Detroit Cuts Water Service To Thousands Who Can t Afford To Pay with Demeeko Williams, Detroit Water Brigade and Tom Stephens, Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management
This is everybody's fight, water is a human right! the protesters chanted. In recent weeks, activists in Detroit have mobilized against the city's efforts to cut off the water supply to 120,000 delinquent accounts, or over 300,000 city residents. From June until September, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) will be cutting off citizens' water supply at a rate of 3,000 per week. According to the DWSD, 4,500 households have already been turned off. Further, in the past ten years Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 percent. The city council just last month approved an 8.7 percent rate increase. Many believe the rate hikes and imminent shut-offs are an attempt by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevin Orr to make the DWSD more appealing to potential investors in a bid to privatize the city's utilities. As news of the water shut offs spread the United Nations issued a statement last week that said that the city's plan "constitutes a violation of the human right to water." *************** Scenes from an Endless Dinner in Detroit Part 1 by Kate Levy
Levy provides background and analysis of Detroit's bankruptcy crisis by presenting misconceptions about Detroit as well as the logic some local activists bring to the table.
produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
please email us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org
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