This is the key observation: these kinds of profound utility failures only happen in municipalities where the wealthy have removed themselves from the tax base. This comes in innumerable forms, but one of the most common is building their own little (unsustainable) suburban enclaves beyond the political borders of the cities they draw their salaries from.
The fact that the Army Corps of Engineers can fix a municipal water system has absolutely no bearing on whether or not said water system was inadequately funded or incompetently managed.
It's not a "smart or not smart" thing: wealthy areas demand (and receive) adequate attention and funding for their public utilities. Incompetence on the municipal level is a symptom.
Did these water issues arise because of incompetence or lack of funds? I know Flint's crisis was not related to lack of funds. So many comments keep harping on funds.
These are connected factors: a lack of adequate funding belies insufficient municipal interest in utilities, which breeds an environment of incompetence.
And yes, Flint's water crisis was absolutely connected to a lack of funds. It was directly precipitated by the city's declaration of a financial emergency[1], which in turn caused the city to seek cheaper water sources.
The link says who will be in charge, not that there was a true emergency requiring switching the perfectly working fresh water source to disgusting water. The state governor took over most operations due to the "emergency" and poisoned thousands of people who will be poisoned for life, and got away with it. I credit that to criminal negligence, or to be nice, incompetence, but hardly an actual budget issue. https://apnews.com/article/health-crime-michigan-indictments...
What kind of “smoking gun” are you looking for? In every public timeline of the Flint crisis, the budget emergency immediately precedes the decision to save money by using a different municipal water source. Are we expected to believe that the decision to save money on water was entirely unconnected to the city’s financial status? That beggars belief.
