Detroit is starting to shut off people’s water again

by Rob Wile

The City of Detroit began shutting off water access to residents behind on payments Tuesday, with thousands at risk of losing access.  According to the Detroit Free Press, 64,769 delinquent residential customers owe the city’s water department a combined $48.9 million. That figure tops the estimated 41,000 individuals who Food and Water Watch (FWW), an advocacy group, says lacked any water as of January (there is likely overlap between the groups).  The city started sending out shut-off warnings May 11. According to the Free Press, Mayor Mike Duggan is proceeding with the shutoff orders over the wishes of city council members, who voted on May 12 to freeze the shutoff until an assistance plan to help affected residents was enacted.  FWW’s Lynna Kaucheck says Duggan tried implementing one last year that gave discounts to qualified residents, but that program proved too expensive for most residents……..“They might be able to afford it for month or two, and then they would default,” she told Fusion. “We need an affordability program based on ability to pay.”…….. “We want to make sure all of our citizens pay their fair share,” Baltimore public works director Rudy Chow told the paper……To Read More……

 

My Take - They need an affordability program based on their ability to pay? They already have one. If they can't pay they shut the water off until they get jobs and pay up. As for the idea that every citizen needs to "pay their fair share" - that's already in place. If you use it you pay for it - that certainly seems fair to me! 

 

And who cares what those incompetent corrupt officials from the UN have to say....unless they're willing to cough up the money for almost 50 million in back payments.  As for the idea that water is a human right – well that’s baloney!  There are huge areas of the world that have little clean water – and what’s the UN doing about it?  Probably nothing that works. And it would be an expensive nothing.

Water Shutoffs Violate Human Rights  - After completing a fact-finding trip, the U.N. found that the city’s poorest residents are most affected by their lack of access to running water.  here’s a new player in Detroit who wants to bring attention to how the city has shut off the running water in thousands of homes because residents have been unable to pay their water bill. The water shutoff caused an outcry earlier this year from folks who believe the city’s response was severe and inhumane. Now the United Nations has joined that chorus and stated that the water shutoffs violate human rights, Al-Jazeera is reporting.  “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” U.N. officials Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha wrote to Detroit officials in June…….To Read More….