FLINT, MI -- A city councilman says Gov. Rick Snyder and Flint emergency manager Jerry Ambrose are attempting to carry out a genocide on Flint residents with "contaminated, unhealthy water."

Council Vice President Wantwaz Davis posted the comment on his Facebook page on Sunday, April 5, and stood behind it today.

"I feel the emergency manager and governor should be held more accountable... I do believe maybe five, maybe 10 years from now, some people are going to contract a disease... they cannot ever get rid of," Davis told The Flint Journal today, April 6.

In his Facebook post, Davis used the word genocide -- the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group -- three times in describing the city's water situation.

A spokesmen for Snyder called Davis' comments "incendiary and inaccurate," and a spokesman for Ambrose said the comments are untrue and "unnecessarily (increase) the anxiety of Flint residents about the safety of their drinking water."

Davis has been an outspoken critic of the price and quality of Flint water since the city began using the Flint River as its source of drinking water a year ago.

His remarks come a month after the Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan chapter of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, said Flint water is "almost as bad as gas chambers for Jews."

Flint is in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act because the annual average level of total trihalomethanes (TTHM) at two testing locations in the city since April 2014 was too high. TTHM is a byproduct of chlorinating water.

Despite the violation -- first issued in January -- the most recent testing showed each of eight sampling locations in the city had acceptable levels of TTHM.

A notice of the water violation was sent to water customers just last week, but test results for TTHM have steadily improved since peaking in August.

Notices warn customers that people who drink water containing TTHM in excess of 80 parts per billion over many years may experience problems with their kidney, liver or central nervous system, and may increase the risk of cancer.

Resident have also protested the price and overall quality of Flint water, including issues of discoloration and odor, which city officials have said is a result of an aging collection of water transmission pipes and not an indication that water is unsafe.

Davis said in his Facebook post that the condition of water constitutes "an obvious genocide against the residents in Flint, Michigan, who are forced to drink the contaminated, unhealthy water, that is going to commit an imminent danger to the lives of those who have a compromised immune system, and infants who biologically doesn't have a fully developed immune system...

"When I become mayor, I will certainly make the governor and all who took part in continuing to have the residents in Flint, Michigan exposed to this injustice and inexcusable danger accountable ...," the comment says. "Someone has to be charged with this neglect and imposition of danger amongst a helpless people ..."

Dave Murray, a spokesman for the governor, said Flint is currently producing water that meets all state and federal standards.

"It's unfortunate that the councilman made such incendiary and inaccurate remarks," Murray said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal. "The governor believes all Michigan residents need and deserve safe, clean water ...

"The state continues working with city leaders to help with the city's water infrastructure challenges, which were decades in the making. That assistance includes $2 million in grants to help with pipeline leaks and other issues, which allow the city to prioritize its repairs. That's part of a long-term solution to the city's needs."

Flint spokesman Jason Lorenz said in an email to The Journal that the city continues to address problems of safety and quality as they arise.

"The quality of Flint's drinking water has been confirmed to be safe by numerous tests, including tests recently conducted by (the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)," Lorenz statement says. "The most recent tests conducted by MDEQ show Flint water to be within EPA guidelines. These are the same guidelines used to monitor all municipal drinking water systems, including the Detroit system."

Davis said the only way for the city's water issues to be resolved will be for it to reconnect to the Detroit Water system.

The city had purchased treated Lake Huron water from Detroit for decades before its contract was terminated following its decision to join Genesee County in building the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline. Since then, the city has been treating Flint River water for its own use until the KWA pipeline is completed.