“It worked really well with everyone concentrating on their area of strength.” Lee-Anne Walters
How to Fight for Your Community – Lessons from the Flint Fight for Clean Water
What would you do if your water came out of the tap brown?
Listen to the courageous and tenacious Lee-Anne Walters, one of the main community organizers in Flint, Michigan’s lead water crisis, tell host Joan Michelson how she brought the community together to fight for clean water – and collected the scientific support they needed. This interview took place at the Earth Day Network 2018 Climate Leadership Gala, where Lee-Anne was recognized for her work. (This was recorded under our previous name, Green Connections Radio.)
The problem persists and all lead pipes have not been removed, so Lee-Anne is still leading the effort for clean water in Michigan and nationwide, says, so that no other families or communities need to go through this ordeal.
You’ll hear:
- How the community started to organize, from the ground up.
- How she used her Medical Technician skills to identify why the water was brown and who was to blame.
- Why having an Emergency Manager for the city in its financial crisis was the exact wrong strategy.
- How partnering with Virginia Tech University to test the water independently was a key to fixing the crisis – and continues nationwide.
“I’ve always been a very blunt person…and in this it’s been my biggest asset.” Lee-Anne Walters
You’ll also want to listen to:
- Nayyirah Shariff, Flint, Michigan activist for clean water (on their lead poisoning crisis)
- Talia Buford, ProPublica reporter covering the Flint, Michigan lead poisoning water crisis.
- Rita Colwell, frmr NSF head, Univ of Maryland, Gulf of Mexico Research chair, water science expert
- NASA Contest-Winning Teen Girls – About their award-winning water filtration system.
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