On Tuesday, Detroit resumed the shutoff of water service to tens of thousands of low-income families that owe as little as $150. More than 600 households had their taps turned off just over the last few days, leaving seniors, the disabled and families with small children without water to drink, bathe, flush or cook.
The water shutoffs are aimed at removing service from entire sections of the city considered unprofitable, priming the water department for privatization. This is part of a “restructuring” of the city as a whole under the direction of an emergency manager and the federal bankruptcy court.
Court proceedings will begin this week to confirm a plan that will gut the pensions and health benefits of city workers and hand over public assets, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, to private concerns. Billionaire real estate developers are taking over entire tracts of land, at public expense, while working class Black neighborhoods are deprived of essential services, depopulated and in some cases transformed into urban farmland.