Stocking up on water. Not just for the luxury of having the cleanest water during a storm. Stocking up on water so often for so long that it has now become unaffordable.

Since the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan was revealed, residents have had to stock up on bottled water to brush their teeth and cook. Bottled water is, however, expensive and limited in quantity. About 41 percent of households in Flint are below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census, and have lead-contaminated taps, so clean water is more or less out of reach.

Flint’s state of emergency called for help and Syracuse has responded. People’s AME Zion Church, the city of Syracuse and the Syracuse City School District are holding a donation drive as an effort to deliver as much water as possible to the city. The hope is that the groups can bring enough water to fill a 53-foot trailer, AME Zion Pastor Daren Jaime said.

Cases are being accepted through Thursday and can be dropped off at any SCSD building, Syracuse’s City Hall, the Southwest Community Center and People’s AME Zion Church.

James Johnson, a member of AME Zion, said he and about 35 other volunteers will head to Flint on Friday to help and support suffering residents. As of Monday morning, Johnson said more than 1,500 cases of bottled water have been dropped off at the church.

Originally, the National Guard was set to distribute the water in Flint, but Jaime said he located some communities who hadn’t received water yet and thought they should get it as soon as possible.

Lead contamination levels have been dangerously high since Flint switched water sources from Lake Huron to Flint River in April 2014. Besides the discoloring, the water is also very dangerous and can cause a variety of symptoms such as rashes, hair loss, memory loss, vision loss, growth stunts and even death, according to a Jan. 21 Mother Jones article.

In October 2015, officials switched the water source back to Lake Huron. Due to the lack of standard chemicals, known as corrosion controls, that were needed to prevent metals from straining through, the issue still persists.

Young children and babies are advised by the Environmental Protection Agency to bathe with wipes, bottled water and/or tubs outside of the district to reduce the risk of accidentally ingesting the water.

Cornelius Murphy, a senior fellow for environmental and sustainable systems and former president at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said that while the switch may have been the cheaper option, the city is now paying the price.

Murphy, who teaches a course called “Water – An Incredible Journey,” explained that since Flint is an old city, it is likely to have a lot of cast iron and ductile iron piping. If homes have lead pipes or lead soldered pipes, the faucets can release lead from the soldered points or from the pipes itself. He said:

Murphy said that one solution to contamination problems would be protective biofilm and scaling agents that surround the inside of the pipe.

Sister Elizabeth Walters is taking a different approach to the problem: faith. She’s visiting religious sites to raise awareness for the water crisis in Michigan.

Walters is an activist who tries to raise awareness about social justice, peace and ecological sustainability in Michigan. She works with a group in Detroit called the People’s Water Board, which campaigns for water as a human right all over the state of Michigan, and has been focusing on the water crisis in Flint.

Detroit is also facing water issues, though they are separate from those in Flint. Walters said tens of thousands of residents in Detroit have had their water shut off because they cannot afford it since even though the water is clean, it’s also expensive.

Walters had been advocating with the PWB before she learned about the Flint crisis, but her message is still applicable.

“Our position is that you can’t deny people of such a basic need,” she said. “They can’t have their water turned off. Folks living on bottled water has been very, very difficult — it’s been their savior until some justice happens.”

The water crises in Flint is a direct result of government attempts to save costs, according to a Jan. 18 CNN article. In Flint, government officials had to ask for help from emergency managers, Walters said.

“They didn’t have an investment in the community. They made decisions not for the health and well-being of people, but to save money, and the governor said he’s not responsible, but that’s where the responsibility started,” Walters said. “You can’t take elected officials and make them powerless and put in your financial people to run a city; it isn’t right.”

Published on February 2, 2016 at 10:24 pm

tathomps@syr.edu