Elon Musk fulfilled his promise to Flint Community Schools to provide funding for the installation of safer water fountains for students, the city said last week.
The Tesla CEO first committed to providing financial backing to “fixing the water in any house in Flint that has water contamination above FDA levels” in a tweet in July.
Three months later he ensured that the Flint Community Schools received $480,350 to assist in its campaign to install new ultraviolet water filtration systems for water fountains throughout its school buildings.
The Flint water crisis began four years ago, when the public water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Polluted river water used until the city switched back to Lake Huron in October 2015 caused lead to leach from pipes.
Since then, a group from the Flint Community Schools have been working towards a long-term solution to provide clean water to the students.
“The new water filtration systems will be instrumental in helping our students return to the normalcy of what should be a fundamental right: having access to safe, clean water from water fountains in their school," said Derrick Lopez, Flint Community Schools superintendent.
The UV water purification method is meant to disinfect all lead and bacteria from the water pipes, allowing students access to clean drinking water.
The Flint Schools Community expressed its gratitude on Twitter, to which Musk replied “hope to do more to help in the future.”
Meanwhile, a $4 million legal agreement settled earlier this year stated that school children in Flint were to receive screening and in-depth health assessments to measure the effects of lead-tainted drinking water on their ability to learn.
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