It\u2019s a basic human right: water. But could the United Nations soon help the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department provide the service to struggling customers?<\/p>\n
Water department spokeswoman Curtrise Garner says it\u2019s a possibility \u2014 but for now, the water bills must be paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have programs that do help those that are just totally in need; can\u2019t afford it \u2014 but we also know that there are also people who can\u2019t afford it would can not pay and we know this because, once we shut water off, the next day they are in paying the bill in full. So we do know that that has become a habit as well,\u201d said Garner.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the DWAS Department \u2014 it\u2019s not our goal to shut off water. We want people\u2019s water on, just like they do; but you do have to pay for your water\u2026That\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garner said the reality is that nearly half of Detroit Water and Sewerage customers can\u2019t pay their bills; and that has led activists to lobby the UN to step up and take action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they do contact us we are willing to speak with them,\u201d she said, adding \u201cWe owe it to the customers that are paying to collect from those that aren\u2019t. Somebody has to pay for the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while Garner says water is \u201ca God-given right,\u201d she says there is a cost to move water from the water resource to the customer and that the infrastructure costs money.<\/p>\n
According to the Free Press, the average Detroit water bill is now $75 a month \u2014 much higher than the nation\u2019s average rate of about $40.<\/p>\n
Source: CBS local<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Black city struggling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[2370,2335,9278,1415,9277],"class_list":["post-14413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-black-city","tag-detroit","tag-human-right","tag-un","tag-water-bills"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14415,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14413\/revisions\/14415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}