[Sixstrings]

Detroit has cut off the water supply to thousands of residents – and now activists have taken their fight to the UN

In March, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced that it would start cutting off the services of homes, schools and businesses that were at least 60 days overdue or more than $150 behind.

It said it wanted to start recouping $118million owed from unpaid bills and that a fierce approach was needed to coax money from delinquent accounts, which make up almost half of the city’s total.

The move, in which as many as 3,000 properties were expected to be cut off each week, has outraged campaigners.

The Blue Planet Project, an organisation promoting access to clean water, last week submitted a critical report to Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on its resolution for the right to safe drinking water and sanitation.

In its letter to the UN, campaigners denounce officials in the bankrupt city for apparently eyeing up privatisation opportunities as part of a “savage austerity regime,” while also calling on the city to abandon the measures.

The group, in cooperation with the Detroit People’s Water Board and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organisation (MWRO), says that it “fears that authorities see people’s unpaid water bills as a ‘bad debt’ and want to sweeten the pot for a private investor by imposing even more of the costs of the system on those least able to bear them.”

The activists say that some of those affected were given no time to prepare for cut offs and that in some cases accounts had been suspended before the deadline for payment had passed.

“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,” the letter pleads, as it estimates that as many as 30,000 households will be subject to the move by the end of summer.

The cut offs come as part of a further money-generating scheme by the Detroit City Council , which announced earlier this month that it is expected to hike water bills by more than $5 per month – an increase of 8.7 per cent.

Officials say that the cash is needed to provide repairs to the ageing water system, the Detroit Free Press reported, as well as plug the gap that unpaid bills have left.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/detroit-cuts-off-water-to-thousands-of-residents-as-activists-plead-with-un-for-help-withttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/detroit-cuts-off-water-to-thousands-of-residents-as-activists-plead-with-un-for-help-with-human-rights-abuse-9556171.htmlh-human-rights-abuse-9556171.html

I actually used to work for a privatized water company.

I can vouch for the fact that they aren't like county water -- the private ones cut corners. Have boil water water notices going out all the time. And, they cut the water off faster than a county water utility does.

Privatized water is just a bad idea. Money that should be going into maintenance and safety and water quality gets siphoned off for profits and big executive pay checks. I actually saw this with my own eyes -- the corner cutting, for profit, and less safe water. Some things like water just shouldn't be privatized.

I don't know how it is in Michigan, but in my state when we'd cut the water off, there really was no help available and no state programs or anything. We had a list of local charity phone numbers that were given out. Problem there though was that the charities would only pay maybe $50, but these people would be in the hole for hundreds of dollars by the time they're cut off.

Most of the people cut off were single women, working mothers, with kids. So that is a bit of a problem there -- these are families getting water cut off and there is no specific government welfare or program to help with that particular issue, water, yet water is so important (obviously).

Priavtized water is just too brutal, they're out to make profit, the water isn't as safe, public water is generally better (my opinion).

Detroit is a special problem being half abandoned and falling apart. People do need to pay their water bill, but also government (state and federal) should have done something for Detroit by now, it's a major city that's just gone apocalypse and crumbling like there was a war or something.

So it's not as simple as just saying "they need to pay their water bill." And shutting of 30,000 families is a human rights issue, and in the United States there actually is no welfare or anything that covers something like this.

State of Michigan needs to step in on that one, you can't just shut off 30,000 households with elderly and children, and again, federal gov should have done something about Detroit already by now.

[Sixstrings]

Nice to see the racial posts removed.

Here's the honest truth: the problem is not that Detroit has black folks.

The problem is that the jobs left Detroit. Black folks in Detroit used to have factories to go to work in, paying living wages, and then George Bush sr and Bill Clinton and Al Gore sent all the jobs to China and Mexico.

So that's what happened. Federal government did this to Detroit. So the feds should be doing something big to fix Detroit.

At least offer relocations. Actually pay people and set them up in an apartment and some startup cash to just go off to Texas or somewhere that has some jobs. Is that such a bad idea? That actually helped with the poverty in New Orleans. Government paid for relocation to Texas, and the people got jobs, so that worked out.

If a place like Detroit is just a shell and falling apart and it's government that sent all the jobs away, then you can't just leave the people there abandoned. If they can't afford water then they can't afford to get out either.

[Outsailing]

The problem is that the jobs left Detroit. Black folks in Detroit used to have factories to go to work in, paying living wages, and then George Bush sr and Bill Clinton and Al Gore sent all the jobs to China and Mexico.

My Ford was built in Mexico. Seems to me that while NAFTA supporters might have made it possible, good old fashioned corporations in Detroit were the ones who decided that it was far better for them to pay the Mexicans instead of Americans...of any color...in Detroit.

So that's what happened. Federal government did this to Detroit. So the feds should be doing something big to fix Detroit.

Unlike Government Motors, the Fed doesn't own Ford. And they are the ones who decided where to build their cars, and because they aren't owned by the Fed, can choose to keep doing what they are doing I suppose.

To some extent, it makes me a little nervous, even suggesting to bring those job backs to save a failed city (I am not wholly of the mind that the trouble is just lack of jobs, look at Pittsburgh post steel, and Denver post oil and gas), because I also have recently owned a Ford made in Michigan. And there is a difference between the quality of assembly in them, and it isn't favorable to Michigan folks.

At least offer relocations.

Offer African Americans a one way ticket to Mexico? I'm sure you'll find support for that position, but not necessarily from people you want agreeing with you.

Actually pay people and set theam up in an apartment and some startup cash to just go off to Texas or somewhere that has some jobs. Is that such a bad idea? That actually helped with the poverty in New Orleans. Government paid for relocation to Texas, and the people got jobs, so that worked out.

How about shipping folks off to North Dakota? Talk about a reasonable solution....North Dakota needs the workers, those in Detroit who really want to work can be provided all they can handle and with good wages to boot.

If a place like Detroit is just a shell and falling apart and it's government that sent all the jobs away, then you can't just leave the people there abandoned. If they can't afford water then they can't afford to get out either.

Of course you can abandon the people. Look at Appalachia. Farming communities across Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas. The oil and gas drilling folks in the 80's. Abandoning people is something the government does very well, be it the residents near Hanford or Love Canal, the workers of Rocky Mountain Flats, soldiers and Agent Orange or the VA and veterans.

[Quinny]

Thankyou for removing the racist posts.

[Pops]

Offer African Americans a one way ticket to Mexico? I'm sure you'll find support for that position, but not necessarily from people you want agreeing with you.

LOL

Six doesn't get it, we ain't going back to good old 1962, not in a good way anyway. Even aside from the whole energy problem around which this site revolves, the ownership was successful in it's war with labor by simply eliminating US jobs - poof! no more pesky labor problems and contracts and middle class wages. Ditto environmental regs and those bothersome taxes that allowed the 1% to say "we built that." Who needs all that when the world is a corporate oyster?

Here are a couple of links bound to get you on one or more lists somewhere, the first is an general article by Andrew Marshal on global inequality and the second is to another terrorist site talking about Detroit water.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/06/world ... -report-2/
http://www.occupy.com/article/detroit-w ... man-rights



P.S. we got rid of the racist posts and the poster, finally.
.

[Newfie]

I can't help but think that maybe someday we will migration from San Diego and Vegas to Detroit. It's not that Detroit doesn't have water, they just can't afford it. With the prolonged SW drought Detroit may come into its own again.

[Pops]

Google
"move to detroit"
include the quotes

[Sixstrings]

I can't help but think that maybe someday we will migration from San Diego and Vegas to Detroit. It's not that Detroit doesn't have water, they just can't afford it. With the prolonged SW drought Detroit may come into its own again.

Ha, good point, they've got plenty water! The gov is just too messed up to pump it!

So that's my whole point that this isn't a fundamentally broken place. It was a good spot centuries ago when the French put a fort there. It'll always be a good spot, geographically, water wise and climate.

It was NAFTA and federal gov action that just took a massive sucker punch to Detroit and Michigan and places like Flint.

It's like a chernobyl. You can't have a federal gov doing that and then just walking away.

It's the same if we ever decided to ban coal, for climate change -- federal gov would be responsible to do something to REPLACE that industry in appalachia. Such massive things coming down from federal decisions are just too much for an area to recover from, on its own.

Detroit is just a special case. It's an embarassment, fodder for Russian and British papers about how much we're falling apart over here. Feds should have done something, now it's worse and reported to the UN special rappateur for poor 3rd worlders who got no water -- is that not embarassing?

[Sixstrings]

See, this is just embarassing. Now the UN rappateurs or whatever they are have responded.

Now we've got an American city on the darn United Nations web page for human rights abuses.

GENEVA (25 June 2014) – Three UN experts* on the human rights to water and sanitation, adequate housing, and extreme poverty and human rights expressed concern Wednesday about reports of widespread water disconnections in the US city of Detroit of households unable to pay water bills. “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” the experts said.

“Disconnections due to non-payment are only permissible if it can be shown that the resident is able to pay but is not paying. In other words, when there is genuine inability to pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections,” said Catarina de Albuquerque, the expert on the human right to water and sanitation.

The experts have been informed that a large-scale water shut-off for non-payment is happening in the City of Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has been disconnecting water services from households which have not paid bills for two months, and has accelerated the process since early June, with the number of disconnections rising to around 3,000 customers per week. As a result, some 30,000 households are expected to be disconnected from water services over the next few months.

Because of a high poverty rate and a high unemployment rate, relatively expensive water bills in Detroit are unaffordable for a significant portion of the population.

Leilani Farha, the expert on the right to adequate housing, expressed concern that children are being removed by social services from their families and homes because, without access to water, their housing is no longer considered adequate. “If these water disconnections disproportionately affect African Americans they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties the US has ratified,” Farha added.

“When I conducted an official country mission to the US in 2011, I encouraged the US Government to adopt a federal minimum standard on affordability for water and sanitation and a standard to provide protection against disconnections for vulnerable groups and people living in poverty. I also urged the Government to ensure due process guarantees in relation to water disconnection,” said de Albuquerque, renewing her call to the federal Government to take action.

According to international human rights law, it is the State’s obligation to provide urgent measures, including financial assistance, to ensure access to essential water and sanitation. “The households which suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected,” the experts said.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14777&LangID=E

Bottom line: we're too far right in this country and we get crazy things like this popping up.

We need more moderate, sensible government, like a Canada or Australia. We need more working class policies -- like living wages -- AND THEN FOLKS could pay the darn water bill (duh).

If we have 3rd world wages and 3rd world poverty, then our country is going to look like the 3rd world.

And we have to control the border too, so the whole 3rd world doesn't just move here.

Lots of things that should be done, but aren't, so we just continue to drift to an oligarchy state where the 1% have it all and it's just a big mess of poverty for the lower masses. With no jobs. Can't even pay the water bill.

And the UN is right -- this is a human right. Providing water is about public SANITATION, for starters, you can't have 30,000 households with no water. This has always been the #1 job of a government, to provide water whether people can pay for it or not, it's been like that since ancient Rome.

You aren't a civilized place if you can't provide water.

[Sixstrings]

Six, Russia isn't falling apart?

We're starting to look a lot like Russia, as time goes on. Oligarchs. And more extreme poverty.

Sochi had stray dogs running amok, and Detroit does too. Working and middle class Europeans are better off than either Russians or Americans.

We just need a *little* more socialism, nothing crazy, just a bit like Canada is all and we'd have a nicer looking country for it and it's actually what the real economy needs. Living wages and cash in working people's pockets. Not welfare, living wages.

OTOH, people do need to migrate to where jobs are.

Workers came up to Detroit from the South, in the first place, because Detroit had all these factory jobs. Jobs are gone now so they'll have to migrate somewhere else or somebody has to build an economy in Detroit again.

There's got to be something government can do about it. I think relocation assistance is a good idea. If people knew there are jobs in North Dakota, and you've got a gov office promoting that and offering bus tickets and housing, that would help.

Every city and county already has a local job center. But what good is that if there ain't no jobs. What you really need is to connect job centers into an itner-state jobs bank and get people migrating, or at least the option.

Detroit needs to be either built up or cleared out, but shutting the water off and making a katrina isn't the right way to do that.

[Sixstrings]

RT, of course, is all over this like white on rice:

Cutting off water to Detroit's poor 'an affront to human rights,' says UN


volunteers with Grandmont Rosedale's Vacant Property Task Force take note of illegal debris behind a vacant house in the North Rosedale neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan
http://rt.com/usa/168992-united-nations-detroit-water-cutoff/

And RT has 9 other negative Detroit stories on the sidebar, with lots of America in collapse pictures :

Interesting article about cops in Detroit having to buy their own uniforms.

Anyhow, what RT won't say is that Russians are worse off than Americans, but Europeans and Canadians and Aussies do things better domestically than either we or Russia does.

Meanwhile, the whole world has Russian oligarchs buying $6 and $30 and $80 million dollar condos in their party towns.

Lot of people in Russia want to see some money spent on social services too, and not just going for oligarchs and the military. Siberia is a big huge Appalachia-style mess, but RT will never report on that.

Just making a note here about propaganda in general -- it's not the whole truth. Only pockets of America look like Detroit. But we can do BETTER -- we could do more to look like a Canada -- and all it would take is doubling the minimum wage to make up for not raising it to keep up for inflation, over the last 30 darn years.

[Outsailing]

But we can do BETTER -- we could do more to look like a Canada -- and all it would take is doubling the minimum wage to make up for not raising it to keep up for inflation, over the last 30 darn years.

Doubling the minimum wage to subsidize those not earning more isn't much of a solution, and would cause a secondary reaction in the 1.1-2.5X wage market, as suddenly people with more marketable than minimum wage skills would all need bumps as well. Let alone those who have college degrees and see this rising tide only helping out the lower end, and them now not having the relative gap they have worked and trained their lives to achieve.

Subsidizing something creates more of it, so we end up with more bottom end jobs, which pay better at least early until the inflationary pulse flows through the system.

[evilgenius]

Is it really true that things like NAFTA have sent jobs away? You can say that, but at the same time that jobs started opening up in the third world other changes were also taking place in America that can also receive blame. For one thing, the type of work available had to change because technology had forever changed the nature of what a person working in America could be expected to do and receive a substantial wage for. Turning the same wrench all day on a line would soon have less efficacy in the face of such changes.

It's very Marxist to believe that people should just receive a wage based upon value being derived from the changes or inputs that their labor brings to a product or service being offered for sale, the key point being offered for sale. A sale still has to happen. A good or service trades in its own market. Whatever "value" that labor has added has no influence there.

What we have failed to do in America is to foresee and plan for our collective futures. Instead of reforming education so that it faces the new technological world we have tried to bandage the 'built to put people into factories' educational system of the 20th Century. Things like Common Core are just another extension of those actions, so is 'No Child Left Behind' and standardized testing. Instead of raising up an entire generation of entrepreneurs with the ability to think on their feet and meet new challenges we have instead got a bucket full of rusty nuts and bolts who serve no useful purpose to go with our rust belt economies.

And the one area of our economy where jobs have grown since the 70's, management, has fared no better. In the wake of the changes that technology has brought management has grown in usefulness and purpose. The problem here is that it has labored under a misbegotten philosophical scheme. Management labors under the idea that it exists to maximize and deliver value to shareholders. In adopting this attitude, however, they fall like Adam in the garden. Business is in business in order to provide goods or services in response to demand. They are in business to meet demand. Therefore, recognizing demand is the primary activity of management. All of its energy should be organized around that, not around extracting wealth.

The value that labor can add is also recognized here, insofar as labor can respond to or help create demand. Management's fascination with returning value to shareholders has taken their eyes off of the value that labor has to engage in marketing, stimulating demand, or to increase productivity, responding to demand. Instead all of the cost of labor is treated as an expense against which value returned to shareholders has to be reckoned. Cookie cutter 20th Century assembly line attitudes toward labor leave no room to recognize individual contributions toward stimulating demand at the level normally considered that of the worker, so they don't properly incentivize people to provide the same. Equally, shops where management is so poor as to strangulate labor with bad wage or organizational decisions are the least likely to be able to respond to increased demand, should it happen. If you don't plan for it to happen you are just admitting that you are not a going concern in any longer term picture.

What these things, and many others have done is to excoriate the idea that we are all in this together. These ideas disassemble us as cohesive units of society and mind. They disallow our individual contributions and creativity and foster attitudes centered around how much pay we can make because that's all we have left rather than the joy we can take from work done in better context. In light of this the answer for the water issue in Detroit is means testing and debt forgiveness or rapprochement. Simply cutting people off is like cutting parts of your body off to lose weight. Failure to examine their debts and either forgive or restructure them is equally alienating. It sets a standard in a new paradigm that no one can meet. Where is the society in that?

[timmac]

Detroit is one big welfare state, Obama voters everyone of them and they get what they deserve..