We're only a couple of days from 2018 and Flint, Michigan, is still without clean water. According to The Root, Thursday actually marked day 1,342 days since the people of Flint had clean water running through their taps. Although studies continue to claim the lead levels are much lower, residents are still advised to rely on bottled water and water filters as opposed to using water directly from the tap.

According to NPR, state and local authorities reached a settlement in March with advocacy groups to spend nearly $100 million to replace thousands of water lines within three years in Flint. It also requires that authorities make sure residents have filters installed and provide status reports about the program's progress.

It seems that nine months later, plaintiffs say the city of Flint and its administrator are falling short of their obligations. 

According to the plaintiffs, "all of the City's status reports have been late, incomplete, inaccurate, or a combination thereof."

In addition, it's being said that the city hasn't proven it's keeping track of homes that decided not to allow the city to replace their service lines. That means the organizations suing Flint are not able to track homes they need to reach out to in order to encourage them to replace their pipes and mitigate the health risk to the city's water system. Flint is also failing to quickly notify a community outreach organization when a new customer joins the water system to make sure that water filters are installed and residents are educated about how to protect themselves against lead.

"If the City cannot collect critical, easily identifiable data and provide it within the agreed-upon timeframes," plaintiffs say explaining their disparities. "How can Plaintiffs trust that the City is competent to execute the much larger and urgent task of service line replacement in Flint?" 

This has been going on for far too long. These are people's lives. How long will Flint continue to play with them?