Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
The Fight in Detroit and the Cost of Water
Date: Sat, 2014-11-29 13:34
In the spring of this year, Detroit started to disconnect people who were behind with their water bills. The service was introduced back in 2004, as a pay for your water service, and whilst the service is still a public service the cost of water has risen by 120% in that decade. In September, there were 20,000 households disconnected completely from any water supply. The UN has led in condemnation of this.
The latest plan to emerge from Detroit is that the water service should now be privatised, to make matters worse. The issue of disconnection could well affect up to 120,000 households and the Detroit Water Brigade is already setting up volunteer houses so that you can donate water to those who are disconnected with a ‘share your water with a neighbour’ campaign.
What happens to cost of water after privatisation? In the UK, a report commissioned by the Union, Unison, which examined the Water Industry a decade on from privatisation, showed costs rising by a staggering 64%. The people who are fighting this struggle in Detroit have been following the campaign in Ireland with great interest, and have been sending back and forth messages of solidarity.
The image above depicts members of Occupy Riverwest in Milwaukee in solidarity with the Detroit Water Brigade.
This text was for the 4 page mini paper
we produced for the water charges campaign
December 2014.
You can download and print out extra copies
from the PDF files we have included below
[Colour version] [Ink saving Black & White version]