Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN special rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, has made it plain that "[d]isconnections 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." And the Blue Planet Project, a global movement to promote water justice is petitioning President Obama (and Governor Snyder) with a message that "[t]he U.S. government is obligated to respect the human right to water and sanitation, yet the thousands of water cut-offs currently taking place in Detroit, Michigan, is a violation of this basic right."
Conyers says the Obama administration and federal officials have options to act. In particular, he is "calling on President Obama to make available some of the $200 million still apportioned for Michigan from the Hardest Hit Fund, a reserve made available for relief from impacts of the Great Recession, for water service relief." Additionally, the senior congressman is "requesting that US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell formally designate the water crisis a public health emergency eligible for federal relief."
But Detroiters have over the past several years come to be recognize that the plight of their city, even as it is assaulted by the governor's austerity measures, is often neglected by federal officials.
It will be harder to neglect Detroit in coming days, however, as Netroots Nation brings its ninth annual gathering (and Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren) to the city. And National Nurses United, the activist union that has been promoting a "Robin Hood" tax on financial speculators as an alternative to austerity cuts, is working with dozens of local, state and national groups to organize a July 18 "Turn on the Water! Tax Wall Street!" march and rally.
The registered nurses plan to "declare a public health emergency and demand a moratorium on the unprecedented water shutoffs in Detroit."
Their message is a blunt challenge to austerity:
"Gov. Snyder is allowing the tragedy to continue with an endgame of privatizing the public water department -- the latest in a string of gifts to Wall Street. The historic transfer of public wealth to private hands overseen by Snyder has cost the public jobs, pensions, vital public safety services, and civic jewels like Olmstead Island Park.
"Now they have come for our water.
"Let's Tax Wall Street, Get Our Money Back, and Turn on the Water!"
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