The adorable little girl represents little girls from Flint, Michigan. She has beautiful, bright eyes with a gorgeous puff of kinky and curly locks and is Black. She is intelligent and outspoken. You may have seen her in memes on social media showing her with a terrified face next to Republican Presidential Candidate Trump and a bright smile with President Obama.
Besides representing all of the little girls at flint who are intelligent with potential and brightness, Little Miss Flint also represents the children suffering from lead poisoning and skin irritations. The problem with Flint's water is what Little Miss Flint and her family regularly protest against. In case you didn't know, Flint has been suffering from a water crisis for the past 2 years. Her family has been actively advocating for the correction of Flint's water crisis.
In 2014, Flint decided that they could save $200 Million by switching their water sources. However, it would be a while before they could totally switch over to the new source. Flint administration decided that the best temporary fix would be the Flint River which hadn't been used since the 50's. Needless to say, that should have been a warning. There is a reason why things changed from the river. However, the former mayor, Payne Walling, assured everyone that there was nothing to worry about. For whatever reason, it never occurred to officials to treat or test the water that would be used by over 90,000 residents. Instead, they sent the water out to homes and families. They didn't realize something was wrong with it until E. Coli and coliform was detected.
Problems continued to arise with the water. The government offices sent employees home with bottled water after it violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in January of 2015. The incredibly high amount of disinfection byproducts was the violation. However, the state still provided bottled water to government employees even after the levels of disinfection byproduct went back to normal. All the while, no Flint residents had ever received notifications and warnings about the water.
Virginia Tech decided to test the water for lead and the results were positively staggering. Lead levels of Flint water were at 13,200 PPB. Don't know what that means. Well, water at lead levels of 5,000 PPB is considered hazardous waste. Yup, the water has over twice as much lead as hazardous waste. I know. You're probably thinking that it was at this point that they sent out warnings. Nope, they denied Virginia Tech's research and testing as "not conclusive".
Meanwhile, children like Little Miss Flint were ingesting this water and suffering from lead poisoning city-wide. Lead poisoning in children can lead to the following problems; developmental delay, learning difficulties, vomiting and hearing loss. Those are just a few. Yup, it wasn't until September of 2015 when they decided to send out warnings and advising people to use water filters, which is interesting when more than 41% of the population is low-income and probably can't afford water filters or leaving a city that didn't even think to warn them earlier about lead poisoning.
So what is our government doing about the poisoning of over 90,000 people? Well, a year after the warning was sent out to residents senate passed approved legislation to spend $270 Million on aiding Flint in its water crisis. Still, it will be a long time before is carried out and water infrastructure will be fixed. A community of people will continue to be affected by a tragedy that could have easily been prevented if the water was tested. It's too late at this point. All we can do as people is help these people live their lives by helping families get the water they need. If you want to support the people of Flint, please donate to the links below:
CONVOY OF HOPE RESPONDS TO WATER CRISIS IN FLINT
Catholic Charities Of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties
The United Way of Genesee County Flint Water Fund
Flint Water Crisis Response – Foundation for Flint
Save The Children - Flint Water Crisis
Little Miss Flint's Social Media
Lead-Laced Water In Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings Of A Crisis
Flint, Michigan: Did race and poverty factor into water crisis?
