Water Shutoffs Begin Tuesday In Detroit For Customers Behind On Bills

[Purveyor]

Source: DETROIT NEWS

(WXYZ) - The water is still on for Detroit residents behind on their bills, but not for long. Detroit Water and Sewerage announced they're shutting off service to those who owe them payments.

About 20,000 people could see their water shut off, starting May 3rd at 8 a.m.

Water department's customer service centers have been busy taking four payments a minute.

Gary Brown, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Director, explained, "We don't want to shut anyone's water off. Come in, ask for assistance, get on a payment plan."

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/news/water-shutoffs-begin-tuesday-in-detroit-for-customers-behind-on-bills

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. let them drink champage

this is gross. water should be a fundamental human right.

[FrodosPet]

3. It still costs money to pump and treat water

I am pretty sure the people who work a cold, wet, dirty, thankless job would appreciate at least a paycheck. As well, there has to be a disincentive to wasting water. And a lot of the abandos need the water turned off months or years ago.

Yes, I hope everyone can keep their water on. But I am not about to rag on the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department when they are doing everything they can within their abilities and finances to keep people's water flowing.

[Dont call me Shirley]

2. Water is a basic human need therefore a basic human right.

Fuck The Billionaires every last one of them! Fuck their GD water wars. Just Fuck Them!

[scscholar]

5. This

We shouldn't have to pay for it.

[ToxMarz]

7. I think a better solution is that jobs should pay a living wage

So everyone can afford the water they use (it isn't free to supply). If you are going to have the billionaires foot the bill for essentials, that is all you will ever have (and you will probably be short changed). Then you'll have to fight until your last dying breath trying to keep it. Not a very satisfying life.

[Dont call me Shirley]

10. And basic needs should be government controlled not private corprations.

[FrodosPet]

12. Detroit Water and Sewerage is a government owned utility.

http://www.detroitmi.gov/dwsd

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Technically, but the privatization efforts have ruined the efficiently run affordable system.

[FrodosPet]

11. It would be OK to ration it, I would hope

Clean drinking water is expensive to produce at massive scales. Pumps, filters, treatment chemicals, electricity, water mains, storm and sanitary sewer lines, wastewater treatment, and the skilled, hard working people needed to install and maintain it all, costs money.

People should have the ability to pay for it. They should have jobs that pay enough for them to provide for their needs.

[cstanleytech]

13. You arent, what you and others pay for is things like maintenance on the pipes that

the water flows to, the pumps that pump it, the electricity that powers the pumps, the stations that treat and filter it so its safer to drink and the wages for the workers who do all that work on the entire system or did you think that it was all done by magic?

[gopiscrap]

9. AGREED!!!!

[certainot]

4. anything republican can be protested at these 3 mich unis

3 unis, Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1, support 19 limbaugh stations- and those stations got snyder and the republican elected and helped pass their shit.

even if the schools do nothing, the gop willl freak out, advertisers will flee, and without rw radio stations the gop is nothing.

[pansypoo53219]

6. big businesses too?

[Turbineguy]

8. Shutting off water

could lead to an epidemic.

A republican government is no fun. It's dangerous.

[cstanleytech]

15. "Shutting off water could lead to an epidemic. " So could the workers if they quit because

they dont get paid not to mention the problems that could happen if the water isnt treated any longer because they dont have the money to treat it or how the water could just stop flowing if the pipes and pumps stop working because they cannot be repaired or dont have electricity to power them.

[braddy]

19. Detroit is republican?

[Skittles]

14. is the pay-someones-bill project still active?

https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/

[mia]

18. Good idea! n/t

[potone]

17. Another sterling success on the part of Michigan's governor.

If the city government doesn't have the money to deal with this, then the federal government should step it. It is outrageous that people would have their water cut off and it poses a threat to public health. The Constitution states that one of the purposes of government is to promote the general welfare.

I am ashamed to live in a country where this is allowed to happen.