Lately, there’s been quite a bit of news about the water issues in Flint, Michigan. We’ve seen people and organizations from around the country and the world, looking to help Flint by donating bottled water as well as cash to help the city out. Local radio stations and sports teams have held drives for those to bring in bottled water that can be taken to Flint, which is about 90 miles North of Detroit. For those that aren’t aware, in late 2012 the city decided to switch from the Detroit water supply to their own, which comes from the Flint River as well as Lake Saint Clair. This system used pipes that hadn’t been actively used for decades – as Flint had been using Detroit’s water. This was only part of the issue. Additionally, the water was not properly treated before being sent into the homes and offices within the city. Now many of the citizens of this city have lead poisoning, and many of Flint’s children have much higher lead levels than doctors have ever seen. This issue isn’t even close to being resolved, but Google is looking to help out as much as they can.
Google has a charitable division, known as Google.org. And today they announced that they are sending around $250,000 in donations and grants over to Flint to help with the Water Crisis. The money isn’t just being sent over to buy residents bottled water, that they can actually use. It’s there to help local researchers and address health concerns from this water crisis. Which is definitely going to help Flint out more than sending over $250,000 in bottled water. Something that Flint native Michael Moore has been stressing to the media in the past few months. According to Google.org, about $150,000 of this is going to be used to help the researchers at the University of Michigan campuses in both Flint and Ann Arbor. The goal here is to create a comprehensive data platform. The idea is for this system to help aid government and community leaders to make decisions about the water crisis in Flint and the surrounding suburbs. The remaining $100,000 is going to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, which has developed a fund to help with the long-term health of families in Flint. This fund is more specifically aimed at helping the young children that may have had the lead infected water.
This $250,000 isn’t going to solve the issue of the water in Flint, but it can help make life a bit better for those in the city. The government estimates that it could take tens of millions to fix the issue. And with Flint being in debt as much as they are, it may be quite a while before the water issue is completely fixed.