Hailey & Niya

text by hailey zimmerman • artwork by niya bush

Flint Water Crisis

We never knew how much running water impacted our lives until it got taken away from us. The use of our sinks and showers got taken away. Water bottles are used for everything now, from cooking to washing our bodies. We had no idea the water we consumed every day was poison; the water was killing us, and we had no clue.

Sometimes we stand in line for hours for our water to get a checked to see if we had lead in our water. Some are saying “no” to people on their lead levels, and the others hear “yes” and they give them a free water filter. Some of the filters didn’t even work to purify the lead from the sinks. Free water signs started to pop up around Flint. On Sunday after church, people stayed after to hand out water in their parking lot.
The hashtag Justice For Flint flooded the internet but a few weeks later? No one talked about it. Our water is still contaminated, and our government still don’t seem to care.

Flint water crisis seems to be a joke to some, but do they see that people are dying from this? Do they see that people struggle every day to cook, clean and bathe with a water bottle? I wish people would see my city and want to help us and not make racist, disrespectful, ignorant jokes about the water.