Fighting for a Water Affordibility Plan Water protest in Highland Park,Michigan. PHOTO /MICHIGAN WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION By Sandra Reid DETROIT — “For a decade, the Detroit community has been fighting to prevent the privatization of the city’s water,” says Ann Rall of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. “It’s hard to determine how many families are without water. The Water Department is unwilling to respond to requests for information. The number that gets thrown around is around 40,000 residential shut offs for failure to pay in 2005. In August of 2008, there were about 499,” says Rall. Nonetheless, the privatization of Detroit’s water is moving ahead. “The City of Detroit is selling its water to Coke and Pepsi. In Highland Park, Michigan, Coke built a bottling plant and is angling to take over their water system. In addition, a huge private contract was given for installation of wireless water meters. Some residents have complained that they are required to spend their own money to make their plumbing compatible. Whole blocks of homes had their water shut off when one resident was unwilling or unable to cooperate with the installation of the meters,” says Rall. The city also awarded a private contract to handle the city’s sewage for close to $47 million. (The contract is under federal investigation concerning the alleged bribery of public officials.) As a result of community pressure, in April, 2006, the Detroit City Council approved a Water Affordability Plan for families to keep their water on. But the process has been a classic example of “pseudo-democracy,” says Ann Rall. “ The administration simply refused to implement it. They created and implemented their own program, which was inadequate.” Rall says the community wants the original Water Affordability Plan implemented. “Since the City Council doesn’t have the political wherewithal to make the administration do what it voted to be done, we decided to take it to the people and get a vote that would require that the city implement this. We are trying to put two initiatives on the ballot in the general election in November, 2009,” she said. Rall said they recently learned that a part of the City Charter says no ballot initiative put forward by the people can have a bearing on the appropriation of funds. “By some people’s interpretation, the Water Affordability Plan would require that a certain amount of funds go to people who can’t afford to pay their water bill. So you can have a plan but can’t talk about how the money can be spent!” Rall said the group might try to put together a petition calling for an amendment of the City Charter. “This is a more difficult process. But people are excited about the prospect of taking on an actual amendment of the City Charter. It has an attractive possibility of building into something larger,” she said. A dedicated group is leading this fight and there is a lot of community support, says Rall. “But, people tend to get pulled in many directions because all Hell continues to break out in Detroit. On one night alone, there was a crucial meeting about a reporter who faces 10 years in prison for doing her job investigating the deaths of motorcyclists, taking photos and asking questions. Then there was a major school board meeting with the state wanting to appoint a financial manager for our School Board. People are continuing to lose their homes, and there are cuts in heat and electricity.” Rall said their next step would involve a huge effort. “We need about 7,000 signatures and the number of signatures required for an amendment of the City Charter is over 30,000. We are starting a public education campaign to get more people involved and to start collecting signatures. Once it starts we will only have 90 days to collect signatures.” This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from _http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm_ (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=De cemailfooterNO62)
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