How can the National Guard help Flint’s water crisis?

Michigan National Guard members were set to arrive in Flint as soon as Wednesday to join door-to-door efforts to distribute bottled water and other supplies to residents coping with the city’s crisis over lead-contaminated drinking water.

Though the water sourced from Detroit is considerably cleaner, public health officials are still concerned that the year of drawing water from the Flint River may have left residual lead in the pipes.

City and state officials have come under fire from residents for the perceived slow response to the water supply crisis. MI governor Rick Snyder announced the Guard units’ activation on Tuesday, as protesters chanted calls for his resignation. Five days later, the state began handing out bottled water.

Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said it was investigating the lead contamination of Flint’s water and Snyder declared a state of emergency in Genesee County, which includes Flint, authorizing additional state resources to address health and safety issues. “However, we also need federal assistance as we continue to cope with this man-made water disaster”. Flint residents, many of whom live at or below the poverty line, are still being billed for the water that’s poisoning their kids.

In 47 percent of the cases, the water source at the primary residence was from the Flint River.

A Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in western IL last summer that killed 12 and sickened dozens was likely spread by an aging water system at a 129-year-old facility that lacked several safeguards, The Associated Press reported last month based on a federal report. The water was later discovered to be corrosive with the river leaching lead from old pipes into residents’ homes. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities and behavioural problems in children. The agency’s director stepped down last month.

In October, testing revealed increased lead levels in water supplies and in children’s blood.

“We need to focus on improving Flint for the longer term”, Snyder said in a statement.

On Tuesday, braving cold temperatures and 3ins (7.62cm) of snow, eight teams of volunteers fanned out across the city under the escort of state troopers and sheriff’s deputies to deliver bottled water, filters and lead test kits. It is important to remember that this crisis was created by a state-appointed emergency financial manager, and it is the state’s ultimate responsibility to act and make it right.