Jaden Smith launches WATER BOX, bringing fresh water to Flint, Michigan

If you didn’t know, well then you better get informed but Flint, Michigan has been without fresh water for 1,810 days (since April 25, 2014). The city’s water was diverted from the Detroit water system to the Flint River to cut costs.

Every year since, the situation has become more dire. E. Coli in the water and lead poisoning children. The water even contained high levels of byproducts from water-disinfectant chemicals. Substances known to cause kidney, liver and nervous system damage. Even General Motors had to stop using the water because it corroded engine parts.

To this day, there is still no fresh water in Flint. Enter Jaden Smith and his company, JUST WATER.

JUST WATER is a boxed water, whose packaging is 54% paper and the caps are 28% plant-based plastic making the bottle, overall, a better choice for water.

For the past few years, the First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church has been handing out clean water to locals. Volunteers with the organization were giving out bottles of water daily, but as donations decrease, they’re unable to keep that up.

To help, Jaden donated a portable water filtration unit called the Water Box, which can supply upward of 10 gallons of filtered water every minute. It is a four part filtration system and filters out lead and additional contaminants in water.

The water is tested each day with use, as well as every few weeks by an independent and certified laboratory. Residents will be able to fill any container of their choice with the clean water. The filtration device will be available through the church with set distribution times.

“We’re continuing to address our water issues and changing the lead and galvanized pipes and getting lead out of Flint,” Flint Mayor Karen Weaver told ESSENCE last month.