• 3 days ago
Five years after the people of Flint first learned their water supply was contaminated with lead, many residents still use water bottles. This is how one Flint-based musician is drawing attention to the public health crisis.

Special thanks to First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church.
Transcript
00:00We got lead inside our water, we got lead in our guns.
00:03These politicians poisoning our sons and daughters for fun.
00:06Washing my face and hands with nothing but bottled water and wipes.
00:18I'm responding to the water crisis by being involved through art culture and hip-hop.
00:24And I believe that using my music and my musical platform
00:28to bring awareness to the water crisis is my main tool.
00:32Five years ago, turning on the tap, you would see brown water, you know, rust.
00:36I wouldn't give my children the water from the faucet unfiltered.
00:40You know, water is life.
00:42So, you know, you can't really do anything without clean and proper water.
00:45We got to make sure that we stocked up on bottled water.
00:47And in order to buy bottled water, you got to have a budget for that.
00:59A typical day in the life of a citizen in Flint, Michigan,
01:02dealing with the water crisis is waking up early in the morning
01:05and making sure, checking and making sure that you got enough bottled water to bathe.
01:09We usually keep eight to ten cases of water in the kitchen area
01:12so it'd be easily accessible for cooking
01:14and doing common chores around the house and those type of things.
01:29We will not stop working for the people of Flint
01:31until every single person has clean water every single day, no matter what.
01:45The water crisis has affected me personally.
01:48I have cousins that I wouldn't visit in ICU
01:51that was affected with Legionnaire's disease.
01:53My first cousin, I watched her hooked up to a machine.
01:56I watched her hooked up to machines and tubes in her mouth and throat
02:00on the verge of dying from Legionnaire's
02:03directly because of the drinking water here in the city of Flint.
02:12The water is tested for lead, is tested for any contaminants.
02:17The process takes about five to ten minutes.
02:21And we notate on our log sheet
02:25as far as the indications that's given off of the litmus paper.
02:40Since we started this five years ago,
02:42it seems as though the residents of Flint,
02:45this whole crisis has been pushed under the rug.
02:50It's not as much talked about as it was 2014.
02:56There's a lack of trust in the city of Flint.
03:01The city was offering filters to the community and that wasn't working.
03:04So it's going to take a process.
03:06It's going to take some time for the community to feel comfortable.
03:09There's still a need for bottled water as well as the water box water.
03:14So we're supplying both needs at this point.
03:17But we're trying to wean the community off of the bottled water.
03:28Living without clean water requires a strength.
03:30I just wanted the country to know and the world to know
03:33that Flint is still suffering, but we're fighting.
03:35We're a resilient city and we're going to continue to fight
03:38until the water problem is corrected and we're back on the map in a positive light.