Joe Issa Saddened by Developing Story on Water Crisis in US City Which Jamaican Invention is helping

Mere days after brand builder Joe Issa, in a blog, congratulated a young Jamaican for inventing a portable shower that is helping residents of the City of Flint in Michigan, USA, with their water problems, comes news that some city and state officials have been criminally charged for causing the water crisis.

“If what Reuters has reported is true, it’s beyond me to understand why anyone would endanger the lives of 100,000 men, women and children with lead poison. 

 

“I thought the city’s water problem was a genuine environmental problem, as many US cities suffer from excessive levels of lead in the environment, including water sources; but to discover that the problem was directly man-made, is really disheartening,” says Issa, who is a Catholic Eucharistic Minister.

 

The philanthropist, who is also a mentor at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship �" Caribbean where the young inventor produced what he called the Pump-n-Spray, said, “I am so happy to see that a young Jamaican can rise to that level by producing a product that is of great use in a US city… now this latest news has dampened the celebration somewhat.”

 

According to Yahoo News, Reuters in Detroit reported that “three Michigan state and local officials were criminally charged on Wednesday in connection with the state attorney general’s investigation into dangerous lead levels in Flint’s drinking water, a crisis that has fueled widespread public outrage.”

 

Genesee District Judge Tracy Collier-Nix is said to have authorized charges against Flint and Michigan employees for “tampering with evidence and willful neglect of duty”. The first charge is said to be related to when testing results were changed to show there was less lead in the city’s water than there actually was, the article said.

 

The city of “Flint was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager in 2014, when it switched its source of water from Detroit’s municipal system to the Flint River to save money. The city switched back in October.” It adds.

 

Apparently, “the river water was more corrosive than the Detroit system’s and caused more lead to leach from its aging pipes”, the report stated, informing that “lead can be toxic and children are especially vulnerable.”

 

As a result of the crisis, many lawsuits are said to have emerged by “parents who say their children are showing dangerously high blood levels of lead.”