“It worked really well with everyone concentrating on their area of strength.” Lee-Anne Walters
What would you do if your water came out of the tap brown? As we congratulate Flint, Michigan residents for winning a big settlement recently for the lead contamination of their water supply, finally, after years of fighting for it.
Listen to the courageous and tenacious Lee-Anne Walters, one of the main community organizers, explain to Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson how she brought the community together to fight for clean water – and collected the scientific support they needed. (This was recorded as Green Connections Radio.)
It’s lessons in community organizing we can all benefit from, especially as the country protests the scourge of police brutality, injustice and inequality. Lee-Anne was awarded the prestigious Goldman Sachs Environmental Leadership award for her work.
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).
- Flint Water Unresolved – Talia Buford, Journalist, ProPublica
- Snehal Desai, Dow Global Water on solving water scarcity
- NASA Contest-Winning Teen Girls – About their award-winning water filtration system.
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