Water is essential to our daily lives. Water is more accessible in certain parts of the world than others. When I was a youngster living in Jamaica, in the neighborhood of Flankers, having running water in our house was quite the luxury. Neighbors would line up by our house, sometimes by the dozen, so that they could get their fill (no pun intented) of water for drinking purposes and such. So when I heard about the issue going on in Detriot, it kinda hit close to home. According to the New York Times, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department shut off service to customers, approximately 12,000 to be exact, who were behind on their bills. The water termination has unfortunately affected those below the poverty line, who struggle with consistently paying bills due to lack of funds.

Detroit Water by ewillies

The Huffington Post reports:

Hank Winchester, a reporter for Detroit’s local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, appeared on “MSNBC Live” Tuesday morning to discuss the water shutoffs with anchor Craig Melvin. He noted that the department would work with people who could not afford their bills and then claimed, “There are other people, and this is where it gets controversial, who simply don’t want to pay the water bill, who would rather spend money on cable. … A lot of these people are not willing to work out a deal [with the water department].”

Maureen Taylor then went on to rebuff the said statement of new reporter Hank Winchester.

“Let me say shame on Hank, shame on him for putting that lie and that mess and that disinformation out on the air. To suggest that people don’t want to pay for a water bill is scandalous,” Taylor said. “What is at stake here is that there are tens of thousands of low-income families who cannot pay rising water bill costs… and we’ve got these reporters out here like this guy that’s standing on the side of people who have money.”

You can read the entire article here.