Turn on the Water_ How Locals are Fighting Back Against the Water Company and politics in Detroit.  This a panel at Netroots Nation 2014 covered the history that lead to these Michiganders that now have no running water.  This area of Detroit house manufacturing workers who jobs were exported, then predatory lenders moved in and shoehorned people into loans that in decades past would have been illegal.. Now they have lost there house and are destitute without access to running water.  Please listen to these presentations and to see the entire panel go to:

http://www.netrootsnation.org/nn_events/nn-14/turn-on-the-water-how-locals-are-fighting-back-against-the-shutoffs/

To see all panels go here:

http://www.netrootsnation.org/nn14/

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is shutting off water at thousands of Detroit residents with outstanding debts each week, even if their debt was incurred by previous owners or is only 60 days late. Not only are these shutoffs a violation of the human right to water, they are also a threat to public health. As the crisis in Detroit escalates, local organizers are banding together to provide relief to residents and demand a moratorium to the shutoffs while also aiming to make sure water is affordable, protected from pollution and stays in the public hands.

At this keynote session attendees heard from Abayomi Azikiwe of Moratorium Now!, Meredith Begin of Food and Water Watch, Monica Lewis-Patrick of We the People Detroit, Jean Ross of National Nurses United, and Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.