Dozens of businesses have been closed and the houses abandoned since the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began a year and a half ago. Flint is now receiving aid from places around country, including Bowling Green.
Students from the University and the University of Toledo traveled to Flint Feb. 13 to donate over 100 cases of water to the Lincoln Park Methodist Church in Flint.
The church is a water resource center, which provide cases of water, water filter units and replacement filters, according to the church.
Four organizations in the Bowling Green community were part of the process in donating the water: Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and the recently re-chartered University NAACP chapter.
Throughout the first few weeks of February, NAACP and other organizations had tables in the Union where people donated money or water to send to Flint. The students involved in the organizations also put in their own resources.
“A lot of us personally donated water to Flint. (Individuals) sent in 8 cases, 10 cases or even put in 20 bucks – everybody did something for this to happen,” Bryce Davis, the treasurer of NAACP at the University, said. “It’s very great and humbling to be able to do something like this. It’s going to save lives.”
Betty Grossklaus, the pianist at the Flint Methodist Church, sent out a statement giving her thanks to the students and the University.
“As a representative of Lincoln Park United Methodist Church, we send a big heartfelt ‘thank you’ with deep gratitude to the students involved in this unselfish mission to be a part of the ongoing solution of making sure that safe drinking water is available to those that may not otherwise have it,” Grossklaus wrote in an email. “Being a Flint, Michigan, resident, it is exciting to see all of those that so willingly want to give up their time, no matter the distance they need to travel.”
The four organizations at Bowling Green plan to hold another water drive soon to hopefully go door to door in Flint handing out cases of water.
Water problems began when the Flint city government changed their water source from the Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money.
“When I heard that they switched the water sources I stopped using the tap water, everyone knows the (Flint) river is nasty,” Grossklaus said.
Soon after the switch, tap water began to smell and taste odd and look brown, as the untreated water corroded the iron water mains, according to a CNN article. Lead from pipes around Flint also got into the water, which had not been treated with an anti-corrosive agent, the article said.
The contaminated tap water means residents must drink bottled water to avoid health risks from lead poisoning.
“We went through 15,000 to 20,000 bottles of water and that was just this weekend alone,” Grossklaus said.
Plans are being put in place to replace the lead water pipes that currently run through the town and to begin treating the water, but the long-term health consequences from lead poisoning will remain.
