The Water They Were Given

Artist Statement

The Water They Were Given

Alivia

This piece was created to show the quality of the water being provided for the citizens of Flint, Michigan, which happened to be very low in the past couple of years. To create the effect of water flowing out of an average kitchen sink I used hot glue and dyed it using food coloring. Then, over a period of time, I layered the glue on top of one another to create a tower which is coming out of the faucet. The orange color is the actual color of the water that was coming out of peoples sinks and showers.

I chose to research lead poisoning in Flint because it's awful that the government put profit before the health of their own people. I wanted to know why this was happening in our country, especially where we have access to exceptional benefits in the medical world. By creating this piece I hope to bring attention to a tragedy that we could potentially see happening in a third world country, but not in America where we assume we all have access to clean, usable water.

In 2014 the city of Flint switched their water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. It was only supposed to be temporary while the city was in a lot of financial troubles. The Flint River river is highly polluted, and has been for the past decade. Rivers are the hardest to treat out of all freshwater sources. The reason Flint switched water sources was because it was cheaper to tap into their own river, rather than run a pipe from Detroit's water lines. Since 2014, 13 officials have been criminally charged for not fixing the water issue. It was later learned that for $100 dollars a day for three months ($9,300) the issue could have been prevented by buying the anti-corrosive agents used to treat water being run through lead pipes. Flint isn't the only place in the U.S. where this issue is occuring. In fact, Flint doesn't even compare to some other cities in this country. 17 cities were tested in Pennsylvania and 10% of the children in all of the cities combined have lead poisoning. Also, Fresno, California has received attention for having blood levels just as high as Flint’s. I want it to be known that having clean water is a right, and it shouldn't be okay for government systems to try and save money by providing its own people with unsanitary water. Within the past three years Flint has switched their water source back to Lake Huron, people have put filters on their faucets, and with all the money donated to the city, 18,000 homes will have new pipes by 2019. The message I want to be known is that this issue could have been prevented, and a lot of people, especially children, who now suffer from lead poisoning could still have had normal, healthy lives if the water was treated properly.