US President Barack Obama warns Flint parents to have their children medically examined for lead poisoning over a massive water crisis in the Michigan city.
that poisonous lead pipes may take two years to replace during a visit to crisis-hit Flint, Michigan.
Obama, who sipped the filtered water from Flint during a Wednesday visit there to prove it was drinkable, noted that every child in the city should be checked.
The US president added that it may take two years to fix lead-tainted pipes in Flint, where a water contamination crisis has become a major concern.
Over 8,000 children are estimated to have drunk Flint’s polluted water.
It was in 2014 when the state government, in a measure to cut costs, shifted Flint's water source from Detroit River to Flint River.
Experts reckon Flint River’s chemical-laced water destroyed lead piping, letting poisonous elements into the city's water.
"I want everybody in the city of Flint to know that you should have your child checked," Obama said during a meeting with a group of government officials.
He cautioned residents about drinking unfiltered water and the scale of the problem the rust belt city faces in replacing lead tainted piping.
"It might take a year," he said. "It might take two years. It might take more."
The state attorney general has filed criminal charges against a city official and two state regulators for allegedly falsifying tests and tampering with evidence.
Located in the heart of America's declining industrial rust belt, Flint has come to represent the crossroads of many of the issues dominating the 2016 election cycle - foreign trade, environmental standards, the economy and the gap between rich and poor.
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