Lions DE Ziggy Ansah Quenches Flint, Michigan’s Thirst with 94,000 Bottles of Water

Detroit Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah helped Flint, Michigan quell its thirst by delivering 94,000 bottles of water.

Sporting News reports that the six-foot-five, 26-year-old Ghanaian native joins the Washington Redskins defensive linemen in helping out the birth place of General Motors.

The Skins gladiators donated 3,600 bottles of Fiji water to the beleaguered city, which sits just 70 miles from the the largest group of fresh water bodies in the world: the Great Lakes.

In what has become the topic of national outrage, President Obama asserted that if he was from Flint, “I would be beside myself that my kid’s health was at risk.” 

Flint residents now suffer from misguided state water management decisions when officials switched the cities water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, a notorious waterway known for its extreme pollution.

Michigan changed it’s water policy to cut expenses they were paying the city of Detroit for access to the fresh waters of Lake Huron. Unfortunately, according to a class action lawsuit lawsuit filed by Flint residents, the city failed to use anti-corrosive agents in treating the water that flowed through the city’s under ground water pipes. Consequently, toxic quantities of iron contaminated the water.

In a scathing indictment of state and local government the suit contends:

For more than 18 months, state and local government officials ignored irrefutable evidence that the water pumped from the Flint River exposed the Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff Class to extreme toxicity, causing serious and dire injury and health hazards, and property damage to the Flint water users.

These state and local officials, Defendants herein, regularly assured the Flint water users that the water supplied from the Flint River was being properly treated, monitored and tested and was safe to consume and use. Information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act establishes that many of these assurances were known to be false when uttered… The deliberately false denials about the safety of the Flint River water was as deadly as it was arrogant.

Thomas Rawls, a running back for the Seattle Seahawks and a native of Flint, plans to help out his home city now that the season is over.

“It’s kind of hard when you can’t even shower in your own shower,” he’s quoted on his team’s website. “You can’t drink your own water. It’s kind of upsetting to know that I’ve got nieces’ and nephews’ skin breaking out. … It’s already hard in the city, just because. But to add that on your plate, it’s kind of tough. But one thing I can tell you about the people in Flint is that they’re tough and they are built for it.”