Water for Flint, not Nestlé

Flint residents march in Lansing, MI
Flint residents march in Lansing, MI, the capital, on the governor’s decision to close water distribution in Flint before the toxic pipelines are fixed. While Nestlé obtains a water-free buffet from Michigan for only an annual fee of $200, Flint residents still can not trust their water to be safe.
PHOTO: DAVE OLDS, MICHIGAN SENATE DEMOCRATS

 

FLINT, MI — Claiming that the water is now safe, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has launched a surprise attack on the long-suffering residents of Flint, Michigan. When they announced that the state-funded water centers a.k.a. (PODS) where bottled water is distributed would close. Panic and desperation set in across the city as lines upon lines of cars waited and waited, sometimes up to an hour, to get bottled water. Within days, the water was gone and the (a.k.a. PODS) were completely closed. Over two busloads gathered at the Capitol the following day disrupting the legislature to protest the action.

When Flint Mayor Karen Weaver met with Governor Snyder days later to keep the PODS open, the governor said, among other things, ‘Get over it.’

Just days before the announcement to shut off Flint’s bottled water source, the same MDEQ announced that the Nestlé company would be allowed to increase withdrawals of groundwater—400 gallons per minute for $200 a year in Osceola County. The state of Michigan giveth to the corporations (Nestlé) and taketh from the people (Flint).

The water crisis is alive and well in Flint, Michigan, but so is the resistance. The struggle continues . . .

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