Urban League to Send Semi-Truckload of Water to Flint, Michigan

urban-league-flint-collectionOn Saturday, February 13, 2016 the Urban League of Northwest Indiana in collaboration with organizations, churches, neighbors and friends in Northwest Indiana will send a semi-truckload of water to the people of Flint, Michigan.

According to President and CEO Dr. Vanessa Allen, the town of Flint is struggling with unprecedented levels of contaminated drinking water that has poisoned thousands of residents of that city.

“Gov. Snyder and the private managers who nullified the elections of the mayor and city council of Flint Michigan switched the town’s water source from Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River under the guise of saving money. But they found out quickly that the river water was unsafe because the GM factory owners told them the water was rusting out their equipment. Gov. Snyder then switched the plant’s water back to the Lake Huron source for GM but continued to pump filthy brown water to the people in Flint.”

Allen said that this kind of conduct is inhumane and puts industry’s interests ahead of the people of the city who are predominantly African American.

“9,000 children under 6 have been exposed to lead poisoning and the state’s response so far has been inadequate to say the least. We are sending water as a stop gap measure but it is up to the state to fix the situation by immediately remediating the entire city water system in the most timely manner. This is truly a national disaster. What makes it worse is that the switch from lake to river water was done to save a few million dollars. Now the repair work is estimated at over $1 billion not to speak of the children’s lives that are at stake from lead poisoning.”

Donations of cases of water (no single bottles) may be dropped off this week at the Urban League, 3101 Broadway between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (Friday 9 a.m. to noon). Those wishing to help load the truck may volunteer to do so by phoning 887-9621.