20-year-old Jaden Smith, son of Jada Pinket Smith and Will Smith, just donated a water filtration system called “Water Box,” which can supply at least 10 gallons of filtered water in one minute to Flint, Michigan, a city that has been dealing with serious water issues for close to 2,000 days. Jaden’s mother has already said she will be purchasing a second box, and Jaden has donated his company’s water bottles to help out with the crisis.
Smith’s donation is a huge step in the right direction for Flint. Since 2014, the city and its inhabitants have been suffering from a drinking water crisis after lead was discovered in their water. It’s been five years without much help at all from our representatives in government, though Kamala Harris tweeted this almost exactly a year ago:
In my opinion, what Jaden’s doing is highly commendable, and I’m so grateful he’s doing it. It’s about time someone did something about the city and the water crisis that is going on throughout the United States. It’s actually getting pretty ridiculous: since 2007, 63 million Americans have been exposed to unsafe drinking water, and despite clean drinking water being absolutely necessary (do I even have to say that?), congress has done little about the situation. But forget about politicians for a second — why aren’t all water companies doing this? *Looking at you, Fiji, you environmental disaster.* Seriously, does it not seem natural to help Flint? If you were the owner of a bottled water company and were constantly hearing about Flint on the news, in what world would you ignore the crisis?
Of course, as individuals, we’re not doing much either — but as with most things in the US, there’s got to be a push from corporations in order to get the ball rolling with things; climate change prevention is a great example. Jaden Smith’s investments in helping Flint is going to have a great knock on effect both with individuals and corporations. People are becoming more aware of Flint’s dire situation and will try to help on an individual level. Other companies will see the positive covering of Jaden Smith and do the same, and while the motivations of the companies may not be completely pure, it doesn’t really matter; Flint is still being helped.
So what are you doing about the Flint water crisis? A great way to start doing something is by keeping updated on Flint’s situation by following the Facebook page of the church who helps provide water to citizens of Flint (First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church). If you can, donate here and continue spreading the word about America’s drinking water crisis.
