Flint Water Crisis

Who is to blame for allowing this crisis to reach this point? How should they be held responsible? Government officials are responsible for allowing the Flint water crisis to reach this detrimental point. According to the PBS news station, for one and a half years, people were drinking water contaminated with lead, yet government officials claimed that everything was fine. In this scenario, the public have no clue that their water, which they drink, bathe in, wash clothes and dishes in, and water their garden with, is toxic. They don’t know that this water can have several, very serious impacts on their and their children’s health, such as, learning disabilities, slow growth, insomnia, memory loss, and liver and kidney problems. These government officials should be held responsible. They should be the ones who reverse the problem they created. This crisis all started when the city government of Flint, Michigan, decided to switch water sources in an effort to save money. They
wanted to obtain their water supply from Lake Huron, which is 80 miles east from them, but the project to lay the pipes out would take a lengthy amount of time. Temporarily, until the pipes were completed for Lake Huron, the government officials decided to acquire their water supply from the Flint River, flowing through their city. The pipes began to deteriorate, releasing the poisonous neurotoxin, lead, into the water stream. From there, the water would travel into the homes of the uninformed citizens of Flint. This is what caused the city of Flint, Michigan their health, and for some, their lives. Barack Obama has states previously regarding the people of Flint, “You can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people.” Government officials can reverse this problem they created by first informing the public of all they know.
A problem like this, that is so widespread and detrimental to the public’s health, needs to be brought out into the open. Next, they can switch the city’s water source to a safe reliable source. Water is a necessity for all life, and the people of Flint cannot continue to live off of bottled water. There needs to be a permanent solution to this problem. The last thing I believe government officials can do to reverse this crisis is to offer free healthcare to the people of Flint, Michigan. Lead poisoning can have detrimental effects on the body. Fixing or caring for these problems would be costly for a majority of the public, since the city of Flint has poverty issues. The government can pay for the people’s healthcare, if they needed it because of lead poisoning effects. The citizens of Flint should not suffer any longer than they have been, as a result of the government’s
mistake.