(2 February 2016) The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has put in sharp focus how austerity is not only ineffective at cutting costs, but is dangerous too. Following the decision of managers to switch the city’s water source to the highly corrosive local river, the 100,000-strong population have been suffering the consequences of daily exposure to toxins and poisonous lead. Hair loss, skin rashes and brittle bones are among the physical symptoms of such exposure, while bottled water and reduced showers have become the new reality for residents of this impoverished city. A recent citywide public health directive states that 8,657 of Flint’s children under the age of six are to be considered as lead-exposed. The full health effects for these youngsters and their families will not be known for years to come.
The decision to switch Flint’s drinking water source from Detroit to the Flint River in April 2014 was billed as a cost-cutting move that would save $5 million over two years. Fast forward to 2016, and the financial cost of massive lead contamination and failure to address growing concerns about Flint’s water supply is at $45 million and counting.
.However high cleanup costs must not become an excuse for privatisation of services. Communities that sell or lease their water systems to private providers pay more.
For an impoverished city with water bills that are among the highest in the US, such a move would add yet more suffering to an already struggling community. More information about the costliness and inefficiency of privatised services can be found in an EPSU-commissioned report from PSIRU.
In Flint, politicians committed to shrinking budgets gave little regard to the consequences of their decisions and grave errors were denied for a long time. Almost a year before the news of widespread lead poisoning became public, Flint’s water was declared safe by Veolia, the world's largest private water provider.
The city’s drinking supply was "in compliance with State and Federal regulations," Veolia’s report stated, and there was no mention of lead. As President Barack Obama has emphasised, Flint’s problems demonstrate why the government’s role in public safety is so crucial. “It is a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people and that we, together, provide as a government to assure the health and safety of the American public is preserved," he said. Numerous economists have underlined how austerity hurts our longer term growth and development prospects. An ILO study on “public sector shock” from 2013 has stressed this point, too. Sadly, the Flint water crisis is just one example of many countries whose public services and populations are feeling the poisonous bite of austerity across the globe. EPSU are committed to fighting the austerians who jeopardise citizens’ safety and the private companies profiting from public services sell-offs and sky high costs for the people that depend on them. The experience of Flint must not be repeated.
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