Written by Matt Murray, originally posted on the NH Labor News
NHLaborNews.com
Local New Hampshire inventor can help thousands of people get clean drinking water. Will he hear our call?
Today the NH Union Leader posted a story about Manchester inventor Dean Kamen and his new machine, the Slingshot, that will revolutionize people's access to clean drinking water.
The machine, which is currently about the size of a refrigerator, distills water removing any impurities. Kamen and Coca-Cola have teamed up to produce more of these machines and distribute them around the world.
The Union Leader article tells the story of how Kamen received a call for help from a group of aid workers in the Dominican Republic asking if Kamen would "send a couple of his machines down." The Dominican Republic was hit hard by Tropical Storm Erika and the massive flooding contaminated their drinking water.
Kamen called his friend, Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx and worked out a plan to get the machines to the Dominican Republic.
“Within a couple of hours they're (FedEx) here in Manchester. They pick up the machines. They pick up my guys, and they fly them down to a big airport. I think it was in Florida or Puerto Rico,” Kamen said. “They put them on the small plane, they fly them to Dominica, and the following morning — essentially within 24 hours of my call — we have machines."
Sending these machines to the Dominican Republic on such a short notice at no cost is an amazingly generous thing to do.
This is why I am making this public call to Mr Kamen today.
Right now, the people of Flint Michigan are being poisoned by their own tap water. The City's Emergency Manager, appointed by Governor Rich Snyder, changed where the Flint drinking water would come from. In doing so the City Manager failed to take the necessary precautions to ensure the new corrosive river water did not damage the city's water distribution system.
After switching to river water the corrosive water chewed through the old pipes and began to poison the people of Flint with high levels of lead.
I am not here to argue about when the City Manager learned of the problem or what must be done to fix it. I am here to make a plea to Dean Kamen to send some of his Slingshot machines to Flint until they fix the problem that is poisoning their drinking water.
From news stories I have read recently, there are not enough bottles of clean water being delivered to the people of Flint. Some of the residents have been given water filters to help remove some of the toxins in the water but again very few people have access to them and replacement filters are scarce.
This is an emergency! There are children in Flint whose parents have no choice but to give them poisonous water in their baby formula.
Please Mr. Kamen, can you send some of these amazing machines to Flint. Set them up in the schools, police stations, or fire houses where kids and parents can go get clean drinking water. The people of Flint need your help. Clean water is the most basic human need and the people of Flint cannot drink the water.
Please Mr. Kamen, help the 100,000 people of Flint get access to clean drinking water before more damage is done.