蜜芽传媒

In November, after seven years of fighting and campaigning, the victims of the Flint water crisis in the US were awarded a $626 million settlement. At least 12 people died after the city switched its water supply to the Flint river in 2014 without treating the corrosive water to save money. As a result, lead in some old pipes broke off and flowed through taps, leaving 100,000 residents, predominantly African Americans, without safe water.

But even now, the problems continue and the residents are still relying on bottled water.

One person who raised the profile of the campaign was Mari Copeny, otherwise known as 'Little Miss Flint'. At the age of 8 years old, she wrote to President Obama about the issue, and received a hug from him when he subsequently visited the city.

She says she'll continue with the fight until the issues are finally resolved.

"They're slowly fixing our pipes but it's not getting fixed fast enough... It got pushed back because of Covid and quarantine, but it still needs to get done because we deserve clean water... That's a basic human necessity. We need clean water."

(Photo: Mari Copeny or 'Miss Flint'. Credit: Getty Images)

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