Daily Current Affairs Article 19th January 2021: Nine former officials who served the state of Michigan in the US, including the state’s former governor Rick Snyder, were charged in connection with a criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis.
The Flint water crisis is an ongoing public health crisis that began in 2014 when the City of Flint in Michigan changed its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint river.
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This switch caused the water distribution pipes to corrode, as a result of which lead and other contaminants were leached into the municipal drinking water.
This led to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a serious type of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria and other health complications in thousands of its residents.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people can get sick from this if they breathe in mist or accidentally swallow bacteria-containing water into the lungs.
While the water supply was switched back in 2015, the damage was long-lasting and many residents of the city continued to suffer.
