¶ … publicized Water Crisis at Michigan's Flint city, which first emerged in the year 2014. In specific, it will address associated challenges and concepts, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the issue, and solutions and recommendations in order to resolve the issue.
Situated about 70 miles to the north of Michigan's largest city, Detroit, the city of Flint is home to 98,310 inhabitants, of which an alarming 41.6% are classified as economically underprivileged. The United States Census Bureau estimates reveal that the average household income of the city's residents is around 24,679 dollars, while the state average stands at 49,087 dollars. Over half (i.e., 56.6%) of the city's inhabitants belong to the African-American ethnic group. At one time, the city headquartered the biggest General Motors manufacturing unit in America. Flint suffered an economic downturn in the eighties, when the company decided to downsize this expansive industrial unit (Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts - CNN.com). The state government assumed responsibility of the city's finances in the year 2011 following an audit that estimated a deficit of twenty-five million dollars. Despite the city's water supply finances reflecting a deficit of nine million dollars, some of the funds were being utilized by officials to cover general fund deficits. Insolvency came to an end in April of 2015, with deficit clearance using emergency loan, by which the funds apportioned for the city's water were declared solvent. For reducing the deficit in water fund, Flint decided to switch its sources of water in the year 2014. Although the construction of a fresh pipeline that connects the Lake Huron's waters to the city of Flint was underway, city officials decided to use river water as its source in the couple of years of transition. In the past, Flint River waters downstream of the city have been proven to be of bad quality. They were severely degraded in the seventies, because of toxins like lead, fecal coliform, oil, low levels of dissolved oxygen, and plant nutrients being present in the waters. Children's exposure to lead gives rise to the following health impacts: impaired cognition, late puberty, behavioral issues, and hearing issues. Among expectant mothers, lead has been proven to decrease fetal growth. For the general population, consumption of lead impacts nerves, the heart, and the kidneys.
Concepts/Challenges Involved
Among the chief criticisms facing the New Public Management concept is that, as public officials and emergency managers are not bound by regular democratic oversight, answerability will be muddled. Accountability demands are surfacing in the city of Flint, with America holding the governor, the Department of Environmental Quality, and emergency managers as the chief blameworthy parties. New Public Management's most vexing characteristic, with respect to the Flint Water Crisis, is probably the notion that a citizen is a consumer (Flint, Lead and Public Administration's Failure -- It Ain't Necessarily So). Such management perceives the government as flexible and responsive to citizens' requirements and demands as they pay for commodities; hence, the chief executive's actions are crucial to meeting consumer needs and demands of market forces. But, contrary to the above assumption, citizens cannot be likened to consumers, and water is no commodity.
Strengths
Not many strong points may be reported with respect to the water crisis at Flint, Michigan. Weaknesses linked to it, however, are many.
Weaknesses
A financial emergency was declared in Flint in the year 2011, leading to state assumption of the city's budgetary control function. Thus, as verified by state authorities, every decision made in the course of Flint's water crisis wasn't by the city's mayor or council, but by state authorities. Dan Kildee, a Congress member from Michigan, stated when an emergency finance manager was chosen by the governor in the year 2011, the position's responsibility was only to achieve budget reductions, at all costs. According to Kildee, Flint's water crisis suggests an attitude regarding industrial cities like Flint that, during the...
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