"He Doesn't Trust Water' 5 Years Later, Flint Sees Few Signs of Relief" - For TIME - 2018/2019
In February of 2016, Ariana Hawk’s son, Sincere, then two, became the face of the Flint water crisis after being featured on TIME magazine’s cover “The Poisoning of an American City.” The cover, by Detroit Free Press photographer Regina Boone, showed Sincere in the condition as many kids in Flint - covered in rashes caused by the corrosive tap water. Two years after the cover debuted, Ariana was at a protest at the Michigan State Capitol still fighting for her son’s right to clean, affordable water. It had been years since the City of Flint had switched its water source from Detroit to the Flint River. To what degree their life had changed? Ariana continued to be an activist. She said she had grown numb to using bottled water for every meal and for her two youngest children to take a bath. Sincere had started kindergarten, still having to treat his rash condition with a cream twice a day and in fear of the water.
The city continued its work replacing the eroded lead service lines but residents were left on their own to when it came to replacing the damaged plumbing systems inside their homes. At year five, if you asked the average Flint resident about the crisis, there was no definitive end in sight. Not much had changed after all.
