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class="header"> <b><small><small><small><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/water-apartheid-gaza-and-flint"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/water-apartheid-gaza-and-flint">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/water-apartheid-gaza-and-flint</a></a></small></small></small></b>
<h1 id="reader-title">Water apartheid in Gaza and Flint</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/david-cronin"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">David Cronin</a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2016-03-18T10:00:55+00:00">18 March 2016</span></span>
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<p>At first glance, the nature of the water crises in Gaza
and Michigan look very different. Gaza’s water
infrastructure has been bombed repeatedly by Israel.
Despite their many problems, the people of Flint and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/detroit">Detroit</a>
have been spared such overt brutality.</p>
<p>So why did women in Gaza <a
href="https://www.mecaforpeace.org/news/women-gaza-women-flint">send</a>
a message of compassion to women in Flint earlier this
month?</p>
<p>The answer is simple: both are striving to hold the
powerful to account for how the water on which they and
their families depend has been contaminated.</p>
<p>The letter from Gaza to Flint — signed by various
activists, including the prominent doctor <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/dr-mona-el-farra">Mona
el-Farra</a> — notes that Israel controls Palestinian
water. The Israeli occupation steals from the coastal
aquifer that is Gaza’s main source of water, prevents
Palestinians from building sewage treatment facilities
and forces them to buy water at prices they cannot
afford.</p>
<p>Ordinary people in Flint do not enjoy any sovereignty
when it comes to water, either.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, Rick Snyder, Michigan’s
governor, has appointed a series of “emergency managers”
— unelected technocrats, with powers to sell off public
assets, invalidate union contracts and to undermine
local democracy.</p>
<p>In 2014, Darnell Earley, one of these emergency
managers, decided that Flint should begin using water
from Flint River. That was despite how the Michigan
authorities <a
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/24/exclusive-gov-rick-snyder-s-men-originally-rejected-using-flint-s-toxic-river.html">deemed</a>
water from the river to be unsafe for drinking.</p>
<h2>Blood poisoning</h2>
<p>The decision had rapid effects. Locals complained that
the water from their faucets was discolored and
unpalatable. A research team at Virginia Tech <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/dont-drink-the-water/399803/">confirmed</a>
that the water in Flint was poisoned.</p>
<p>The level of lead detected, for example, in some
samples was 13,000 parts per billion. The Environmental
Protection Agency recommends that lead in water should
be no higher than 15 parts per billion.</p>
<p>Across Flint, the number of children with above average
levels of lead in their blood has almost doubled. In
“high risk” areas, it has <a
href="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/09/study_shows_twice_as_many_flin.html">tripled</a>.</p>
<p>The people of Gaza are grappling with similar problems.</p>
<p>During 2014, it was <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20140209_gaza_water_crisis">reported</a>
that 90 to 95 percent of Gaza’s water supply was unfit
for drinking. The <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-water-authority">Palestinian
Water Authority</a> found that the aquifer on which
Gaza depends was highly polluted with pesticides and
untreated sewage.</p>
<h2>Symptom of racism</h2>
<p>Palestinians live under an <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/apartheid">apartheid
system</a>. And the impacts of apartheid are
especially pronounced when it comes to water.</p>
<p>While <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlers">Israeli
settlers</a> in the arid West Bank can enjoy the sight
of well-irrigated floral displays and dips in swimming
pools all year round, Palestinians have access to
considerably less drinking water than the levels
recommended by the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/world-health-organization">World
Health Organization</a>.</p>
<p>Michigan’s water crisis is also a symptom of
institutionalized racism.</p>
<p>Snyder and his predecessors have imposed emergency
managers mainly on towns and cities with large Black
populations, including Detroit and Flint.</p>
<p>In 2013, <em>The Atlantic</em> <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/does-michigans-emergency-manager-law-disenfranchise-black-citizens/275639/">reported</a>
that the five cities in Michigan then under economic
management contained just 9 percent of the state’s
inhabitants. Yet about half of all Black people in
Michigan lived in those cities.</p>
<p>Writing in <em>The Nation</em> last month, Juan Cole <a
href="http://www.thenation.com/article/flint-and-gaza-water-crises-of-colonialism/">argued</a>
that just as Flint’s residents “had their access to a
basic staple like clean water denied by decisions made
by bureaucrats they did not elect, so the Palestinians
of Gaza lack the basic rights of citizenship.”</p>
<p>The right to water has been <a
href="http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml">recognized</a>
by the United Nations. Yet the dominant ideology treats
water as a commodity.</p>
<p>It is only natural that alliances should be formed
between defenders of the right to water in different
cities and countries.</p>
<p>The government in my native <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ireland-0">Ireland</a>,
under pressure from its masters in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/brussels">Brussels</a>
and other EU capitals, has been trying to put control of
water in the hands of a private company in recent years.
The battle for the abolition of Irish Water, as the firm
is called, has received <a
href="http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/Irish-water-charges-protests-heard-round-the-world.html">support</a>
from activists in Michigan, Bolivia and Spain.</p>
<p>More than a few of Ireland’s right to water campaigners
are also part of the Palestine solidarity movement. One
such campaigner, Gino Kenny, has been elected to Dáil
Eireann, the lower house in the national parliament.
When his election was <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ixtpvkl3A">announced</a>
in late February, he celebrated by waving a Palestinian
flag.</p>
<p>The gesture was appreciated by Palestinians — not
surprisingly so. Struggles for justice will always be
intertwined.</p>
<p><em>Additional research by Jimmy Johnson.</em></p>
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