- I mean, now that we're here,
I'm thinking about how much water I've gone through
just today.
This is gonna be a really hard challenge.
So, I grew up pretty poor.
I think I have some idea of what it's like
to not have full access to things that I need.
Water is like a whole other level though.
- I'm a little nervous to actually have to go through that.
The only time I've really not had running water
is when I would go to India as a kid.
We'd also have to have boiled water
because the actual tap water,
any other running water source,
would affect us pretty badly,
we'd get really sick.
And it's weird because it's not even
to the actual degree that people in Flint are going through.
- Although I'm obviously really down to do this,
part of me just feels like a spoiled little shit still,
to be honest, because what I'm about to go through
is still just a tiny fraction of what
so many people around the world go through every day.
- My name is Joel Epstein.
I'm a Los Angeles based communication strategist
and also a lawyer.
And I've written extensively on
crimes against the environment
and efforts to clean up the environment nationally.
Some of our cities need to upgrade their systems,
but there's a reluctance on the part of the current
constituency, the residents and politicians
to have the vision to make the investment
that's needed to be made.
Flint, Michigan is the classic example.
When it was discovered that there were
very high levels of lead in the water,
the residents of Flint are still drinking
and showering using bottled water.
Tremendous expense, tremendous environmental problem,
and it's really just completely unacceptable.
Water is a right.
Water is something that a citizen should be able to expect
from their government.
- So, day one, we're gonna use a pump nozzle.
- Day two, I'm gonna be showering at the gym I go to.
- Day three, in and out of the shower with mouth closed.
- [Shane] Four, I'm gonna use some baby wipes.
- Day five, boiling water and sponging.
This should keep me going for a few days.
The pump was a little tricky to use,
but I was lucky enough to be able to afford that pump.
- I thought I had figured out how to assemble it,
but I didn't because when I started pouring water into it,
it went everywhere.
- I could not, for the life of me,
figure out how the fuck to use the pumping spray.
This doesn't feel very self-explanatory.
I think I might just dump a bottle of water on my head.
- Today is day two.
I have my towel, my mini soap, and all my clothes
in my backpack, and today I'm gonna be showering at the gym.
The gym was the best because at least I have access
to the running water, so I stayed in there for 15 minutes
before I felt like I had to leave.
- I just started doing the dishes, and I realized
that I can't actually rinse them
'cause I can't turn the tap on.
- Fuck.
I just left my friend's apartment
after borrowing her shower,
and it was fantastic.
It was also uncomfortable to
do all the things you do in a bathroom
which are kinda intimate and private
in someone else's bathroom.
You just feel naked and afraid.
- So, I have a packed bag
with my towel and toiletries.
Today, I'm going to shower at work.
It's not the first time,
so this shouldn't be too odd.
But the thought of having to do it every day
would be pretty uncomfortable.
- I don't think I had any issue asking for help once
from a friend.
I could see how that would take a big emotional toll,
relying on other people to provide you running water.
Yeah, that would suck.
- I'm so thirsty.
Damn.
- Day three, we jumped in and out of the shower
really quickly.
Apparently, that's a thing that people do
in this situation.
I ended up just cleaning myself with baby wipes a day early.
- I tried to take the water droplets and rub them on myself
with the towel and scrub myself with the towel.
I felt really sticky after because I still felt the need
to moisturize because I have really dry skin.
- It's time for operation baby wipes.
- Day four was probably the easiest day
to clean myself and the least emotionally tolling.
Baby wipes are great.
I might do that more often.
- Wiped myself down with scented baby wipes today.
Not the business.
They smell great.
They don't do anything for you.
I probably used up half the package.
I was just kind of like scrubbing under my arms.
- I'm not gonna wipe this everywhere,
if you know what I mean.
The thing that gets me the most is underarms.
After having to do this only after a couple days,
this still feels like I'm lucky to have this.
Gonna smell like a baby all day.
- I did not use paper plates at all,
but I also ended up putting off washing my dishes
because it's so fucking hard
when you don't have running water.
- Really the hardest part was just the emotional strain
of knowing that this would be over in a week
and that there are hundreds of thousands of people
in the world who have to live this every single day.
- I became really, really aware
of how much water I was using.
I would never let water run down the drain
without thinking to myself,
okay is there anything else I can rinse off with this?
- I notice when it's raining
there's these repeat offender homes
and they all have their sprinklers running
while it's raining.
That's water someone else in Flint
or anywhere else in the world
where they don't get access to water
could be using but you're just wasting it.
I feel like we don't fully understand that
until you kind of cut yourself off from what you have.
You just don't realize how bad it is for other people.
I wasn't able to shower in the morning,
so I showered at night with the boiled water
'cause it took so long to cool
and I had to boil so much of it to actually use it.
It was definitely an exercise in patience.
- But hair, goddamn, I don't know how you can do any of this
with long hair.
Even short hair, I haven't washed my hair at all
in the past few days.
I've lived in really poor areas of the Middle East
where we didn't have running water,
or when we did, it wasn't clean.
That was only for a few months at a time.
But to live that every day,
to have a baby and to not be able to bath it
or long hair that you need to wash
and it can't get in your eyes or mouth, every single day.
- It was easier than I expected in some ways
and also surprised me at how hard it was in other ways.
- I was able to connect a little bit more to that situation
because you can read an article
but it's not the same as going through it.
- We can recreate not having running water
but we can't recreate the emotional experience
of being forced to not have running water
and not knowing when you're gonna get running water back.
What I got out of this was it taught me
how much of a necessity running water is
and that it's not really something that can
ever be up for debate.
- The biggest thing about this video
is that this could easily come across as poverty tourism.
I don't want this to be seen as some kind of
voyeuristic entertainment from other people's suffering.
It's more just to get the word out there
and to hopefully showcase that
it's ridiculous that this is happening
in developed countries
but it's ridiculous that it's happening full stop.
- The least I can do,
especially after doing this experiment,
is make a little noise about it.
- If we all kind of band together and make it a big deal,
maybe something will happen faster
because there will be more attention on it.
- There is a lot of information out there
if you're willing to look for it.
EPA is a good place to start.
The Natural Resources Defense Council
is another excellent organization
that's very focused on this.
Earthjustice, places like that.
- Being mad or sad about any problem
is obviously never enough.
It's actually about standing up and doing something
and hopefully this video gets that message across.