As South Florida’s sewer pipers are bursting, residents are exposed to sicknesses and it’s all being blamed on shrinking budgets due to the housing market crash.
A recent Sun Sentinel article exposed just how sickening our drinking water can become when tax money doesn’t cover the continuous repair and maintenance of sewer pipes.
As real estate prices tumbled down over the past few years, so did their respective property taxes, leaving local governments, schools, and agencies scrambling trying to adjust their budgets.
Citing lack of funding due to a significant decrease in property tax collected from South Florida homeowners, local government is ill prepared trying to deal with its aging sewer pipes.
Sadly, that means that Floridians and its substantial tourist population will enjoy sewer water with a chance of Hepatitis A while consuming their meals.
To me however, scarier yet than the fact that I am drinking my neighbors waste is that no agency nor entity is said to keep count of the incidences. We therefore have no way of knowing just how many of these sewer pipes are actively leaking. To add insult to injury, the public is not made aware of all leaks, and wells are only shut down when a major burst occurs.
To protect themselves and their family, at least one South Florida family I am aware of boils all drinking water. But then again, coming from Kenya, this may just be their norm.
Cheers!
Source: Sun Sentinel.”Sewage overflow incidents on rise as aging pipes break.” 18 Feb 2012