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Flint, Detroit
Read aguanomics http://www.aguanomics.com/ for the world’s best analysis of the politics and economics of water Someone asked my opinion on the sitation in Flint on twitter. Here’s my longer response.
The problem can be traced to a combination of:
- An underfunded, shrinking system (from 45k HH in 1999 to 36k in 2011 [pdf])
- Old pipes/underserviced network (30% NRW!)
- A switch of water supplies that changed pipe chemistry and increased lead leaching
- Managers who are too indifferent, incompetent or overworked to run the system.
Now it seems that the people there face a future of bottled water while waiting for $1.5-$2 billion of spending to replace all the cities pipes.
This is a farce in one of America’s most poor and violent cities (thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Moore)
I thus suggest that the people of Flint be paid $50,000/household (that’s about $2 billion) to move tothe neighboring city Detroit, where property is cheap, it’s possible to move neighborhoods “intact”* and the water department is desperately seeking customers.
Bottom Line: Let’s make lemonade! Move the people from Flint to Detroit so they can drink the water, communites intact, and strengthen a “better” city.
* NB: Some people benefitted from their flight from dysfunctional neighborhoods in New Orleans, so it may not be the best idea to keep “violent poor” neighborhoods intact, but you can see the political drawbacks of such an opinion.
Source: http://www.aguanomics.com/2016/01/flint-michigan.html
