Introduction
The Flint water crisis is considered as one of the notable health crises affecting the United States today attributed to the health consequences that it has had on the population in the city of Flint, Michigan. The crisis, which began in 2014, resulted from the decision to change the source of water coming into Flint from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to Flint River. However, the main issue arising from the change in the source of water was that the State Government of Michigan failed to put in place effective water treatment measures. Thus, this created a situation where over 100,000 residents within this particular city were exposed to water contaminants, specifically lead (Dingle, 2016). The discovery of the contaminants was through studies conducted by Hurley Medical Center and Virginia Tech, both of which confirmed the presence of lead in the water.
Background of the Issue
As of November 2011, Flint City was facing a serious financial crisis attributed to increased operational costs, which created a major challenge for the city managers in their bid to providing quality services to the residents within this city. The ultimate outcome of this was the need to come up with a stringent plan that would help reduced operational costs within this particular city. Specifically, the city focused on reducing costs of buying water from Detroit, was approximately $21 million annually, which city officials considered as being a significant challenge for the city (Dingle, 2016). Ultimately, this led to the development of a city plan that would see the use of Flint River as the main source of water that would be supplied within the city of Flint for the residents.
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After notable delays in the construction of the new pipeline that would see usage of water of from Flint River, the construction was completed in April 2014 after which the city officials made the decision to use this as the main source of water. As of August 2014, concerns had been raised over the high number of children exposed to lead within the different health care facilities in the city. Additionally, Flint’s General Motors Flint Truck Assembly discontinued its services in the city citing corrosive water, which affected its engines. In September 2015, Hurley Medical Center and Virginia Tech embarked on different studies focused on evaluating the sources of lead in the city (Delaney, 2016). The ultimate findings of the studies were that lack of effective treatment of water from Flint River meant that the people were exposed to high levels of lead, which was a significant health challenge.
Based on the analysis of the crisis, it can be argued that the contamination, which affected a significant number of residents within the city of Flint, occurred due two major reasons. Firstly, the contamination occurred due to the decision by the city officials to cut down on its budget by reducing the need for it to pay for water from Detroit without an effective plan on how to provide safe water for the residents. As can be seen during the beginning of the crisis, the city faced a key challenge arising from its financial positioning, which created the need for the city managers to find effective ways on how to cut down on the operational costs in the city. Thus, this played a key role in the decision to use Flint River as the main source of water coming into the city with the focus being towards reducing the overall cost margins for the city’s budgetary allocations.
The second key factor that may have contributed to the contamination was lack of an effective water treatment approach that would have helped in reducing the overall number of contaminants in the water supplied to the residents in the city. A background analysis of the issue indicates that the city manager within the city of Flint only focused on the decision to replace the source of water supplied into the city but did not reflect on the possible outcomes or impacts that this may have in terms of increased demand for water treatment. Ultimately, this created a situation where the city managers made the decision to supply water for the city residents without due consideration of the quality of the water. The consequence of this was a significant spike in lead contamination, which may have had a possible link to Legionnaires' disease spike in the city.
To avoid the contamination, as has been discussed, the city managers would have taken several proactive steps, which would have ensured that the quality of water delivered to the city residents in Flint was safe for human use. Firstly, the city managers would have engaged in an in-depth analysis of the water within Flint River with the focus being towards identification of any underlying contaminants that would affect the quality. The analysis would have helped in exposing any possible traces of lead in the water, thus, prompting the city managers to take up effective approaches for treatment.
The idea of having to engage in an analysis of the water would have also helped towards identifying whether adoption of specific treatment options would be effective towards meeting set out standards. In other words, this would have helped towards defining the expected water treatment options for the city in a bid to ensuring that the water delivered to the city residents is face for human use. The second approach would have involved investment in an effective water treatment plant in the city. Water treatment is one of the key areas that help to ensure that the quality of water delivered to city residents is safe taking into account that it helps in elimination of possible contaminant that would impact the quality of water. In this case, the city managers would have been on the forefront towards ensuring that the city is well positioned towards building an effective water treatment plant. The state government would have focused much of its attention towards ensuring that the water supplied to the city residents passed through this water treatment plant.
The third possible approach for the local government would have been to maintain supply of water from Lake Huron and the Detroit River as it sought to find an alternative in the event that the city was not well positioned towards dealing with the contaminants. Before the decision to shift supply to Flint River, the city residents of Flint did not experience any issues of water contamination considering that the water from the other water sources was safe for human use. Thus, this acts as a clear indication that the city managers would have focused on ensuring that they maintain supply from these water sources with the focus being towards reducing the possibility of contamination.
While reflecting on the outcomes of the Flint water crisis, it is clear that the demographic that was most affected by the contamination of the water in Flint City was the children. Nelson (2016) indicates that approximately 8,000 children were exposed to a poisonous element, lead, which would be expected to have serious impacts on their brain and nervous systems development. It is clear that majority of the children from Flint had been using the water supply by the city for multiple purposes. The outcome of this is that most of the children found themselves in a situation where they were exposed to high levels of lead, which indeed would have serious impacts on their health.
On the question of compensation due to the contamination, the state and federal governments have brought to floor serious disagreements on which particular government ought to take responsibility for the contamination. However, an analysis of the issue indicates that the State Government of Michigan ought to take responsibility for the contamination and seek to compensate the residents. The state government was responsible for the decision to shift supply of water coming into the city from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to Flint River. The ultimate impact of the decision was that the city residents within Flint City were exposed to high levels of lead. Thus, this means that the state government ought to take the responsibility of having to compensate the city residents.
On the other hand, it is equally important to take note of the fact that the federal government must also take part of the responsibility towards compensation of the victims. The federal government has the responsibility of providing state governments with policy frameworks touching on different areas associated with service delivery to the public. One of these areas is water supply where the federal government has created a strict guideline that state governments must follow in their bid to delivering water to residents. In the case of Flint City, the federal government failed in its bid to enforcing this particular guideline, which was a key issue of concern for majority of the public governance stakeholders involved in this particular issue. The federal government ought to take focused on engaging with the state government in a bid to ensuring that the set out guidelines have been followed with due diligence as a way of ensuring that the residents are protected from issues such as contamination. From that view, it is clear that the federal government ought to take part of the blame for the occurrence of the contamination.
Summary
The Flint water crisis resulted from the decision to shift water source within Flint, Michigan from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to Flint River. On the other hand, the city managers within Flint City failed in their bid to adopting effective approaches that would help towards promoting effective water treatment before supply to the residents. The outcome of this is that the city residents were exposed to water supply that was high with lead contamination. The demographic most affected by the crisis was the children considering that over 8,000 children were exposed to high levels of lead from the water supply.
References
Delaney, A. (2016). How Flint’s Water Got Poisonous: The government missed a LOT of red flags . Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-flint-water-got-poisonous_us_569907f5e4b0b4eb759e1426
Dingle, A. (2016). The Flint Water Crisis: What's Really Going On? Retrieved from https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/2016-2017/december-2016/flint-water-crisis.html
Nelson, L. (2016). The Flint water crisis, explained . Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2016/2/15/10991626/flint-water-crisis
