Monica Lewis-Patrick (left), of We the People Detroit, and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-13th District) speak about water as a basic human right during a Facebook Live event, following the introduction of legislation which would ban water shutoffs during the pandemic.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
“Water as a basic human right” was the focus of a Facebook Live event Jan. 28, hosted by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-13th District), along with local advocate Monica Lewis-Patrick.
Lewis-Patrick, president and CEO of “We the People of Detroit,” spoke about the need to guarantee that low-income households have access to water, following the introduction of legislation by Tlaib and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-12th District), which would ban water shutoffs during the pandemic.
Tlaib said her district has been on the front lines of the right-to-water issue during the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on low-income households.
Lewis-Patrick said communities like Detroit have been challenged by poverty, a large population of people of color, and a significant population of undocumented people, who have to navigate the challenges of unaffordable water.
“When you look at Detroit, water rates have gone up 438 percent in 20 years,” she said. “Our incomes have not kept pace with those increases.”
Lewis-Patrick said people already were struggling before COVID-19 hit.
“Since 2014, we had seen more than 181,000 shutoffs from water,” she said. “So, about 300,000 to 350,000 people at any given time have been in this city without water.”
Lewis-Patrick said the fear factor for families is the risk of losing custody of their children if they do not have running water for more than 72 hours.
“What we found was there were only a few places where they were using these very aggressive austerity measures, against communities of color – Flint and Detroit,” she said. “Then, as we went into COVID, and we saw all of this inequity play out around front line workers not being able to get their pay, to work, or get their unemployment, and we saw disparities among the inability to access technology, to be able to tap into the resources they needed, or to make an appeal to get their water restored, and so all of that injustice was landing on your most vulnerable members of your community.”
Lewis-Patrick said she saw mothers who were rationing their drinking water to have enough left to mix baby formula, and teenagers who were worried about not having enough water to wash their clothes, yet afraid to let their teachers know that they did not have water, for fear of attracting attention from Social Services personnel.
“These are the fears that we are contending with,” she said. “In Detroit, 40 percent of the population lives in abject poverty, and you are looking at them bearing the burden of an infrastructure that is providing water to 40 percent of the state of Michigan.”
Tlaib said she tells her legislative colleagues that the $1.5 billion that is in the Water is a Human Right relief bill is just the beginning, and that $4 billion is needed to address the harm, because doing nothing will cost more in the long run, and doesn’t address the unaffordability of water.
“This is happening across the country,” Tlaib said.
Lewis-Patrick said that when people don’t have water to wash their hands or flush their toilet, it to leads to poor public health.
“What we know right now, in the middle of the pandemic, is that the most critical part that is being offered to fend off this disease and the spread of this pandemic is just the basics of washing your hands in warm water, with soap, for 20 seconds,” she said. “Well, if I have no water, how can I do that?
“If we can’t provide this very basic need, the $1.5 billion that has been offered through the emergency Water is a Human Right Act is a critical life line, but it definitely doesn’t go far enough.”
Lewis-Patrick said if $200 billion can be committed to just the workforce development component of investing in water infrastructure, that will help bring people up, and it will help get people back to work, while creating equity and justice.
However, she said no part of the population should be left behind, and that rural communities need access to affordable water as well, with the common denominator being how people can afford to access existing water, which in rural areas includes wells and sub-tanks.
Lewis-Patrick said the federal government needs to stop shrinking the percentage of its budget it commits to domestic infrastructure.
“We must get every person, every elected official, every organization, to take the pledge to ensure the human right to water,” she said.
Tlaib said part of the Water is a Human Right Act would require reconnection.
“Direct assistance is critical, but we also have to require a plan to reconnect people’s access to water,” she said. “This is a huge crisis in our country, where 15 million of our neighbors, in one of the richest countries in the world, do not have access to water, and now, during this pandemic, it is even more critical for us to move with a sense of urgency.”
To learn more about the local coalition for water justice, go to wethepeopleofdetroit.com.