Water is essential for survival, and when the people of Flint, Mich. became aware of the dangers of their supply, they needed resources for clean safe water.

People from around the country have been shipping bottled water to the city and here in Vicksburg local resident Jamal Williams decided he wanted to be a part of that effort.

“Me and my friend’s (Greg Linzy) goal is to get 150 cases of bottled water and ship them off to Flint, Michigan,” Williams said.

Williams and Linzy are students at Jackson State University and the men decided they wanted to inform locals about the incident in Flint and also help supply its citizens with clean safe water.

“Since I was one of the people that saw what was going on, I was like I might as well do the same thing (send water), it’s not going to hurt me,” he said.

Williams was made aware of the crisis in the Flint water supply from television, Facebook, Instagram and from discussions in one of his classes at JSU, he said.

“What brought it to my attention was I was in my intro to writing class in school. We meet every day and talk about what’s news, and I heard somebody say something about Flint, Mich. At first it really did not catch my attention,” he said, assuming the water problem would be resolved in a day or two.

“When I met the class the next week, they were still bringing it up, so I was like, maybe I need to look into it, so I looked into it and saw that they had lead in their water and all their water was contaminated, I saw they didn’t have water and water is something you need to live with. So then I thought what could I do to help?”

The cause of the Flint water crises reported by CNN.com states that after a financial state of emergency had been placed on the town of Flint, the state switched its water supply from Lake Huron — which they were paying the city of Detroit for — to the Flint River, a tributary that runs through town and was known for its unsanitary conditions.

Now, nearly two years later, and with a class-action lawsuit pending, the state Department of Environment Quality was found to be in violation of the federal law for not treating the Flint River water with an anti-corrosive agent. Absent of the agent, the water has been eroding the iron water mains turning the water brown and also leaching lead into it.

In addition to getting the word out through The Vicksburg Post, Williams said he has also made plans to reach out to the local high schools and encourage them to get on board with the water collection.

Once the goal is met, he will get the cases shipped to Flint.

The Vicksburg Post is serving as a drop off point for the cases of water or you can call Williams at 601-529-9140, and he will pick up the cases.