A Tale of Two Cities
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- Опубликовано: 22 янв 2018
- A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of two very different Michigan communities-picturesque, small town Evart and gritty, industrial Flint- who have found their futures inextricably linked by a threat to the one thing that all life requires: water.
The film explores the growing threat of water privatization and what happens when the government runs a critical function, like providing clean drinking water, as if it were a business.
After years of progressively damaging cost-cutting measures that favor corporate interests throughout the state of Michigan, Flint's water crisis made international news. Four years later, many still rely on bottled water for their everyday needs and have some of the highest water rates in the country.
Despite the state's failure to protect its people's access to water in Flint -- and its intentional deprivation of water to thousands in Detroit -- the multinational corporation Nestlé nets massive profits from of the state's abundant water sources. Nestle pumps mere hours away from Flint, outside of Evart, paying only a $200 annual permit fee and nothing for the water itself.
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Additional Sources:
“Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For” Bloomberg Businessweek
The company’s operation in Michigan reveals how it’s dominated the industry by going into economically depressed areas with lax water laws.
www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...
“Nestlé pays $200 a year to bottle water near Flint - where water is undrinkable” The Guardian
While Flint battles a water crisis, just two hours away the beverage giant pumps almost 100,000 times what an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottles.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...
“Neoliberalism’s Deadly Experiment” Jacobin
In Michigan, privatization and free-market governance has left 100,000 people without water.
www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/wa...
“Michigan’s new water battle: How much of it should Nestle bottle?” The Christian Science Monitor
The company says pumping more groundwater won’t hurt the environment. But public opposition is significant, amplified in part by the Flint crisis. www.csmonitor.com/Environment...
“The State of Public Water in the United States” Food & Water Watch (pdf)
Food & Water Watch also conducted a comprehensive survey of the water rates of the 500 largest U.S. community water systems and found that large for-profit privately owned systems charged 59 percent more than large publicly owned systems.
www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sit...
“Events that led to Flint’s water crisis” The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...
“In Detroit, Nestle holds private roundtable on future of water” MLive
www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2...
“Town appeals Nestle water pump plans in west Michigan” The Detroit News
www.detroitnews.com/story/news...
“Flint water crisis criminal prosecutions: Where things stand now” Michigan Radio
michiganradio.org/post/flint-w...
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It's crazy to see people are still buying bottled water from these companies without need for it.
just as crazy as the fact that people live where bottled water is the only clean choice. It's not like the Michigan government is incapable of fixing the pipes, it's that it isn't a big concern for them. Or they would have done it ages ago.
I live in Flint and the city has hired 3 contractors to change every service line in the city where houses are occupied. The corrosion inhibitor is now in treated water and many homes are testing below the EPA maximum for lead. In fact, 71 Michigan cities have been shown to have greater lead levels than Flint.
This "tale" left me with more questions than answers. Perhaps, being Canadian, I wasn't as familiar with Flint's situation so read up on it a bit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis. A pity that millions of plastic water bottles that Flint's citizens were forced to use during this period will be adding to the plastics waste problem. And down the road in Evart, Nestle probably benefited.
Nestle is horrible.
where are all the environmental lawyers that have the guts to challenge these corporations, like Nestle', run amok?
Hi! can you do a "Story of Happy People Index" ? Thanks!
Stay strong Flint. Evil never wins.
why do they buy tiny bottles??
seriously why would they spend the $1.50 to fill up a reusable 5 gallon bottle.
Im asking if they buy prepackaged the why the small size? why not 1.5- or 5 liter?
They don't buy them, she said they were given out as 'rations.' So I guess they have no choice in whats size they get.
Hello :)
where are the younger generation?
If singing, talking, and protesting got nothing done since 2015 (while another city gets threatened), then it won't get anything done in 2018, 19, 20, or 21.
If the water is contaminated, why are they paying for it? Can't they cancel the service? If the water company refuses to cancel they can just stop paying the bill. If they only have the water on for toilet use then maybe they can catch rain water and store it for flushing. Maybe the rain water will be clean enough to drink.
Then they are buying bottled water from the very people that stole the water from them.