water problems in Flint began when the city’s main source of drinking water was changed from Lake Huron and Detroit River to Flint River. As a result of insufficient treatment of water, lead from the water pipes leached into drinking water and close to 100.000 residents were exposed.
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The crisis brought to light Michigan government’s total lack of transparency. Many people cited authorities’ lackluster methods of handling of the crisis. The city’s top hierarchy was desperate to find a cheaper water source that would help save more funds which could be channeled to other sectors. As a result, they settled on laying down relatively cheaper lead pipes that in the end brought about contamination of water by lead. The water could have been treated afterwards, but this was not the case.
The economic decline of the city was among the chief precipitants of its lack of water treatment as it was considered too expensive and cost-cutting was made a priority by the then administration. Furthermore, the city’s top leaders did not consult any top professionals that would have offered better counsel to avert the crisis. They should have approached professional engineers, water-treatment specialists and licensed plumbers to manage the situation in a better way.
Facts of the Flint Water Investigation are still unfolding. After the switch from the Detroit River water system to Flint River, many residents began complaining about the water taste, color, odor and health problems that most people claimed were as a result of the polluted water. There were also reports off domestic animals vomiting after drinking the contaminated water. Additionally, a local company within the city stopped using Flint River water because its engine parts were quickly developing rust (Fonger, 2014). Officials of the state chose to ignore the reports. In fact, documents were deliberately falsified and tests rigged to deceive and mislead the Environmental Protection Agency about the lead amount in Flint’s water. The city’s authorities should have investigated the reports and determined if indeed the water was contaminated.
Too much focus was put on cost-cutting and finances were mismanaged leading to the water crisis. There was a total disregard for human health when the decision to change the city’s water system was made. Ideally, authorities in Flint should have deliberated on alternative ideas after discovering that there was bound to be the potential compromise on human health as a result of the proposed project. Instead, ignorance and naivety led to contamination of the city’s water by lead.
Marc Edwards, an engineering professor based at Virginia Tech, tested the city’s water after agreeing to help the residents raise concern. He later reported that lead was seeping into the water system as a result of corrosiveness and the city’s water lead poisoning was the worst he had seen in his entire life. Even after sharing his findings with EPA, his claims were ignored. Even more shocking is the fact that requests for e-mails and documents of city and state officials uncovered that the governor and state emergency managers learnt of Flint’s water problem and chose to do nothing for over a year. This put the residents’ lives in great danger due to the long-term effects of lead poisoning. Lead exposure is particularly toxic to children and can cause long-term deleterious health effects. Since the water crisis began, there had been about 90 cases of Legionnaires disease and 10 deaths. Officials reported that there was a spike of Legionnaires’ disease after the city’s water system was changed. A local pediatrician also pointed out that there was an increase in children with high lead levels (Hanna-Attisha, 2016). However, the city’s officials never acted upon these reports.
When it was discovered that the lead content in water was too high, authorities in Flint advised residents to use only bottled water instead of the city’s piped water. This meant that residents had to incur more expenses to access clean water. Moreover, there was hardly enough water to meet the entire city’s needs.
The governor of Michigan admitted that the situation was indeed far more serious than he had first thought and came up with plans to revert Flint to the previous water supply. He selected a task force to look into the water crisis. The task force recently released reports which implicated the environmental department of the state. Additional tests also revealed raised levels of harmful chemical compounds in water that can cause liver and kidney problems. Officials applied federal laws to ensure proper water treatment in the city, but this was ill-advised at it was later proved. This eventually led to failure to use corrosion-control to treat water (Pieper et al., 2017).
Two water-supply companies, Andrews & Newman and Velia & Lockwood were blamed for professional negligence which led to the worsening of the water crisis in Flint. There have been close to 43 filed criminal charges in the Flint Water Investigation. Ignorance and organizational mismanagement are costly, and human health should never be compromised as it happened in Flint, Michigan (Butler et al., 2016).
- Fonger, R. (2014). General Motors shutting off Flint River water at engine plant over corrosion worries. MLive Media Group: The Flint Journal.
- Hanna-Attisha, M., LaChance, J., Sadler, R. C., & Champney Schnepp, A. (2016). Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the Flint drinking water crisis: a spatial analysis of risk and public health response. American journal of public health, 106(2), 283-290.
- Pieper, K. J., Tang, M., & Edwards, M. A. (2017). Flint water crisis caused by interrupted corrosion control: Investigating “ground zero” home. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(4), 2007-2014.
- Butler, L. J., Scammell, M. K., & Benson, E. B. (2016). The Flint, Michigan, water crisis: a case study in regulatory failure and environmental injustice. Environmental Justice, 9(4), 93-97.
