Original version

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: The Flint water crisis

Documentaries

The Flint water crisis

30/05/2024 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Flint water crisis

In 2014, a city in Michigan was exposed to dangerous levels of lead in its water supply

In April 2014, the US city of Flint in Michigan switched to a new water supply. It was supposed to save money but instead residents were exposed to dangerous levels of lead.

Flint was once one of the richest cities in the United States. But in the 1980s, it was badly affected by the downturn in car manufacturing and by 2014 it was nearly bankrupt. To save money, the city switched its water supply away from Lake Huron to its own Flint River, but state officials failed to treat the river water properly. As a result lead, a powerful neurotoxin, was released into the drinking water.

Despite mounting evidence, officials denied anything was wrong and it took them a year and a half to switch water supply back to Lake Huron. But many residents of Flint –a majority African-American city with high rates of poverty– have been left fearful about the long term impacts on their children.

Rob Walker speaks to lifelong Flint resident Jeneyah McDonald who had two young children at the time. He also hears from Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha – a paediatrician and professor of public health– who helped bring the scandal to national attention after showing that lead had found its way into the bloodstreams of the city’s children.

(Photo: Bottled water donations to help with the Flint Michigan water crisis in 2016. Credit: Dennis Pajot via Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

The Flint water crisis

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

About BBC World Service