The Saint John photographer behind the popular Facebook page Humans of Saint John spent six days in Flint, Michigan documenting the water crisis that has gripped the U.S. city and has produced a photo series called Flint: Paying for Poison.
Chris Donovan stayed at the cheapest Airbnb he could find and spent a lot of his time going to water distribution areas. Donovan tells us he was hearing a lot of frustration from the people he spoke to while in the city.
He says it’s one thing to hear about the crisis, but he had to remind himself a lot that he couldn’t use the water — he calls it a wake-up call.
Donovan says the really striking thing to him for him was the resilience of the people of Flint and how much they still care about their community and won’t give up on it. He says that’s one way it reminded him of Saint John — and while he was there he thought about Saint John and its own tumultous relationship with water.
“It’s an issue that affects everyone in the world, everyone needs water, you can’t live without water. It’s definitely an issue that’s affected Saint John for a long time and it affects cities right across North America,” says Donovan.
Earlier this month, SJ’s $216-million Safe Clean Drinking Water Project moved into the design and construction phase. At the city council meeting where this was announced, Mayor Mel Norton said, “we’ve all had personal experiences of knocking on the homes in Saint John and having explained to us by the constituents and the citizens…the condition of their water.”
You can hear our reporter Laura Lyall’s interview with Donovan on Pulse NB this Sunday. The show airs at 9:05am and again at 9pm.
Click here to go to Donovan’s website and to check out his photographs.
Photo by Chris Donovan
