I read today that residents in Flint Michigan who have refused to pay their water bills are receiving foreclosure notices from the city water department. Can you imagine this? The water department commits a criminal act against its residents by sending them poisoned water, and now intends to foreclose on homeowner mortgages if the injured parties do not pay the water bill.
I have called for the establishment of a National Water Policy and the creation of a Director or Czar of the nation’s water. This is a prime example of why we face continued water issues unless every American is more involved with our water. Clearly, the scope of managing and fixing our water challenges is too large to be handled by municipalities. Also, as we see over and over again, many municipal water entities, faced with profitability and cash flow problems, are all too-willing to evade safety measures and put our health and safety at risk.
The general rise in lawlessness and misbehavior by so many people is part of the blame for what is happening to our water. We spend too much of our tax dollars on law enforcement, theft, lawsuits and destruction, simply because of the increasing misbehavior in society.
Enter Flint as my example. On one hand the pipes must be replaced. On the other hand you can’t blame people for not feeling obliged to pay for water that is poison. Meanwhile the local utility can’t fix the problem without revenue that can only come from billing the water users. It is a never ending “chicken or the egg” dilemma. Without a National Water Policy and Director, we will continue to be unprepared for water problems, we will not have a funding mechanism in place to fix problems when they arise, and worst of all, we will not change our behavior which will lead to increasing water problems in the future.
FLINT WATER CAUSING HOME FORECLOSURES
