Michigan Bottlers Still Get Free Water, Despite Governor’s Tough Talk
When Gretchen Whitmer campaigned for #Michigan governor in 2018, she took aim at Michigan’s bottled #water industry — and the state policy that gave it unfettered access to free water.
Residents with their dog walk in front of a canoe sitting on a cracked ground at a Sau reservoir, as the Iberian peninsula is at its driest in 1,200 years, in Sant Roma De Sau, Spain, January 31, 2024. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
The Isanti nation (colonizer name Santee Sioux) along the border of so-called Nebraska and South Dakota has been depending on bottled water for five years. The groundwater is contaminated with manganese - which means boiling it only makes it worse. More bad news: grant funds for pallets of water for their 1,000+ relatives has run out, so the tribe is now bleeding funds - AND their supplier has been coming up both late and short on their deliveries. And it's 45 minutes to the nearest hyvee or walmart.
While the tribe fights to get funding for a pipeline to connect to clean water in south dakota, supporters have launched an emergency water drive. Collection is at the Indian Center in Lincoln, NE at 1100 Miitary Rd. Monetary donations are requested via venmo @IndianCenter or @ThreeCrows, or via paypal @BlueHeronTiospaye - label donations as "water". #indigenous#water#mutualAid
More evidence the water companies have been getting away with rubbish service as the regulator(s) that oversee water provision are either asleep at the wheel or have been 'captured' by the sector.
Now, the Drinking Water Inspectorate would (alongside OfWAT) seem to be rather reluctant to use their powers to prosecute.
If they thought a softly softly, engaging with the firms approach was a better bet, the state of England's water supply demonstrate it isn't!
@ChrisMayLA6 who is the chair of the Drinking Water Authority, I wonder? Who appointed them? Would it be the same people that privatised water in the first place, one wonders?
How do water consumers sack the board of the Drinking Water Authority? How do they elect a new board?
In this week’s Disconnect Roundup, Elon Musk has a grand (techno)fix for water shortages that includes desalination plants powered by solar with battery storage. But he forgot poor countries can’t afford it.