FLINT – After a long wait for clean water, the Flint Islamic Center is leading efforts with other non-profit groups in pooling down money to replace contaminated water lead pipes with copper ones.
“It’s been a year and 10 months,” Jenan Jondy, a veiled American Muslim who speaks for several private groups, including the Flint Coalition and the Flint Islamic Center, told Michigan Radio.
“What impacts my neighbor impacts me,” she added.
For months, Flint community has complained of contaminated water pipes.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced plans last month to start replacing thousands of lead service lines.
The old pipes are suspected to be a source of lead leaching into Flint’s drinking water. By one estimate, there are at least 8,000 suspected lead service lines in Flint.
Due to funding shortage, the city of Flint plans to start digging up lead service lines only in part of the city.
The situation changed after a contractor paid by non-profit groups got to work doing the same thing on the city’s north side.
Though Jondy did not reveal the money they paid to the contractor, it is believed to be a high cost of about $5,000 to $6,000 to remove an old service line and replace it with a new copper line.
“I’m just hoping that not just I can benefit from it … but everybody should be able to benefit from this,” Brittani Felton, a Flint resident, said.
“Everybody deserves to have clean water and keep their kids safe.”
The Muslim-led efforts to offer clean water to Flint started earlier with many groups volunteering to donate bottled water.
Earlier this year, Islamic Relief USA delivered over 100,000 bottles of fresh water to the residents of Flint, Michigan.
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