The people of Flint, Michigan have not had access to relatively clean water via the pipes in their homes for going on four years. However, Will and Jaden Smith want to change that by donating freshly manufactured water from their eco-friendly water company called JUST.
After recent tests in February showed that Flint’s water supply contains overwhelming levels of lead and other toxins, the Smiths knew they needed to get involved. It is reported that five out of the nine elementary schools in Flint have water with lead levels that exceed the Federal threshold to make it viable for consumption and use. After Jada Smith met with Flint’s mayor and ultimately learned of some objection to pulling “emergency” bottled water from schools, the JUST Water team decided to make monthly water donations to Flint until the lead levels in the water are brought down to a safely consumable level.
JUST Water CEO Ira Laufer shared in an interview that the donation was a “no-brainer.” “This just makes sense for us to do.” A city-wide review of Flint’s water quality is slated to take place this month but the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has stated that there is no timeline for making recommendations around helping Flint once the results of the review are determined. There are currently five state-funded bottled water and faucet filter distribution centers servicing Flint residents.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver has stated that state-funded bottled water should continue to be provided to residents until all lead and service lines in the city can be replaced. Unfortunately, this is a process that could take as long as into the year 2020 to complete.
In the meantime, on March 1st, JUST Water donated 9,200 bottles of water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and will continue to do so each month until appropriate remedies are made for the citizens of Flint.