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Cutting off water to Detroit's poor 'an affront to human rights,' says UN
RT ^ | June 27, 2014

Posted on 06/29/2014 1:53:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Residents of Detroit, Michigan who are $150 or two months past-due on their water bills are having their water shut off by the bankrupt city. Now, even the United Nations has stepped in, saying Detroit is in violation of the human right to water.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is facing $5 billion in bad debt, and is scrambling to recoup its losses. The city, which filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in history last year, argues that the financial burden of paying water bills has been put on the back burner by many families who didn’t believe services would be shut off. Those bills have gone up 120 percent in the past decade, well beyond the national average.

“We sent out a little over 46,000 shutoff notices in May. Of those 46,000 shutoff notices, about 4,500 were actually shut off,” Greg Eno, a DWSD public affairs specialist, told RT.

Within 24 hours, 60 percent of the affected customers paid their accounts in full and had their service immediately restored. Forty percent of the remaining customers had their service restored within 48 hours, DWSD said in a statement.

“Many of the properties that we shut off are actually vacant structures, not occupied homes,” DWSD Director Sue McCormick said.

The public utility has threatened to cut off water to 150,000 Detroit residents so far, and the shutoffs could affect up to 300,000 of the city’s poor African-American community, according to the Root. Since March, water service for up to 3,000 customers per week has been cut off...

(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Local News; Politics
KEYWORDS: conyers; detroit; michigan; water
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1 posted on 06/29/2014 1:53:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I wouldn’t be surprised if the lawyers turn this into something big.


2 posted on 06/29/2014 2:00:43 AM PDT by ansel12 (( Rand Paul---What a tragedy if America wouldn't have gotten to see Barack Obama as a leader.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I will be generous and allow the UN to pay their water bills.


3 posted on 06/29/2014 2:13:44 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

We are the single biggest funding source of the United Nations, so you’d be paying it, if the UN ever did such a thing.


4 posted on 06/29/2014 2:14:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Not to worry, our governor, with relentlessly progressive action, will move forward to take more taxpayer money from across the state to make sure that those Detoileteers get free water no matter what the reason it was cut off. His sycophants in the Michigan NOT Taxed Enough Already Party (NTEA Party) will applaud his actions.


5 posted on 06/29/2014 2:15:07 AM PDT by RushLake (Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. (Emerson))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The UN and the other loudmouths should pay the water bills.


6 posted on 06/29/2014 2:15:34 AM PDT by Octar
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This poppycosh story is making the rounds again????

The UN can suck rope...the sisal kind.


7 posted on 06/29/2014 2:16:07 AM PDT by Up Yours Marxists
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well then ... put on your pretty blue hemets, jump in your white humvees, come in blazin’ an’ turn the taps back on ... go ‘head .... DARE anyone to stop you.


8 posted on 06/29/2014 2:30:33 AM PDT by knarf (brooklyn bridge)
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To: Vince Ferrer

that’s great Vince but we, the American taxpayer foots the U.N.’s bills.


9 posted on 06/29/2014 2:56:49 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) obammy lied and lied and lied)
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To: ansel12

Did someone say something about FREE WATER?

10 posted on 06/29/2014 2:57:59 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Octar

Water Bills are inflated due to pension and health benefits. Sewer bills are larger than water bills. So much padding - big city water needs to be privatized.


11 posted on 06/29/2014 3:01:08 AM PDT by x_plus_one (The enemy is at the gate and the writing is on the wall. Islam Delenda Est.)
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To: Dixie Yooper

I thought of that, but in the modern world water is not just a canteen of hydration to prevent dying that day.


12 posted on 06/29/2014 3:02:49 AM PDT by ansel12 (( Rand Paul---What a tragedy if America wouldn't have gotten to see Barack Obama as a leader.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How I would handle it:
1) I don’t pay my water bill
2) They shut off my water
3) I have to go get water

How others handle it:
1) I don’t pay my water bill
2) They shut off my water
3) SOMEONE HAS TO BRING ME WATER!


13 posted on 06/29/2014 3:23:21 AM PDT by mrs. a (It's a short life but a merry one...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Next they’ll be a “right” to electricity or other forms of power. A right to food, housing, transportation, clothing. A right to everything. Many of these people do seem to think they have a certain right....a right to the contents of the wallets of the nation’s taxpayers. Pay your bills, and your water won’t get shut off.


14 posted on 06/29/2014 3:29:19 AM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And a liberal friend of mine is upset because the city of Detroit is breaking up a valued public art collection because it needs the money from the sale. But he knows nothing about people going without water. Libs are nuts!


15 posted on 06/29/2014 3:30:07 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

when water bills are higher than rent or taxes, because of ridiculous bond issues and debt incurred by city governments to upgrade water and sewer (and pad pockets)

and when the business owners and taxpayers who were expected to those inflated taxes fled - or cannot pay - this is what will happen to more and more people

Our water and sewer bills now equal a 13th month mortgage payment, luckily we can still pay it

imagine the sanitation issues

how long would it take Detroit to become another Haiti or India (crapping and bathing in the Detroit River?)


16 posted on 06/29/2014 4:06:04 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: silverleaf

Well, this is the problem. Can’t wait until pix of Americans getting their water from rain puddles flashes around the world.


17 posted on 06/29/2014 4:12:02 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: ansel12

If they have cell phones, EBT, cable, do drugs or alcohol they are not “poor.” They make poor decisions. And, we enable those lifestyle decisions by taking care of life’s necessities. My brother-in-law’s church will help anybody, but they have to give up cell phones, eating out, etc. Then the help is really substantial. But almost nobody avails themselves of the help, which often included hiring them with benefits to do a job. They won’t give up anything to climb out of poverty. So, the church says, come back when you need us.


18 posted on 06/29/2014 4:14:33 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: miss marmelstein

expect it sooner rather than later when our new immigrants bring their “American” culture to our cities

Heard about a small townhouse-condo community here inundated with immigrants living several families (or a lot of men and women) to a room .. with no utilities

the woods behind are strewn with garbage and God.Knows.What.Else

city “inspectors” look the other way.

Property values for the residents are trashed, too

expect us to become a country with a lot more peasants- in the cities and suburbs

but not Bill Gates’ or Warren Buffet’s neighborhoods


19 posted on 06/29/2014 4:19:56 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: silverleaf

It’s a terrifying thought. This country has collapsed so quickly. Sadly, we sort of deserve what we get - we allowed our freedom to be trashed by con men, scam artists and President Mugabe...er, I mean Obama.


20 posted on 06/29/2014 4:30:28 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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