Detroiters demand free water

Detroit Water and Sewerage Depart ment may want to raise water rates, but residential users loudly expressed a different idea at the budget hearing held Feb. 10. Members of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), Sweet Water Alliance and others told the Detroit City Council that since water is necessary for human life, it must be provided free of charge.

Michigan's official unemployment rate is the highest in the United States, but the actual unemployment in Detroit and the small enclaves of Highland Park and Hamtramck is many times greater. Accord ing to the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, 60-percent adult unemployment and 75-percent overall unemployment leaves at least 120,000 families in Detroit with an income less than $20,000 per year.

Combined with soaring heat, light and water utility bills, this formula equals life-threatening shut offs for low-income workers, seniors and poor people as a whole. MWRO counter-proposed a Water Affordability Plan limiting bills to 2 percent of family income.

--Cheryl LaBash