Water justice along the Mississippi

 

Centreville, Illinois is a city prone to flash flooding and rain due to its location on a Mississippi River floodplain known as American Bottom, and its archaic infrastructure cannot withstand heavy rainfall. Nearly every time it rains in Centreville, the city is flooded with raw sewage; people’s streets and lawns are covered with human waste, and a putrid scent blankets the area. Centreville is not a unique case of poverty in the US- the city epitomizes the intersections between environmental injustice, public health, race, class, and gender. 

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Dozens of local news articles describe the city’s uninhabitable conditions over and over again in deep detail, and citizens testify that their property is damaged, that their health has worsened, and that their quality of life is unbearable. The city is filled with activists who care and are working to change their community, and our partners at the Urban League in Centreville work diligently to distribute water and empower African Americans and others throughout the region in securing economic self-reliance, social equality and civil rights. You can learn more about the Urban League at https://www.ulstl.com/.

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