Flint’s residents are in chaos!  Flint’s water source is contaminated with The Flint Water Crisis has been going on for three years, since April 25, 2014. Flint residents still need to use bottled water to drink and for their personal hygiene.

It first happened when state officials decided to switch the water supply line from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The state officials did this to save money because they were paying money to Detroit to receive water from Lake Huron. Flint residents began to notice that the water looked dirty and had a weird smell. Most of them thought it was sewage but it was iron that actually made the water have a brown color. Mohamad Kazan, an 8th grader at Unis Middle School said, “The government should’ve known that something like this would happen, the pipes are obviously going to be filled with lead and other deadly substances after years of not using or cleaning them. Everyone that was involved in this plan to save money should pay money to replace the pipes and filter the water so the residents of Flint can drink faucet water without the high risk of lead poisoning.”

The Mayor of Flint announced to the residents of Flint that the water was contaminated with iron and deadly minerals like lead. Each day, the people of Flint suffered from the scarcity of water. Many neighboring cities, including Dearborn, aided Flint by delivering cases of bottled water and other supplies. Flint plans to replace the 8,000 lead service lines and provide professional aid for children under the age of six. Many lawsuits have been filed against state officials and corporations because of the incident with the Flint River.

Residents of Flint, Michigan were each give one filter for their water faucets. The filters last for about three months before you have to replace them. This is a problem for some people because after the three months are over, the government doesn’t give you another one so you have to buy it yourself. A lot of residents can’t afford to buy a filter every three months. In 2013, there were fifty-three people who died from pneumonia in Genesee County, where Flint is. In 2014, when the crisis was happening, that number increased to ninety deaths. That was a sixty-five percent increase from 2013. Mohamad Mourtada, a Unis Middle School Journalist said, “The government should supply Flint with bottled water and water filters because it was the government’s fault that the water was contaminated in the first place.”

The Flint Water Crisis was a one of the worst water contamination disasters in the history of Michigan. Even after three years the water is still polluted with deadly poisons like lead and the pipes aren’t being replaced. Even after three years, the issue hasn’t been resolved, but on the bright side, Flint is expected to have clean drinking water by the next one or two years.

Alirida Noureddine

Unis Middle School Journalist