What If This Was Your Water?

Essential questions: What responsibilities do elected officials have to the people they represent? How should a crisis be handled? Why is access to clean water important?

Preview vocabulary.

Project our Vocabulary Slideshow. Review the words and activity as a class. Highlighted words: assured, contaminated, corroded, dominating, infrastructure, leaching, potable, surreal

“What If This Was Your Water?” (30 minutes)

Read the article as a class. Briefly discuss anything students find interesting or surprising. Then discuss the following questions. 

Close-Reading Questions

• According to the article, what caused the water crisis in Flint? (key ideas and details) Many pipes in Flint contain lead, a toxic metal. The contaminants in the city’s polluted new water source, the Flint River, corroded the old lead pipes, allowing lead to get into the water as it traveled through the pipes and into homes. 
• Why might the author have included the sidebar “Where Does Your Water Come From?” (text features) The author may have included the sidebar to give readers a better understanding of where the water we use in daily life comes from, including the process it goes through before flowing out of our taps. This information can help readers better understand what went wrong in Flint. 
  

“Little Miss Flint” (15 minutes)

Read the interview as a class and respond to the following questions, some of which refer to both texts. 

 Close-Reading Questions

• According to information in the interview, is access to clean water still an issue for Mari’s family? (key ideas and details) Getting clean water is still problematic for Mari and her family. They have to travel to pick up large jugs of water from distribution centers. They use a filter for water in their shower, but they can use that water for only a few minutes before it starts to burn their skin and cause rashes. 
• How has the water crisis affected the people of Flint? (key ideas, inference) The water crisis has caused health problems and may have intensified the financial struggles of Flint residents who live in poverty. Going to the doctor, purchasing filters and bottled water, and buying extra gasoline to drive to water distribution sites likely put an extra burden on many residents. The water crisis has also impacted quality of life. As Mari says in the interview, she and her family cannot shower for more than a few minutes at a time. They can’t play in the sprinkler or make lemonade with tap water. 
• Mari says that having President Obama come to Flint was a “surreal” experience. What does she mean? (vocabulary, inference) Mari means that having someone as powerful and important as the President of the United States come to Flint felt like a dream. She likely felt this way because she didn’t expect to get the attention of the government simply by writing a letter.
  

Critical-Thinking Questions

• Could the Flint water crisis have been prevented? Explain. Yes. The government could have used a safer water source. It could have treated the Flint River water with a chemical to prevent the pipe corrosion. Even better, the government could have replaced the old lead pipes years earlier. Officials could also have reduced the harm done to Flint’s citizens by addressing the problem openly and urgently as soon as the water’s safety came into question. 
• Do Americans take water for granted? Draw on information in the article, the interview, and your own ideas. Answers will vary. Students may say yes, many Americans do take water for granted because it seems to be limitless, even though it is not. We often let our faucets run, wasting water without thinking of its scarcity. We also may not consider the processes that safely transport water to us, the people in the world who don’t have access to clean water, and the ways in which we pollute our waters. 
• What lessons can the rest of the U.S. learn from what happened in Flint? In other words, how could learning about what happened in Flint help people in other cities and towns? Learning about what happened in Flint could alert people in other places to the potential for lead contamination in their water. People in other towns might be motivated to demand proof from local officials that the water is safe or campaign to have old lead pipes replaced. Reading about what happened in Flint could also teach people to recognize the symptoms of lead poisoning. 
• How can the ongoing water crisis in Flint be solved? Answers will vary. Students may say that the best way to end the crisis is to replace the corroded pipes immediately. Perhaps a fundraising campaign and a team of volunteers could be deployed in Flint to increase the speed at which the pipes are replaced.

Featured Skill: Synthesis (15 minutes)

Have students work in groups to complete the Synthesis activity. This will prepare students to respond to the prompt on page 23. For alternate culminating tasks, see the boxes below.