For the people of Flint, trucked in bottles can provide a temporary source of drinking water. However, water is for more than drinking.
Near the top of the daily challenges that Flint residents face in a city without safe drinking water is how and where to shower.
Families are going to extraordinary lengths to find places where they can bathe without fear, taking measures that many say add to the upheaval that has been part of their lives since state officials confirmed last fall that their water was contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.
If you’ve ever been through an extended outage, you quickly learn that being without safe water intrudes into your life constantly. Can you make coffee? Wash the dishes? Clean the counters? Wash your clothes? Water the garden? Mop the floor?
When brushing your teeth involves dragging in a bottle of water to damp your toothbrush, it brings home how even the simplest things are tied to the idea that we can turn on the tap and receive clean, safe water.
Those who have not found an alternative to bathing with Flint water are limiting their use of it — dashing into and out of the shower once a week with their mouths tightly shut. Others wash only with baby wipes — or, if they can, wait to bathe at the homes of friends or relatives outside Flint.
Officials have indicated that bathing in Flint’s lead-laced water is mostly safe. Unless you ingest the water, the levels of lead associated with bathing should be very low. On the other hand, people living in Flint don’t exactly have a good reason to believe officials.