MWRO Statement on DWSD 10 Point Plan

Today in Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DSWD) Director Sue McCormick announced a new 10 point plan for water payments and shutoffs for Detroit residents. We note: it does not meet the needs of restoring water delivery and stopping shutoffs to ALL low income residents. Read MWRO's statement on the 10 point plan.

Since March 2014, DWSD has been shutting off water to residential customers -- mostly low income households -- at the rate of several hundred to several thousand per week. MWRO, along with the Detroit People's Water Board Coalition, called for a halt to the inhumane water shutoffs. With support from the Council of Canadians, Blue Water Planet and Food & Water Watch, international attention to this violation of human rights was sent by a letter from the United Nations to DWSD. Netroots Nation with National Nurses United, Robin Hood Tax and actor Mark Ruffalo, helped expose the crisis to wider audiences.

Detroit and Michigan residents continue to fight vigilantly for the right to fresh drinking water in their homes! We know of teachers who wash laundry of school children from homes without water. Our organizational partner, We the People, tells of homes where newborn babies have no water for formula and seniors have no water to clean wounds. This is an outrage that we must not allow to continue.