» Partnerships that Support Confident Use and Management of Point-of-Use Drinking Water Units in Flint Skip to main content
U-M Poverty Solutions Logo U-M Poverty Solutions Logo

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan

Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
Suite 5100
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
Contact Us

Research

Back to faculty research

Partnerships that Support Confident Use and Management of Point-of-Use Drinking Water Units in Flint

The project: Many Flint residents still do not have confidence in the quality of their municipal drinking water, despite the use of filtration systems. This project aims to support progress within the Flint community to build knowledge of point-of-use water filtration systems designed to provide clean drinking water for Flint students and residents and to promote confidence in water use. The goal is better understand the most effective mode of sharing information about how different treated drinking waters are processed, so individuals can make decisions on the best water hydration choice for themselves.

The process: The research had two aims:

  • Create new materials for an existing train-the-trainers point-of-use water filter training module and evaluate the effectiveness of the training program, resulting in recommendations on how train-the-trainer approaches can be effectively used in community water quality interventions; and 
  • Establish a Community Knowledge Inspired Decisions for School (Community KIDS) taskforce involving Flint Community Schools staff and students that will develop actionable steps that result in understanding and knowledge retention about the quality of drinking water processed through point-of-use filter systems compared to bottled water. 

Results: The train-the-trainers point-of-use-water filter training module was translated into Spanish, and the written materials were shared with public health officials across Michigan. Nancy Love, the lead researcher for the project, was an advisor for the Michigan bipartisan Filter First initiative, which informed a state law requiring building-scale, point-of-use drinking water filtration in all public schools and daycare
centers in the state. The train-the-trainers materials will be useful in implementing those point-of-use drinking water filtration systems.

Working with Flint Community Schools staff and Laura Sullivan at Kettering, the researchers provided monitoring and water quality verification support so that 78 hydration stations were ready for use across 13 Flint school buildings by February 2022.

Nancy G. Love, U-M Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Marc Zimmerman, U-M Department of Psychology