Million-dollar compensation for the citizens of Flint, this is how leaded water made thousands of people sick

In the United States, there is a city with just over 90,000 inhabitants where since 2014 the inhabitants have been forced to drink and wash themselves with bottled water. We are talking about Flint, the county seat of Genesee County, Michigan.

This is because since 2014, the city relocated its water supply to the Flint River, a notoriously polluted waterway that was used as a parts dump by companies. This led to the contamination of the water with lead, making it virtually unusable. Many people fell ill, and after several years, an American judge set a record $ 626 million in compensation for the residents of this area.

The reconstruction of the facts

Flint is the city where General Motors was founded in 1908, and since then the local economy has revolved around the automotive industry. However, when some production plants were closed, the entire local economic sector entered a serious economic crisis. At one time the water was taken from the Detroit water system, but due to the high costs it was decided to resort to the Flint River. The citizens, strongly opposed to this decision, protested in every location, but the situation became rather worrying when a factory decided not to use it anymore because its pipes began to rust.

From that moment various analyzes were made that agreed that in the waters there were toxic substances such as lead. The inhabitants were advised to run the water for five minutes before using it, to use it cold and to use purifiers. There was also an increase in disease in the area and many people started using only bottled water.

The water was so contaminated that it reached “toxic” levels and this caused skin rashes, hair loss and other symptoms. We are talking about one of the worst health scandals in the history of the United States which, after 18 months of negotiations, resulted in a historic sentence: 626 million dollars in compensation to the citizens of Flint. “The agreement reached is a huge success for many reasons, one of which is that it establishes a comprehensive and consistent compensation program for every person,” Michigan judge Judith Levy explained in the ruling.

Much of the compensation will be paid by the state of Michigan, accused of repeatedly ignoring the risks of using river water.