Flint Water Crisis

love.and.war (25)in #news • 6 years ago (edited)

On April 24, 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan switched it’s water source from the city of Detroit to the Flint river. The switch was intended to save money but in turn cost lives. The death toll is currently at 119.

When I looked into this story further, I realized that the contaminated water had caused the residents of Flint to contract Legionnaire’s disease. The disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia caused by the legionella bacteria, spread through contaminated water supplies.
Legionnaire’s disease is painful, affects your body in ways that cannot be explained, and does not go away without a fight.
How do I know? Because I am still recovering. On October 13, 2017, I contracted Legionnaire’s disease during an outbreak in California and it changed my life. At first, it was dismissed as a common cold, then a severe case of pneumonia- until it was diagnosed, too little too late. I struggled with it for well over a month, missing out on life, still unable to breathe like I used to. After 6 doses of antibiotics, 2 doses of steroids and an inhaler, I returned to find a shell of the life I knew. I won’t bore you with the rest of the story as I am clearly alive to write about it.
The reason I share my story is because I would like to share this: after the months of crippling fatigue that followed this disease, being unable to perform simple daily tasks and being in constant pain- nobody deserves this.
These people have been without clean water for over 4 years. Elon Musk has promised to help clean the water supply because this water cannot be consumed and has even caused skin reactions. How is this being tolerated? How can a community be denied water?

The people of Flint Michigan definitely deserve clean water. Water to quench their children’s thirst. They deserve recognition as to why their communities are suffering. They did not deserve this contamination and they did not deserve this coverup by the media for over 4 years.
Why are people still unaware that this is happening? What can we do to help them? How many deaths were dismissed as pneumonia? And why aren’t more people talking about the #FlintWaterCrisis?