FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Flint Rising
January 12, 2017
Contact: Nayyirah Shariff, 810-493-5946, nayyirah@flintrising.com
Officials: Flint Will Be on Bottled Water Until 2020
Snyder administration continues to hold too much control over rebuilding Flint
FLINT — On Wednesday night, state and local officials told Flint residents that it would take until at least 2020 to fix all the lead service lines in the city, meaning residents will be forced to live off of bottled water for another three years. Flint Rising believes the timeline shows how little the Snyder administration actually cares for the crisis they created because they are clearly not getting the city the resources that are needed to replace the pipes and get clean water to residents.
“The state has had an overt amount of control over remedying this crisis and they have failed because the city and its residents are not getting needed resources. One year ago during Gov. Snyder’s State of the State he said, ‘I’m sorry and I will fix it.’ He has broken that promise by forcing Flint residents to continue to use bottled water for the foreseeable future,” said Nayyirah Shariff, executive director of Flint Rising. “We’ve been dealing with the Flint Water Crisis for about three years. We cannot and will not be subjected to three more years of foot dragging by those who caused this crisis and claim to support us while failing at every turn. Nothing that was said at the town hall meeting on Wednesday points to any positive change in the day to day lives of the people of Flint. More needs to be done now — not three years from now.”
The statement that Flint would be on filtered/bottled water for at least three years was in a presentation from Michael McDaniel, who is on Mayor Karen Waver’s Fast Start program. The Fast Start program is the program that is replacing the non-copper service lines. His assertion is based on the assumption they will replace 10,000 lines over the next two years. So far they have replaced a little over 700.
Since Flint Rising began, the organization has continually stated three demands that will improve the lives of folks in Flint and help the community heal from the water crisis: Reimbursement of all water bills going back to the beginning of the crisis and until it is resolved, complete replacement of all lead water lines in the city, and wraparound education and health services for residents.
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