Activists take water from tap at Detroit mayor’s Manoogian Mansion to protest water shutoffs on Aug 8, 2015.Â
DETROIT, MI — A group of more than a dozen activists wanted to make point about water access Monday.
Wearing ventilation masks and carrying signs that read, “Thousands of kids w/o water” and “Water is life,” they walked up the circle drive to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s’ home, the Manoogian Mansion, hooked hoses to the tap and filled up water jugs.
Daymon Hartley, who photographed the protest for the People’s Tribune, said the activists spent about 10 minutes filling jugs and took group photographs on the front lawn of the 4,000-square-foot riverfront home without being approached by Duggan’s security detail or Detroit police; although Hartley said he saw an unoccupied, unmarked police car in the driveway.
The Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands, who are environmental protection advocates, helped organize the protest in response to the growing number of Detroit and other area residents who are forced to live without water because of shutoffs.
“We’ve got 40,000 people without water in the city of Detroit,” said Valerie Jean, an organizer with the Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands. “We decided to take some of his water. We own the mansion he lives in.”
Jean said the water was donated to volunteer water refill stations in the city set up to assist residents without access to public water.
The group is demanding an immediate moratorium on water shutoffs and a new plan to assist water customers who are behind on their bills.
Jean says there is a problem when some Detroit residents owe more in water bills than the value of their home.
She called the newly-formed Great Lakes Water Authority a “sham” run by billionaires.
“People are in fight-or-flight mode,” she said. “That’s the situation when you take away that many people’s water.”
Jean said she’s unsure if the lack of police reaction to the water action Monday is because they were unaware or because Duggan wants to keep protest like these quiet.
“I don’t think that the mayor is trying to make a bid deal out of things like this,” she said. “I don’t think he really wants this kind of thing in the news.”
Spokesman John Roach told MLive Detroit he’d heard about the protest but didn’t have comment Tuesday afternoon.
The criticism over water shutoffs led to a temporary moratorium last year, followed by a payment program created by the Duggan administration.
But once the ground thawed this spring, shutoffs resumed.
The Detroit Free Press in April reported that the city has over 73,000 active residential accounts owing $47 million in total unpaid bills and water employees had plans to begin shutting off service to nearly 800 residents per day.