A convoy of Canadians carrying water over the border from Windsor, in Ontario, across the river to Detroit, in the United States, got a lot of attention yesterday.
They brought 1000 litres of tap water in plastic jugs, to a water station being set-up in a Detroit church, near the neighbourhoods and residences of those most affected by a lack of water.
More than 7,000 homes and businesses have had their water shut off since March. An average of $542 per household is owed to the Detroit Water and Sewer Department, totalling $90 million US.
The department, of the bankrupt city, has temporarily suspended shut-offs. Over the next 15 days it will try to “educate” residents as to how to pay their water bills. It’s estimated about 80,000 of Detroit’s 176,000 residential accounts are past due.
Maude Barlow is National Chair of the Council of Canadians, co-author of the book, Blue Gold, and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for the human right to water.
“The human suffering is that of a major disaster, one that grows every day,” she said. addressing the media, “I ask Obama, with his sense of justice, to intervene and to declare a state of emergency. It is appalling that this has been allowed to happen, even more so to go on this long”
Maude Barlow said, “It is a health emergency, it is a housing emergency and it is a child emergency because, technically, if you don’t have essential services they’re not supposed to leave the children in the home.
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