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The Flint, Michigan water crisis is an unfounded national tragedy. When emergency manager Darnell Earley gave the go-ahead to switch water sources from Lake Huron water, provided by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, to the polluted Flint River, the government compromised the safety of the entire city in order to save money.

There was then a verifiable cover-up by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and slow damage control by the Federal government. On every level, the people of Flint were thrown to the wolves.

But a lesser known story highlights the pervasiveness of corporate profiteering, even in the face of such a severe public health crisis.

After all of these developments, residents of Flint are still being charged for their public water. And more infuriating is the fact that Flint has some of the highest water rates in the country.

The non-profit advocacy group Food and Water watch compiled data that clearly shows even if there hadn’t been a major polluted water crisis in Flint, an average annual water bill of $864.32 is unreasonably high. According to the United Nations, only 3 percent of average household income should go to water—Flint’s is 7 percent.

According to Flint lawyer Valdemar L. Washington, "They've been using that money improperly for years to fund the general operations of the city.” Washington has been prominent among the fight against rate increases in courts since 2012. The city's sewer fund had a balance of $36 million in 2006 but was running a $23-million deficit by 2012, Washington said, adding that he believes rates are exorbitant in part because water is being diverted elsewhere.

A report by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman highlights these discrepancies, as well as a major consumer of Michigan water: Nestle.

“In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestle, now the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan. This sparked a decade-long legal battle between Nestle and the residents in Mecosta County, where Nestle’s water wells are located,” Goodman explained. “One of the most surprising things about this story is that in Mecosta County, Nestle is not really required to pay anything to extract the water besides a small permitting fee to the state.”

Nestle’s $15 billion profits in 2014 seem to have no bearing on the state’s decision not to charge the company for water; water that is becoming a more precious commodity every single day.

And now, with the severe water crisis in the city of Flint, the only alternative source of water is bottled. Guess who is the supplier? Nestle.

Flint residents are relying on bottled water from a corporation complicit in their suffering to drink, cook and bathe. To survive.