Austerity in Detroit - Pt 3: Detroit Residents Seek U.N. Intervention as City Shuts Off Water to Thousands

Disaster Capitalism Via a Deliberately-Engineered Bankruptcy,
Followed by Austerity and Privatization

Protesters against water shutoffs in Detroit. (Screen capture from DemocracyNow video)

The poverty rate in Detroit is approximately 40 percent, water bills have increase by 119 percent within the last decade. Activists say Detroit is trying to push through a private takeover of its water system at the expense of basic rights. The Detroit Water and Sewage Department says half of their accounts are "delinquent."

Beginning in March, water has been shut off for up 3000 accounts a week. Two-thirds of those impacted by the water shutoffs involve families with children. Households with no running water are subject to having children taken from them and placed in foster care. The population of Detroit is 80 percent African American.

RELATED STORIES:

• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 1: Babies Pay for Detroit’s 60-Year Slide With Mortality Above Mexico's
• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 2: Detroit and Iraq — Both Are Plundered by the Same Bandits
   
• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 4: “Operation Afro-Dilution” — Michigan’s Plan to Flood Detroit with Upscale Immigrants

• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 5: The Revolution Will Be Privatized — They're Bulldozing a Fifth of Detroit

• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 6: The Bankruptcy "Setup" — It Didn't Have To Happen, It Was Rigged by a Cabal of Legislators, Bankers and Politicians