Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple
March 7, 2016
In America, it was long believed that as a developed nation, the safety of our municipal water was a given. Dirty water contaminated with biological and chemical hazards was something you found in far away third world countries. We were always told to avoid drinking the water in places like Mexico, and we trusted that what came out of our own taps wouldn’t kill us.
But after the Flint water crisis, it’s become impossible for millions of Americans to ignore the possibility that their water really isn’t all that safe. According to a poll taken by the Associated Press, only 47% of Americans still believe that their tap water is safe to drink. 33% said they were ‘modestly confident’ in their water supply, and 18% said that they weren’t confident at all.
More than half of people who were polled, believed that what happened in Flint, Michigan is just a small sign of a much wider problem, and that there are probably other municipalities providing unsafe drinking water to their residents. Minorities and low-income Americans were more likely to say that their water had issues, which suggests that poor communities may be struggling to clean their water supply.
Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple, where this article first appeared. (Used with permission.) He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger.
