Flint Water Crisis

Dear Future President,

How often do you find yourself using water? Showering, drinking, washing the dishes, cooking food, and so much more. The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day, It would be very hard to not be able to use it. In Flint, Michigan, about 40 minutes away from my home, the residents of Flint have been severely impacted by a water crisis of which, water was polluted with high levels of lead. There are several families that that are having to deal with the polluted water all over Flint. This was caused by an unfortunate circumstance in government leadership, making them unable to use it. This is because of the lead in the water is causing a dangerous health issue, making it nearly unable to use. Because of the people in Flint not being able to do much based on their current economic situation, should provide support to the people of Flint to get the situation under control.

The most immediate reason the Flint water crisis needs to be resolved is because of the devastating health effects it's having on the people of Flint. The polluted water contains very high and unhealthy amounts of lead. This situation could have been avoided if Flint did not switch its water from Detroit to the Flint river. It made sense to switch the water, because it was going to save them millions of dollars, but the Flint river water is highly polluted and corroded causing the lead to be in the water. According to the New York Times, “In March 2015 a test of the drinking water in one Flint house uncovered concentration of lead 25 times higher than the level deemed actionable by the environmental protection agency.” As you can tell from this statement, the water testing highlights that the lead amounts are dangerously high. The effects of lead poisoning are lifelong and devastating. For instance, having high levels of lead in your blood is very bad for you and can even cause things such as hair loss. If the people of Flint receive additional help, their problems will become limited. However, many will continue to suffer from this incident the rest of their lives.

Additionally, another essential reason the Flint water crisis needs to be resolved is, how important water is for daily living and the amount of people that are affected by the issue. There are around 100,000 people that live in the city of Flint. Most of them are unable to effectively use the most important resource in the world, water. Research in an article from the New York Times conveys that, “the lives of more the 9,000 kids were exposed to elevated lead levels.” That number will most likely continue to rise if something is not done about the current situation. The effects that the children of Flint will receive from being exposed to the high levels of lead will affect them through their entire life. Therefore, the ongoing issue of the contaminated water in Flint should be resolved as soon as possible.

Lastly, the Flint water crisis was a mistake by the government in an attempt to save money by taking water from the Flint River. However, the incident has cost them more because of the efforts required to fix the issue. Over the last two years, the people of Flint have been dealing with lead in their water “The corrosiveness of insufficiently treated Flint river water was causing lead to be leached from aging pipes, and doctors at Flint hospital said to not drink the city water after blood tests of local children revealed high levels of lead”-New York Times. This is a major issue for the people of Flint, it is completely unacceptable for anyone to be living in such a terrible way. Not being able to even use water, is just such a terrible thing that should definitely be addressed as a major issue that the president should be involved in. As a solution we should provide some money, as well as some workers to get the water in Flint back to the way it should be.

In conclusion, The president should provide support to the massive issue going on in Flint. This issue is a major issue because it has devastating health effects, water is such an important resource, and the future generation is affected by it. You might think that there are more important things going on in the world to spend the tax money on. But this issue is one that needs to be fixed as soon as possible, the effects of the Flint water crisis will only get worse as the issue is ignored, and is necessary for Flint if it ever is going to be successful again. The way to fix the issue is to provide more funding. This should allow the city of Flint to afford making the repairs that the city needs to get the water situation under control, and to figure out a permanent solution to the crisis in Flint.