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Monday, 13 April 2015 07:05

Turning Off the Water of the Poor in Baltimore Violates Human Rights

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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

awaterbaltshutTurning off the water of life (Photo: Tom Raftery)

Last year, Truthout and BuzzFlash wrote a slew of articles and commentaries about the injustice of the bankrupt City of Detroit systematically shutting off the water of the poor. 

Now this denial of a basic human right - after all, one cannot live without water - is being implemented in Baltimore as it follows Detroit precedent. Although some businesses in Baltimore with money owed on water bills will also be shut off - if the debt to the city is not paid off - the burden will primarily fall on residents of limited means.

According to an article in the April 7 Baltimore Sun:

The city began shutting off service this week to customers at least six months and $250 behind on their bills, she said. About 25,000 delinquent customers owe a combined $40 million in long-overdue bills....

Mitch Jones of the consumer rights group Food & Water Watch, said shutting off service denies Baltimore households access to the "basic human right to water" and also poses a public health risk.

Jones said the city, which has a history of water billing errors, should target businesses with past-due accounts before households. Business accounts make up about 370 of the past-due customers and $15 million of the outstanding debt, officials say.

"The city must act to ensure universal access to safe and affordable water service," Jones said.

The poor are being forced to go without water to drink or shower with as the well-off continue to pump up the profits of the bottled water industry. In fact, National Geographic estimated in 2012 that plastic bottles of water had reached more than $20 billion in sales.

Peter Gleick wrote in a 2013 Science Blogs entry:

The numbers are in for 2012, and they are shocking. The Beverage Marketing Corporation, which tracks sales and consumption of beverages, is reporting that sales of bottled water grew nearly 7 percent between 2011 and 2012, with consumption reaching a staggering 30.8 gallons per person. And since I (and some of you) consume almost zero bottled water every year, there are people out there drinking far more than the average.

Thirty-six years ago, this industry didn’t exist. Americans drank fewer than two gallons of bottled water per year, and almost all of that was in the form of water from big office coolers.

Beyond the enormous detrimental environmental impact of all those plastic water bottles, the trend is another indicator of the growing economic chasm in the United States. In this case, it is symbolized by those who can financially indulge in purchasing privatized water - that may, ironically, not even be purer than what comes out of their tap - as compared to those in the US who can't even afford public water carried through municipal pipes.

In an April 13 op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, seven fellows at the Johns Hopkins Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Program plaintively asked, "How can we teach elementary school children to wash their hands when they have no water?":

How can we tell children to drink less soda and more water when they have no access to it in their homes? How can we ask families to prepare healthier meals at home when they have no water to wash their dishes or prepare their meals? How can we teach elementary school children to wash their hands when they have no water?

Turning off water for needy families is not only a violation of fundamental human rights but a preventable public health problem that could soon become a public health emergency.

The issue of denying water to US citizens is not an isolated problem. It is part of a much larger contextual political and cultural attitude that some people are disposable. It is another indicator that as a society we have lost our moral compass, and replaced an individual's economic worth as a measure of his or her human value.

Keeping the water flowing to all families in Baltimore and Detroit is only one step necessary in the restoration of a just, compassionate society.

Not to be reposted without permission of Truthout