John Conyers
Is access to one of life's most basic elements -- water -- a privilege or a right?
Congressman John Conyers is jumping into that debate and plans to fight Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's big push to shut off water to those with delinquent bills. He says it's inhumane.
“Detroit’s water crisis did not happen in a vacuum,” Conyers said in a statement issued Tuesday night, according to a report by Katrease Stafford of the Detroit Free Press. "Over the past decade, Detroiters have seen their water rates increase by 119 percent. Over this same period, forces beyond city residents’ control — including a global financial crisis that left one in five local residences in foreclosure and sent local unemployment rates skyrocketing — severely undercut Detroiters’ ability to pay.”
The Freep reports that Conyers plans to develop solutions to address the crisis, including requesting federal emergency relief. His statements come just days after a coalition of welfare rights organizations asked United Nations to intervene and help keep the water flowing for customers.
Conyers called the shutoffs “economically short-sighted” and plans to introduce legislation to protect access to water during the city’s bankruptcy proceedings, the Freep reports.
The Freep reports:
The department announced in March that it was resuming efforts to shut off water service to more than 150,000 delinquent customers in order to collect nearly $118 million in outstanding bills. The department said it would target customers whose bills are more than two months late and would shut off about 3,000 customers a week.
Detroit officials said they're trying to limit the shutoffs, and noted that 60 percent of the customers who received shutoff notices paid their bills within 24 hours.
The coalition of welfare rights organizations issued a report this month that stated:
“Sick people have been left without running water and working toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe and parents cannot cook.”
