Flint Water Crises

In Flint Michigan officials try to save money by changing the city’s water source. But instead, danger public health in 2014 when they changed the water system and did not put the correct infrastructure in place, when the city switched it is drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River - in a cost-saving move. The bad decisions and neglect have led widespread suffrage to the residents of Flint, including Lead poisoning. Due to improperly treated water from the Flint River which was allowed lead to leach from the pipes.

During the beginning of the research the water in Flint was tested and it was found contaminated with E-coli. Several factors contributed to the crises with Flint water. Including old water pipes not being changed. The cities infrastructure being ignored by government officials because of the cost of repairing the old pipes.

Lead is a highly toxic metal and a very strong poison. Lead poisoning is a serious and sometimes fatal condition. It occurs when lead builds up in the body. Lead poisoning is particularly dangerous to children because their brains and nervous systems are still developing. lead exposure does not cause obvious symptoms until significant damage has already occurred; public health agencies have long relied on blood lead screening tests to identify exposed children. Blood lead screening for the purposes of primary or secondary prevention must be part of an integrated program to identify and control sources of exposure and provide case management for children with elevated blood lead levels.

During the investigations of the contaminated water in Flint Edward discovered that thousands of lead test result had been lost. This was the beginning of the cover up from the CDC. Engineers found

Low levels of expose can lead to health problems including attention deficits, behaviour problems, learning difficulties, behaviour problems. The US has continued to ignore the Flint water crises. This is particularly dangerous to children and the elderly. Once a child had led in their blood there is not much that can do about it. One swallow of the water in Flint will cause Lead poisoning to a child which can disrupt brain growth.

Flint residents were chronically ignored, overlooked, and discounted by government officials even as complaints mounted that the foul-smelling, discoloured, and off-tasting water piped into Flint homes for 18 months which caused skin rashes, hair loss, and itchy skin.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission, a state-established body, done a year-long investigation, three public hearings, which included testimonies of more than 150 residents, community leaders, experts, academics and government officials, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission found that race and racism played a significant role in causing the Flint water crisis, and all races were victims.

Currently is trying to make #FlintWaterCrisis trend on Twitter. Twitter users have noted that this crisis is just not solely affecting Flint. During one weekend in Flint over 38 thousand bottles were distributed. However, as the founders of the movement have said: "There is still a long uphill battle before us. They are asking for more donations and have set up a Save Flint Challenge.

The Save Flint Challenge has been selected by GoFundMe and the founder is being honoured in a celebration in San Francisco on November the 14th. Lance Copper started the challenge to raise awareness and to help save Flint. The public has nominated him for the GoFundMe hero nomination.

Twitter user Gary Hayes wrote: "As long as it is in Flint and affects poor people of colour it has always been over."

Andrew Yang said: "Some of our kids are afraid to drink the water because the water is poisoning and we have to do better than that and it is also a sign of out crumbling infrastructure A lot of this is from old water systems and pipes that were manufactured literally, decades and decades ago

"What I have said to the folks in Flint and what I have said to the folks in Denmark is, we are going to make it right. "No matter what it costs, and at the end of it I am going to have my children drink from a tap in Flint and Denmark. "So that everyone knows the water is safe we have to do better for America.

Chaos ensued when Flint Officials lied and covered up evidence suggesting that the lead in the water was causing lead poisoning in children. After a criminal investigation Lance: "The government has been failing Flint’s residents for decades, nothing happened overnight. "Implicit bias and systemic "racism" ingrained in housing, education, infrastructure, and emergency management all perpetuated discrimination and eventually led to the Flint Water Crisis. "Flint is being ignored because it's a predominantly black & poor city, and acknowledging Flint, ultimately means acknowledging the fact America has a water crisis.

Lance spoke about the consequences for the residences in Flint when he said: "The government poisoned Flint residents to save $5 million, which also killed people. Then stopped giving away free bottled water because it was costing more than $20k a day. "Five years later, they're still suffering. "Each day nothing is done to help Flint, complicates their recovery. People died, thousands of kids were poisoned, and the trust between residents and politicians is completely broken. "They're currently a Third-world city in the United States.

He also mentioned about the community being neglected saying: "It's extremely y neglected by our government and the media. "I was in Flint August 30th-September 1st for one of our #SaveFlintChallenge water distribution events. "Nothing has changed, the water is just less brown in some homes. "People still wait in line for clean water."

When discussing if this issue would be happening if the area was affluent Lance said "If Flint was 57% white 41.5% rich, they'd be swimming in Evian, celebrities would be dedicated to fixing it, and everyone accountable would be in jail or ruined forever. "But Am the American government is intentionally ignoring a massive water crisis. People of colourist happen to be getting the worst part of it all."

It is important to know Lance has achieved so far said with his campaign success. So far, the #SaveFlintChallenge has provided over 350k bottles of water to Flint residents, helped pay water bills, clothed and fed the homeless in Flint, given away thousands of dollars, and promised to spread awareness.

It has been a long time since it has come to the attention of the media the actual consequences of the poisoned water on children in Flint.

Go Fund Me pages have been set up for people dealing with the crises. However, the issue is still going on. What makes the issue worse is that it is a human caused environmental disaster. Earlier this month a US premiere at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington showed the cover ups by elected leaders. Tens of thousands of people have been poisoned and the issue has been going for over five years. With little media attention. It is the responsibility of world leaders and influencers and the people to call out to the injustice facing so many poor people in Flint Michigan.

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