The drinking water network of the city of Flint, in Michigan, had been contaminated with a change of source of supply in 2014. A decision taken by the Republican Governor of the time to make Savings.
Le Monde with AFP
An American court, Wednesday, November 10, the final approval in the payment of more than $ 600 million to victims poisoned by the city’s drinking water network contamination, one of the city. one of the Worst health scandals in the United States.
“The agreement concluded here is a great success for many reasons, one of them being that it establishes a consistent comprehensive compensation program and timetable for each eligible person,” said the judge. a Michigan court, Judith Levy, in his decision.
The Agreement which provides for compensation of $ 626 million to victims, to be paid widely by the state of Michigan, was announced in August 2020, after grass negotiations that lasted eighteen months.
As the judicial document specifies, these funds are primarily intended for children of this former industrial city, which has become a symbol of social injustices in the United States, but also adults that can provide evidence of diseases related to their lead contamination.
The tragedy had been provoked by the Governor’s decision (Republican at the time) of Michigan to change in 2014 the source of water supply of the city, as a measure of economy.
“Environmental racism”
The acidic and polluted water of the local river, preferred with the pure water of the nearby Lake Huron, has gnawed the pipelines of the distribution network, exposing the inhabitants to Saturnism. Some 18,000 to 20,000 children lived in Flint at the time of this dramatic pollution.
Many FLINT residents continue today to drink bottled water, even if the distribution network is lake again and that lead pipes have been mostly replaced.
Lead poisoning Thousands of Flint children threatens to have catastrophic consequences for their health for decades. At least 12 people are also deducted from the legionnaire disease, an infection caused by the initial contamination of water.
For many, Flint’s poisoned water scandal illustrates “environmental racism” at work in the United States. This term refers to the disproportionate exposure of African Americans to pollutants in air, water or soil.
Some 57% of Flint’s 100,000 inhabitants are black and more than a third live below the poverty line.