This week the city council of Chicago passed an ordinance guaranteeing water to all residents. The ordinance is the product of intense work by advocacy groups, the mayor, the Department of Water Management and the Department of Finance. It rests on a shared commitment that all residents should be guaranteed access to affordable water. Embedded in the ordinance is the widely held understanding that water is a human right and a sacred trust. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot, who campaigned on a platform to stop water shut offs, said, “These actions will guarantee that the City of Chicago is able to preserve water affordability for our residents in the years to come. “By strengthening, enhancing, and codifying the measures we have taken and continue to take, we will ensure that our residents retain their access to water and be able to further protect this precious resource.”

The ordinance contains three major components that are important for us to consider. First, the ordinance establishes that control of the water system is a public responsibility. The ordinance explicitly prohibits the privatization of the Chicago water system.

Second, the ordinance provides a legal framework to make sure residents do not face water shut offs. Stressing the fundamental human right to access to water, it protects individuals and households, while enabling the city to still shut off water for abuse, public health reasons or non-payment by municipal or business entities.

Third, the ordinance sets a priority on transparency in decision making and a mandate to provide data on water debt in meaningful ways. The city Comptroller Reshma Soni said, “It’s important for us to share the relevant information about our programs. We want others to know how the success of these programs are impacting residents throughout the city so that we can continue to introduce and implement future programs that help Chicagoans most in need of financial relief.”

The new so-called Lifeline plan in Detroit contains none of these elements. The convoluted income tiered approach skirts around the question of water as a basic right, leaving the door open for shut offs of people who may be experiencing hardships or go over the established water quota. No data has been shared about any of the financial calculations or usage of water at the core of the Detroit plan.

This lack of commitment to a “no shut offs” policy for residents is especially worrisome given the history of this mayor and his minions.  They oversaw what has been described as nothing short of a brutal water shut off policy beginning with the Detroit bankruptcy and continued to do so into the pandemic.  Citizens research groups, not city departments, gathered, analyzed and presented data to show the astonishing health risks associated with water shut offs prior to the pandemic. The Mayor belittled and dismissed this information, refusing to enact a moratorium. It took the pandemic and reluctant action by the governor to stop the shut offs.

Community advocates are especially concerned that the administration’s roll out of the new plan was couched in ways to give the impression that advocacy groups were included in its development and endorsed it.  This prompted the recent press conference where Monica Lewis-Patrick, President and CEO of We The People of Detroit, said, “Given DWSD’s history of opposition, it appears that Mr. Brown is attempting to use the community as window dressing for an effort that has not been vetted or validated by community. The basic level of trust and respect has not been established, and we must do our due diligence to confirm that the plan aligns with the community values outlined in our 11-Point Water Affordability Platform.” She added, “As a show of good faith between the community and DWSD, Mr. Brown should immediately remove arrearages for households at or below 200% of the FPL and keep the moratorium on water shutoffs. As we move forward, there is a need for barrier-free communication, transparency, and genuine community inclusion.”

Detroiters have put forward a water affordability plan endorsed by the community organizations and the city council over a decade ago. That plan has never been implemented, although it has served as a model for other cities around the country. The only reason it is not implemented in Detroit is the profound desire of a Mayor to provide technocratic, limited solutions based on the idea that the community as out to get something for nothing.

Nothing could be further from reality. Detroiters again and again and again have pushed for the most human, compassionate and thoughtful policies based on the simple ideas that water is a human right and a sacred trust. It is a kind of thinking that is essential if we are to secure a future for everyone.